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Press Release
The struggle for children's rights goes on.
‘The collapse of Fathers4Justice does not mean that the campaign for the rights of children to have a relationship with both their parents following divorce and separation has stopped’, said John Baker – FNF Chair.
‘Families Need Fathers has continued throughout, providing personal help for parents whose children risked losing their relationship with them, and lobbying in the way that charities have always done. The struggle for children’s rights goes on.
‘We will continue this work. For example, the Conservative Party spokesman on Children, Tim Lougton M.P. is talking to our annual general meeting in Brighton this coming Saturday. On Tuesday we are meeting Maria Eagle M.P, the Minister for Children and Young People. Yesterday we submitted our reply to the CAFCASS consultations document 'Every Day Matters' in which it is (finally) proposed that shared parenting should be the normal recommendation for children on whom they report (unless there are possible safety risks). Next week we will be sending a briefing paper to all Members of Parliament, outlining our comments on the Children and Adoption Act. This Bill, if passed into law, will achieve one of our long standing aims - that there will be appropriate and usable sanctions imposed on parents who refuse to obey a court order to allow their children to see their non-residential parent. At present such orders are defied with impunity. We hope shortly to meet the NSPCC to correct their policy that contact exposes children to risk. Contact enriches children's lives. What exposes many children to risk is parents, especially those under stress, who cannot cope with the demands of exclusive parenting. Often to allow the other parent to help will reduce the pressure on them and thus protect the children.
‘Personal support work is, however, our primary aim. We are in contact with some 80-100,000 parents a year helping them with the whole range of issues non-residential parents have to address. There is no sensational publicity in, for example, helping a parent overcome the refusal of a school, or a primary care trust, to his or her being given school reports, or being told about medical treatment his or her child is being given. Both of these happen regularly, despite their being illegal. Or in providing a lay advisor to someone representing themselves in court over a contact hearing when he cannot afford a lawyer but his ex has one on legal aid. Or helping a parent answer accusations of abuse when those allegations are malicious. Or in setting up (with DFES funding) pilots for parenting support workshops to help parents who only see their children occasionally to make the best use of their parenting time. This is our primary work.
‘Our helplines now have more male parents calling them in total than the lavishly, government funded, parenting support flagship helpline has. We have a higher proportion of female parents calling us than they do male ones.
‘These of course give us an authority to speak on behalf of excluded and marginalised parents and their children.
‘The painfully slow progress towards gender equality in the rights of children to both their parents created a void which Fathers4Justice filled. Its most powerful recruiting weapon was the apparent ineffectiveness of lobbying using the so-called 'proper channels'.
‘That void will now re-appear unless responsible people pay attention to the reasonable demands of groups such as ourselves.
‘We are the people to be approached for comment on issues to do with the effect of separation and divorce on children, and how to tap, for the benefit of children, society and the Government, the enormous supply of loving parenting, at present allowed to go to waste.’
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Please see Families Need Fathers ‘programme for change’ Father’s Day Manifesto
Families Need Fathers (FNF) is a registered charity providing information and support on shared parenting issues arising from family breakdown, and support to divorced and separated parents, irrespective of gender or marital status. Our primary concern is the maintenance of the child's relationship with both parents. Founded in 1974, FNF helps thousands of parents every year.