FNF Newsletter

21st November 2016

FNF Give Evidence to the Department of Work and Pensions Select Committee Inquiry into Child Maintenance

 
                        
  Frank Field MP (centre rear)                                                             FNF Business Manager Michael Lewkowicz and
                                                                                                      FNF BPM Cymru National Manager Paul Apreda

With the help of over 800 respondents to our recent survey, we have prepared a written report to the Committee that led to us and two dads being invited to give oral evidence last Wednesday. We informed the Committee, chaired by Frank Field MP, of the unfairness of a formula that pushes low income non-resident parents into poverty and works to discourage shared parenting. The full report may be found here and the oral evidence session can be found here (excluding the two dads whose evidence was given in private).

Next step - We would also like to hear your story if you are a Non-Resident parent and you are on lower income and finding the CMS assessments very difficult or even impossible to comply with.  We want to send your stories to the Select Committee and we are also being asked for examples by a national newspaper.  So please send us your story if you can help us to show the truth on this difficult subject. Send it to: admin@fnf.org.uk

APPG Visit (one of many)
FNF also this month attended an All Purpose Parliamentary Group for Parents and Families on parents' experience of retuning to work. It provided us with an opportunity to highlight the unequal provision of parental leave between mums and dads, anomalies in our child benefits system (all go to one parent) and the increased likelihood of shared parenting after separation in countries where these inequalities have been overcome.
 
Meetings with the President of the Family Division and CAFCASS
We met last month with Sir James Munby, the most senior family judge. The President is reviewing proposals we made and he has indicated that he will attend our AGM/conference, currently scheduled for March and answer questions from members.
 
We also continue to meet quarterly with CAFCASS and a couple of weeks ago we attended a ‘Voice of the Child’ conference they organised. It provided an opportunity to raise concerns about Parental Alienation, which the Chief Executive acknowledged was a problem that they needed to do further work to address.

Progress is taking longer than we’d like, but it's happening. We’ll keep you posted.
 
50:50 Shared Parenting Plan
50:50 shared parenting may not be suitable for everyone. However, where it is appropriate it makes sense to have a shared parenting arrangement that addresses any disruption to children moving between homes. Dr Hamish Cameron, the consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, has shared with us his plan for equal sharing of parenting. If you are sharing parenting roughly equally or are planning to propose this, the plan is freely available to members to download as part of our Shared Parenting Factsheet (Please login to our site before or after clicking on this).
 
Support FNF with Christmas Purchases
FNF will receive a percentage of your expenditure through Amazon if you go to Amazon using the link below, so if you are shopping with them this Christmas, please remember us too and use it when you wish to browse to Amazon.  Then add the page to your favourites/shortcuts for future use. Thank you and we hope you have a good Christmas.
 
We also have FNF Christmas cards available to purchase for £5.99 per pack of 10, inclusive of postage and packing. For details of how to purchase these click here.
       
                                               
   FNF Christmas Card                                                             Amazon Link
 

Run the Virgin London Marathon for FNF  
Sunday 23rd April 2017  
                          
Do you think you could raise £1,000 or more in sponsorship for FNF? We have one guaranteed entry in next year’s race and we invite all of you members and friends of FNF who would enjoy this challenge to register your interest. Please email admin@fnf.org.uk saying why you think you’d be a great runner for FNF! Entry is free and includes an FNF technical T-shirt.

Stop Press! Victoria Derbyshire programme today highlights Parental Alienation.
Here is the iPlayer link which speaks for itself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083h9v3
 
With best wishes

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