Child First: Safe Child Contact Saves Lives

Over the last few years, the terms “parental alienation” and “alienating behaviour” have been used more and more – in the family courts, in children’s social work, on social media, and even in debates about the new domestic abuse bill. This blog discusses why “alienation” such a dangerous term when it comes to domestic abuse.

Women’s Aid, along with Rights of Women, Rape Crisis England and Wales, and Welsh Women’s Aid, intervened in four joined appeals relating to domestic abuse and the family courts. These appeals were from mothers who had experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence and were challenging unsafe contact decisions. The Court of Appeal judgement noted the importance of judges and magistrates having proper understanding of the nature of domestic abuse – in particular the impact of controlling and coercive behaviour on victims and children.

Ministry of Justice publishes its panel’s report on assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases

On Thursday 25th June 2020, the report of the panel appointed by the Ministry of Justice to review the family courts’ handling of cases involving domestic abuse and other forms of harm to children and parents was published. The findings of the panel mark major progress for our Child First campaign.

Women’s Aid was represented on the panel of experts guiding the review of evidence and has fought to ensure survivors voices are heard at every stage. The panel’s report concludes that family courts do not effectively protect many child and adult victims of domestic abuse from further harm. In fact, the courts’ pro-contact culture result in children and non-abusive parents being put at risk of often severe harm. The report shines a light on the sexism, racism and class prejudice that survivors face in the family courts.

The panel calls for fundamental reform of the child arrangements programme – calling for a redesign of the system to be safety-focused and trauma-aware, taking an investigative, problem-solving approach, working in a joined-up, connected and consistent manner with other areas of justice and agencies, and with adequate resources.

• You can read the panel’s report, along with an accompanying literature review and the government’s implementation plan, here.
• And you can read a blog from Lucy Hadley, our Campaigns and Policy Manager, about why this report is such a breakthrough for Child First.

If the government acts to implement these recommendations, the family court response to survivors of domestic abuse could be transformed forever. We look forward to working with the Ministry of Justice, the Family Division and HMCTS to take forward these recommendations and deliver a safe family court system for survivors and their children.

Women’s Aid partnered with Queen Mary University of London on research looking at the experiences of survivors of domestic abuse in the family courts through the lens of human rights. The research uncovers a glaring gender gap in the way human rights are used and understood in the family courts and highlights new evidence of gender discrimination within the institutional culture of the courts. Find out more here.

We are delighted that the government established a panel of experts to review how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences, which is a significant win for our campaign. Women’s Aid has been part of the panel, which published an update report in October. We look forward to the panel’s final report later this year.

In March 2020, the domestic abuse bill returned to parliament. We were pleased that the government listened to our calls for a wider ban on cross-examination to protect all survivors who face this traumatising practice in the court system. But there remains a long way to go before the family courts will be truly safe for women and children. The law must make survivors automatically eligible for special protection measures in the family and civil courts, not only the criminal courts. Tackling the culture of ‘contact at all costs’ in the family courts remains a fundamental priority in order to keep survivors and their children safe after separation

We are pleased to have provided support to Louise Haigh MP on a Bill that would: “Remove the parental rights of fathers of children conceived through rape; to make provision for an inquiry into the handling by family courts of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls in child arrangement cases; and for connected purposes.” The Bill has cross-party support, and backs a key call of our campaign for a statutory inquiry into the family court response to domestic abuse. Louise’s speech introducing the Bill can be watched here.

We are delighted that the government has listened and acted by introducing a ban on abusers cross-examining victims in the family courts in the new draft domestic abuse bill. You can see the draft bill here, and keep up to date on the bill here.

The government and the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, have issued new guidance for judges and magistrates for child contact cases where there are allegations of domestic abuse. Find out more here.

The campaign has secured a promise from the government to create a new law to ban perpetrators of domestic abuse from being able to cross-examine their victims in the family court.

This new law is part of the Prison and Courts Bill which was originally stopped due to the snap General Election.

Women’s Aid marked the first anniversary of the launch of the Child First campaign and report Nineteen Child Homicides by handing the Child First petition into Number 10 Downing Street. It has been signed by over 42,000 people.

On the same day we released our report Child First: A Call to Action One Year On, which shows what we have achieved and what we still have to do to make children safe.

On 20th January, the President of the Family Division announced Mr Justice Cobb’s review of Practice Direction 12J: Child Arrangement and Contact Orders: Domestic Violence and Harm. The Practice Direction outlines what judges and magistrates must do when overseeing child contact cases where domestic abuse is alleged or has taken place.  The review makes various suggestions to improve the practice direction including a clear definition of ‘harm’, addressing the ‘contact at all costs’ culture of the family courts and always putting children’s interest and safety first.

On the 4th January the government announced an emergency review to find the quickest way to ban abusive ex-partners from cross-examining their victims in the family courts.

A debate in the House of Commons Chamber took place on 15 September 2016. Claire Throssell’s MP, Angela Smith, told the stories of Claire’s two sons, Jack, 12 and Paul, 9, who were both killed by their father, a known perpetrator of domestic abuse, in Parliament for the very first time. MPs from all political parties made moving and powerful speeches about the need for change. Read or watch the debate.

The Ministry of Justice has also asked Women’s Aid to review the training provided to family court staff on domestic abuse, and the guidance (Practice Direction 12J) issued to the judges and magistrates when there is an allegation of domestic abuse in child contact cases.