FNF Newsletter - 18 July 2016
FNF Newsletter 18 July 2016
Dear Friend,We thought you might find it interesting to know about some of our recent work with external agencies that deal with family separation issues.
CAFCASS
In June we attended an open board meeting of CAFCASS which led a few weeks later to a meeting with Anthony Douglas, Chief Executive of CAFCASS. Our objective was to re-start having a constructive dialogue and to influence positive changes within CAFCASS. Key issues raised by us are the need for CAFCASS to move towards having Key Performance Measures (KPMs) that are focused on relationships maintained e.g. a year or two after the end of court proceedings, rather than simply on administrative measures such as the % of cases where an initial hearing is held within six weeks of applications being made to court. Such measures are helpful in reducing delays, but are not a measure of outcomes and the value added by CAFCASS which we consider to be far more important as a measure.
We also discussed identification of parental alienation ("alienating behaviour" in their terminology) cases at an early stage of proceedings. CAFCASS agreed to share the training they offer to their officers in this regard and we will review this and provide feedback on it and guidance on how such cases might be dealt with.
We discussed issues around enforcement and appropriate measures of satisfaction by both parents with CAFCASS interventions.
We agreed that it would be helpful for us to meet with CAFCASS on a quarterly basis and to develop action plans for progress between such meetings. Depending on how the next one or two meetings go we may ask for your help in progressing these agendas so that we can achieve more and better shared parenting outcomes for children.
Parental Alienation (PA) Seminar
We attended a seminar recently on Parental Alienation, organised by Withers LLP and 1 King’s Bench Walk Chambers. It was good to see many legal professionals, including a few judges taking PA more seriously. We can but hope that this continues and influences the approach that courts and lawyers take to this terribly damaging phenomenon. Much of the discussion centred around appropriate ‘treatment’ for alienated children. FNF welcomed this debate, but suggested that early identification of PA cases combined with effective enforcement of court orders would avoid PA setting in and would be easier to deal with than dealing with badly alienated children at a later stage. It is encouraging that the issue is increasingly being promoted in the media too. Today (Friday 15th July 2016) sees The Guardian publishing an article on PA - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/14/programme-aims-to-help-people-affected-by-parental-alienation.
All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children on Social Care
This week we also attended this APPG at the House of Lords where there was a refreshingly frank identification of failings of Social Services by most participants. In particular Professor of Social Work, Ray Jones, spoke of an 80% increase child protection activity since 2008, fragmentation of service provision that is being delivered by private companies and budget cuts as important issues and spoke of how history may judge current times in terms of ‘scandals of the future’ when they reflect on current failings. We suggested that those scandals, which included inappropriate removal of children from parents to distant and unknown placements, would also include the unnecessary loss of relationships with a parent, usually the father, due to contact denial and ineffective responses. These in turn are due to a lack of suitable training and experience of professionals involved and social services resources being directed to prevent other forms of harmful behaviour. We also touched on the need for a strategy to improve enforcement of court orders and the frequency of effective shared parenting arrangements being in place. Something we will be coming back to with all relevant agencies involved.
Lord Munby President of the Family Court
We have also met with The President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, and are arranging to do so again this autumn to seek further improvements in court responses to family difficulties, in particular through contact denial. Additionally, we have begun to re-kindle relationship with the CSA/CMS and will seek to develop helpful relationships with other relevant organisations that can assist our members and service users and improve outcomes, though much work remains to be done.
We will continue to update you and to coordinate your support on specific issues which we are likely to need your help with over the coming months, not least once newly appointed ministers have their feet under the table!
A number of members have raised issues for us to discuss with CAFCASS. Thank you for those. We will continue to prioritise items sent to us for discussion.
We hope you found this update interesting.
With Best Wishes from FNF National Office
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