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The UK's leading Shared Parenting charity

FNF is the leading UK charity supporting dads, mums and grandparents to have personal contact and meaningful relationships with their children following parental separation.

We offer information, advice and support services helping parents to achieve a positive outcome for their children.

Our online Forum and our network of over 50 UK Branches also offer pro-bono guidance of solicitors and others familiar with the operation of the family courts.

Join FNF or register for free to receive our newsletters, surveys, research and more.  As a member, you can also access our Forum in which experienced volunteers, including solicitors and McKenzie Friends can answer your questions. 

Visit your nearest FNF Branch where meetings are run by experienced and knowledgeable Volunteers who want to help you.  Some of the more established branches run solicitors' clinics for the benefit of our members. 

We  have a telephone Helpline (0300 0300 363) which provides first-line support.

FNF membership costs less than a few minutes of a typical solicitor's time - and could save you a fortune by being better prepared for the choices ahead!  Find out more about free registration and joining or simply donate.  Your support is crucial in enabling us to sustain our mission working for parents and children who are being denied a loving relationship.

This is a testimonial email we received recently from a service user:

“I have a solicitor who charges ￡285 + VAT per hour. She's good but she is very expensive. FNF with its ￡39 membership fee has given me more practical advice and provided me with company of fellow fathers who are striving to achieve contact with their children against all odds. Something my solicitor can never offer. I have had 3-4 sittings and have had more practical advice than I have had from my solicitor (who is process driven and has no emotional connect) for last 6-8 months and I don't even want to mention how much I have paid her in this time. FNF has been amazing for me. I would recommend it to all fathers going through a divorce and wanting contact with their child/children. We are all in this together.”

 

More Articles ...

  1. Press Release - Draft Government Domestic Abuse Bill
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  • The Victoria Derbyshire Show last week focused on the assertion that family courts were making orders based on 'contact at all costs'. We know this is simply not the case as do most family lawyers. If it were, there would be little call for the work we do - there is plenty. Here is an example of a woman who has been convicted following domestic abuse assault. We wonder whether those who make this assertion would support the father in this case in asking for sole care of the child. He was bigger than that and asked for her not to be imprisoned or to stop her parenting time. Please support our work by following us, sharing and liking our posts, registering for free, joining or making a donation. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mum-hit-boyfriend-around-head-16317623?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

  • Over the last couple of days we shared charts showing the impact on children's mental health and psychosomatic symptoms in different family arrangements. The last chart in this series focuses on physical, psychological and social quality of life and wellbeing measures. As with the first two charts, it points to outcomes for children being best in nuclear families, however, joint care is by far the best option when parents separate, whenever that is possible. Please support us by sharing our posts, liking them, following us, registering for free, becoming a member or making a donation.

  • This second chart looks at children's experience of psychosomatic symptoms based on their living arrangements once their parents separate. These are physical symptoms that manifest themselves following a psychological trauma - in this case reduced or eliminated relationships with one of their parents. You can support us by sharing and liking our posts, following us, registering for free, joining us or making a donation.

  • Some parents have no choice but to bring up their children alone. Sometimes it is because a parent is irresponsible or poses a genuine risk. We have great respect for them. However, for the vast majority of the thousands who come to us it is because their ex refuses them access because of jealousy, hurt or selfishness and a belief that single parenting does no harm - except it does. For us, shared parenting is not only right in principle, but supported by evidence as this graph from a huge Swedish study shows in relation to mental health. You can support us by sharing and liking our posts, following us, registering for free, joining us or making a donation.

  • Families Need Fathers contributed to yesterday's live Victoria Derbyshire Show debate on domestic abuse and the notion that Family Courts arranged 'contact at all costs'. Amongst the panel were deniers of parental alienation and people who had the strange notion that getting a contact order for unsupervised direct contact was a doddle and the norm. Do send your views on this and men's experience of abuse Victoria@bbc.co.uk.It looks like the debate will continue on the show for the next couple of days. The terms of reference for any inquiry into this will be critical - early indicators of pre-determination are worrying. Support us by liking and sharing our posts, following us, registering for free, joining or making a donation. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00052qc/victoria-derbyshire-15052019

  • We will be present on the BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme today at 10 when issues in the article are discussed further. This is yet another article making strong suggestions - including that dads (not mums) who have been accused of abuse, shouldn't even have the right to even ask the courts for permission to see their own children. Or that dads (not mums) who have what they call the "toxic trio" of addiction, mental illness and a history of violence, represent an overwhelming risk to children - after separation. Why single out dads? Could mums all be perfect? Let's face it, the kind of battles which go on between separating parents - partly thanks to our adversarial family law system - are rife, alienating parents and children through lack of early collaborative actions and blighting their futures. Men and women need to collaborate from the outset. Our children deserve and need it. Also, whilst deaths of children in family violence are always a tragedy, they are thankfully extremely rare. This kind of exceptionalism is rife in the media today - taking a relatively rare tragedy as justification for major decisions which might dangerously impact a far larger part of society. Just because some people are allergic to nuts is not a reason to ban nuts. It's a reason to take sensible precautions and educate people on the dangers. However we do agree that more transparency is urgently needed in the Family Court and would help the public to understand the terrible problems that are experienced by children and parents as a result of the ineffectual way the system works - in practice. It is not so much that the law needs changing, but rather its practice. More transparency is a must. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48230618


FNF HSSF Kite Mark Award

Families Need Fathers has been awarded the Help and Support for Separated Families Kite Mark which is a new UK government accreditation scheme for organisations offering help to separated families.

Families Need Fathers work with a range of family law professionals, including Family Law Panel

 

Upcoming Events

30/05/2019 Thu: Southport Meeting
30/05/2019 Thu: Exeter Meeting
3/06/2019 Mon: London Central Solicitor's Clinic
3/06/2019 Mon: Edinburgh Meeting
3/06/2019 Mon: Nottingham Meeting
3/06/2019 Mon: Northern Ireland Meeting
3/06/2019 Mon: Reading Meeting
3/06/2019 Mon: London Central Meeting
4/06/2019 Tue: Leeds Central Meeting
4/06/2019 Tue: Newcastle Meeting
4/06/2019 Tue: Northampton Meeting
4/06/2019 Tue: Oxford Meeting (check day with branch)
4/06/2019 Tue: Harrow Branch Meetings
5/06/2019 Wed: Manchester Meeting
5/06/2019 Wed: Epsom Meeting
5/06/2019 Wed: London West Meeting
6/06/2019 Thu: Solent Meeting
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