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Dyllan Eagles and his supervisor Dr Ben Hine from the University of West London are recruiting participants for their research project on the Effect of COVID-19 National Lockdown on Non-Resident Father's Parent-Child Relationships.
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The Channel 4 Dispateches documentary 'Torn Apart: Family Courts Uncovered' has received 546 complaints to Ofcom since it was broadcast on 20th July 2021. It has topped the Ofcom complaints chart for the 2nd week running with 215 complaints in the week to 2nd August and 331 the previous week (their leader charts report on any broadcase with over 50 complaints in a week).
Anybody who hasn't seen it can watch it here. Clearly, it has been divisive as supported in Metro's article here.
The Channel 4 news release promoting this documentary tells us that their (self-selected) survey received responses from 4,000 people - 2,776 mothers and 1,147 fathers. The responses suggested that:-
• 70% of mums and dads were unhappy with the outcome
• Half of parents considered the judge to be hostile to them
• Court proceedings averaged 18 months and in 10% of cases over 5 years
• The average cost of proceedings was £13,000 with 5% saying they spent over £100,000
[Please note that these simple averages conceal that many will have been litigants in person or qualified for legal aid (due to income levels and alleged domestic abuse), so in reality those who had to pay for themselves spent far more. We carried out a survey a few years ago and the average figure for those using lawyers was almost double the figure of the C4 Dispatches respondents.]
What these facts tells us is that there is a public heath emergency that demands urgent attention.
1. Family courts are not fit-for purpose.
2. The adversarial nature of family courts fuels conflict on the embers of family relationships when emotions are already heightened.
3. Family courts provide no actual support to parents or children.
4. Family courts are almost always the wrong place to resolve private family separation disputes.
5. In most cases what is needed is education and support for separating parents and early interventions to keep them out of court whenever possible.
6. Where court is unavoidable, the current system must be adapted to be on a child-appropriate timescale - weeks not months and years, and again to consider referring parents back to appropriate support services.
7. Failure to respond in a timely way contributes to harm experienced by children.
Many of these points were needlessly lost. With a little more care in case selection and choice of ‘experts’, balanced representation of both mothers and fathers and acknowledgment of the psychological harm to children that of inapropriate post-separation parenting and and the documentary could have galvanised the majority of litigants and lawyers around these and delivered a well-supported case to the Government for reform. It was a missed opportunity. important issues instead that we could have agreed upon. Instead, as social media comments and many complaints to Ofcom (the broadcast regulater) have shown.
Note: The job of the communications regulator Ofcom is help to make sure people across the UK are satisfied with what they see and hear on TV and radio, and that programmes reflect the audiences they serve. Anyone who feelst that this has not happened may contact them directly.
6th August 2021
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DWP are consulting on ‘Child Maintenance: modernising and improving our service’. The deadline for this is this Friday 6th August 2021.
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FNF Operations and Marketing Officer - vacancy
Following Luca's recent departure, we are recruiting for the role of Operations and Marketing Officer offers a great opportunity to make a difference and improve outcomes for children and their parents. We offer a range of support services as well as campaigning and lobbying activities to improve family support services and legislation. Being a small organisation, doing a huge job, means that the postholder will be able to be involved in a wide range of projects and to use and develop their experience in a breadth of ways that are less likely to be available in larger organisations. The role is offered on a 12 month contract, with a view to extending it or making it permanent depending on how the role evolves and availability of funds. The role is offered full-time or part-time based at our office and working from home. We will consider job-share options for part-time workers. The pay for the role is offered at a gross salary of £24,000 to £28,000 (full-time-equivalent).
We want to hear from all interested candidates, and to be considered for the position we strongly recommend submitting a detailed covering letter along with your CV, outlining why you're right for the role. The closing date for applications is Thursday 22nd October 2021.
Click the link here to find out more and... Apply Now!
Click the link here to the Charity Job website to find out more... and Apply Now!
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We are carrying out a survey of separated parents and their experience of financial support arrangements for their children, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) or with arrears relating to the Child Support Agency (CSA) that are now being managed by CMS.
We have had a meeting with the National Audit Office (NAO) who are looking into the value for money of the CMS service to the taxpayer. Your responses will assist us in providing NAO with further, more meaningful feedback of your experiences and will also inform our direct discussions with CMS. We will not share identifying details with NAO or other agencies, but will use your anonymised responses in our reports. We will share the conclusions and analysis of your responses with.
You can skip questions that to not apply to you. Many thanks for doing this, we really appreciate your effort.
The survey can be found here.
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