More Support Needed for Fathers

For immediate release 15/6/2017

Why does Mother’s Day always get more attention than Father’s Day? Popular narrative on a mother’s position still casts her as the primary carer, yet all the evidence suggests that the role of fathers is vital, undervalued and in need of far more recognition and support, especially in separated families.

Children born today have a 50% chance of their parents separating before they reach 16 years of age. The consequences are far more pernicious that most people realise. Family separation affects around 180,000 children every year. 90% of these children will end up living with only one parent, almost always mum. According the Office of National Statistics (ONS) 3.8 million children have no paternal involvement at all. This is hardly surprising given that 40% lose contact with their fathers within three years of separation and only 15% are still in contact with their fathers by the age of 15.

The evidence of poor outcomes for children growing up without paternal involvement is overwhelming. The risks to mental health, school, future relationships and work are doubled for children not enjoying some kind of responsibly shared care by their parents whether together or apart. These difficulties are also linked to higher rates of crime, teenage pregnancy and other disadvantages.

Families Need Fathers are asked by thousands of parents a year, mostly dads, for support with maintaining their relationships with their children after separation.

One has to wonder if the ‘single parent’ charity Gingerbread is trying to use The Times to pull the wool over the eyes of the public and the establishment. In an article headlined ‘Fathers use elaborate tricks to avoid paying child support’ we hear the same old one-sided story implying that men are feckless ‘high-rollers’ who care nothing for their children and who create elaborate financial scams to defraud the hapless Child Maintenance and Tax authorities who are left trailing in their wake.

This seems part of a campaign that seeks to convince us all that men are bad, women are good and children are best saved from having to have a relationship with their fathers. Gingerbread and others seek to polarise the argument about what’s best for children of separated parents.

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION 27 July 2017 (Updated)

In an extraordinary move the Ministry of Justice agency CAFCASS (Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) have opened confidential case files to Women’s Aid to undertake a study of allegations of domestic abuse.

Family justice charity Families Need Fathers is very disappointed that a Government agency has published a press release favouring the views of a lobbying charity relating to women and girls without any reference to balancing views regarding the widespread abuse of men and boys in the context of the family courts. This is a one-sided publication that is clearly intended to influence practice in the Family Courts.

The biggest issue is the ‘perception’ of bias. CAFCASS is a Government agency while Women’s Aid campaigns for recognition that ‘Domestic violence and abuse is a devastating form of violence against women and girls’. Understandably given their remit, Women’s Aid is not an obvious advocate for the experience of men and boys who are also victims of abuse – including the deliberate making of unfounded allegations against fathers in the context of family disputes.

For immediate release 04/08/2017

Families Need Fathers (FNF) the UK's leading shared parenting charity are today releasing the transcript of Sir James Munby's speech at FNF’s recent 2017 annual conference.

In his judgment published yesterday, Sir James said in the case of child 'X' “we, the system, society, the state … will have blood on our hands”.

At our conference, Sir James – President of the Family Division - went further, identifying many flaws in family justice itself that must be fixed. He observed:

that 'family courts are [becoming] a lawyer-free zone'
(More and more people are forced to represent themselves if they can’t afford lawyers)

that we need to recognise 'the reality of parental alienation'
(Children are being deprived of a parent by the other parent’s malicious or undermining behaviour)

‘One of the greatest vices of the system… is the unfounded allegation [of violence/abuse] which festers around and poisons the process.‘

‘we know that people game the system, and the classic example of that is one of the bits of LASPO [Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012] is you do get legal aid if there’s an allegation of domestic violence…’

12^th September 2017 - for immediate release

Independent expert evidence of unfounded and false allegations of domestic abuse in family courts.

FNF calls for independent research into the misuse of domestic abuse allegations in contact and residence cases.

"False and unfounded allegations poison proceedings when a non-resident parent is seeking parenting time with his children. Judges need to make findings of fact as soon as possible and to take false allegations into account when determining the best interests of the child."

Research into a sample of 75 Scottish family actions revealed that allegations of abuse were made in 35% of contact/residence actions and 70% were found to be false or unfounded.

17^th October 2017 – for immediate release

Parental Alienation is a mental health welfare issue

10,000 children a year may be let down by family court professionals

Cafcass and NSPCC acknowledge that Parental Alienation is a serious issue that demands

further resources and training for practitioners and the judiciary alike

Cafcass heeds FNF’s call for mandatory training of all its case workers in Parental Alienation

14^th November 2017 - for immediate release

Families Need Fathers welcomes a new commitment by Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) to introduce mandatory training in Parental Alienation among its front line caseworkers.

The commitment follows the revelation at a Parental Alienation conference organised by Families Need Fathers last month that only a minute percentage of Cafcass had completed its online training webinar on Parental Alienation.

28^th November 2017 - for immediate release

Universal Credit doesn’t take into account statutory Child Maintenance payments and is pushing non-resident parents into poverty

Families Need Fathers comments on today’s Heidi Allen 10 minute Rule Bill

Today Heidi Allen MP presented a 10 Minute Rule Motion - Child Maintenance (Assessment of Parents' Income). In presenting her bill she makes generalised and unsupported assertions that non-resident parents are registering as self-employed in order to avoid child support liabilities.

FNF does not support evasion of Child Maintenance but beyond Ms Allen’s anecdotal examples, believes not only that there is negligible evidence that self-employment is being used as a loophole for avoiding child support responsibilities but there is a major blindness to the impoverishment of many non-resident parents.

FNF Chair, Jerry Karlin, said today “in considering this Bill, MPs must take into account that there are almost 5m self-employed people, most of whom are on very low and irregular incomes and who may genuinely have insufficient funds to live above the poverty line once Child Maintenance has been assessed using the current inflexible CMS formula. These problems are exacerbated by the roll out of Universal Credit which does not take into account Child Maintenance payments. Universal Credit was specifically supposed to iron out such anomalies for people on low income and to make work pay.”

14^th December 2017 - for immediate release

Families Need Fathers comment on today’s DWP announcement of a consultation on Child Maintenance

It is right that the Government consider writing-off historic arrears that it failed to collect over several decades, at great administrative cost to the taxpayer.

HOWEVER

The consultation fails the political courage test by refusing to acknowledge that the underlying problems of Child Maintenance are the inability to pay and incompetent assessments of what should be paid.

Paul Apreda, National Manager of FNF Both Parents Matter Cymru and FNF Trustee addressed the Welsh Assembly Petitions Committee evidence session together with Dr Sue Whitcombe - Chartered Psychologist.