A paper presented a theoretical model of a non-resident father s child support and contact with his child. It predicted that forcing separated fathers to pay higher child support payments could have the effect of reducing the amount of contact they had with their child.
Source: John Ermisch, Child Support and Non-resident Fathers Contact with their Children, Working Paper 2006-14, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2006-Dec
An official advisory body began consultation on plans to improve services for children and young people in family courts. It said that looked-after children might be missing out on support because the practitioners who monitored their care plans were overloaded.
Source: Organising for Quality, Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) (020 7510 7036)
Links: Consultation document | CAFCASS press release | Community Care report
Date: 2006-Dec
A report examined the law relating to financial provision for divorcing couples and for separated cohabitants. It said that features of 'community of property' derived from the law in other European countries could usefully be incorporated in the legal system in England and Wales.
Source: Elizabeth Cooke, Th r se Callus and Anne Barlow, Community of Property: A regime for England and Wales?, Nuffield Foundation (020 7631 0566)
Links: Report | Nuffield Foundation press release
Date: 2006-Nov
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the family courts system.
Source: Response to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee Report: 'Family Justice - the operation of the family courts revisited', Cm 6971, Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2006-Nov
A report presented findings from an in-depth study of a sample of former cohabitants, exploring how couples made arrangements for parenting and financial division following separation from a cohabiting relationship.
Source: Rosalind Tennant, Jean Taylor and Jane Lewis, Separating from Cohabitation: Making arrangements for finances and parenting, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Summary | Natcen press release
Date: 2006-Oct
A new book examined the work of fathers' rights activists, the role law had played in their campaigning, their legal strategies, their success (or otherwise) in achieving legal reform, similarities and divergences compared to the women's movement, and the relationship between fathers' rights movements and the societies that framed them.
Source: Richard Collier and Sally Sheldon (eds.), Fathers' Rights Activism and Law Reform in Comparative Perspective, Hart Publishing (01865 517530)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Oct
An article used the Millennium Cohort Study to examine a number of aspects of non-residential fatherhood that commenced with the birth of a child.
Source: Kathleen Kiernan, 'Non-residential fatherhood and child involvement: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 35 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Oct
The courts service inspectorate said that children involved in private law proceedings were regularly being placed at 'unacceptable risk' by family court workers who failed to adequately assess cases.
Source: An Inspection Undertaken between October 2005 and March 2006 of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) Concerning Private Law Front-line Practice, HM Inspectorate of Court Administration (0117 959 8201)
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2006-Sep
The government began consultation on proposals designed to improve the outcomes for children involved in family proceedings. The existing legal and court process could be slow and sometimes adversarial, and could contribute to a deterioration of the situation between separating couples and their children.
Source: Separate Representation of Children: Consultation to inform the content of new court rules, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Consultation document
Date: 2006-Sep
An article showed how time worked against parents with learning difficulties in the child protection system and Children Act proceedings. Pressure to avoid delay (resulting from the prevailing wisdom that delay harmed the interests of children) made it harder for parents with learning difficulties to meet the standards and expectations enforced by children s services and the courts.
Source: Tim Booth, David McConnell and Wendy Booth, 'Temporal discrimination and parents with learning difficulties in the child protection system', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 36 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Sep
An article presented the findings of a research study that explored the complex relationship between the duration of care proceedings and costs to children in terms of the likelihood of achieving permanency.
Source: Dominic McSherry, Emma Larkin and Dorota Iwaniec, 'Care proceedings: exploring the relationship between case duration and achieving permanency for the child', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 36 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Sep
The provisional divorce rate in England and Wales fell by 8 per cent in 2005, to 13.0 divorcing people per 1,000 married population, compared with 14.1 in 2004.
Source: Press release 31 August 2006, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: ONS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Aug
The government began consultation on proposals to make the family court system more accountable to the public. The system would be opened to the media so that they could report on a range of cases, including those where a local authority acted to take a child into care, or where parents disputed child contact or residence. The proposals also included new safeguards to ensure the anonymity and privacy of individuals.
Source: Confidence and Confidentiality: Improving transparency and privacy in family courts, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Cm 6886, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Consultation document | DCA press release | Hansard | OLSO press release | BAAF press release | Fathers Direct press release | Resolution press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Children Now report
Date: 2006-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that funding difficulties were holding back improvements in the family justice system.
Source: Family Justice: The operation of the family courts revisited, Sixth Report (Session 2005-06), HC 1086, House of Commons Constitution Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | HOC press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-Jun
The Court of Appeal ruled against an automatic ban on identifying children involved in family court cases, even after proceedings had ended. It said that judges should decide in each case whether any entitlement to anonymity should outweigh the right to freedom of expression. But publicity should not be allowed in any case where it could in any way harm or cause distress to a child.
Source: Clayton v Clayton, Court of Appeal 27 June 2006
Links: Text of judgment | Summary | Times report
Date: 2006-Jun
A report said that when couples broke up there was a need to focus more on relationships, and less on the quantity of contact, when considering the quality of young people's family lives.
Source: Fran Wasoff and Bren Neale, Private Arrangements for Contact with Children, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: ESRC press release | Observer report
Date: 2006-May
The Law Lords ruled in favour of ex-wives in two divorce cases involving multi-million-pound settlements. The judgment laid down guidelines for the courts on how to split the assets in such cases.
Source: Miller v Miller and McFarlane v McFarlane, UKHL 24 (Session 2005-06), House of Lords Judicial Office (020 7219 3111)
Links: Text of judgement | Times report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-May
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service began consultation on a new operating framework, to come into effect from April 2007. There would be a a greater emphasis on early intervention to try to reach workable solutions that took more account of children's needs and feelings, with fewer cases going to court.
Source: Safeguarding Policy Framework, Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) (020 7510 7036)
Links: Consultation document | CAFCASS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-May
Two linked reports examined the child care proceedings system in England and Wales, and made recommendations for improving the system for children and families subject to proceedings.
Source: Review of the Child Care Proceedings System in England and Wales, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500) | Julia Brophy, Research Review: Child Care Proceedings under the Children Act 1989, Department for Constitutional Affairs
Links: Review report | Research report | Research summary | DCA press release
Date: 2006-May
An article examined the available literature on the situations and experiences of mothers who had become the non-resident parent after separation/divorce. There were many similarities between women's and men s experience of parenting at a distance: but the experience of non-resident motherhood was a different psycho-social phenomenon from non-resident fatherhood.
Source: Sandra Kielty, 'Similarities and differences in the experiences of non-resident mothers and non-resident fathers', International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, Volume 20 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Apr
A paper said there was evidence that, among middle-income non-resident fathers, a higher income led to increased contact with their children. This suggested that setting a higher binding child support order would reduce father s contact for these fathers.
Source: John Ermisch, Child Support and Non-resident Fathers Contact with their Children, Working Paper 2006-14, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2006-Apr
A report examined children s experiences of being separately represented in private family law proceedings under the provisions of the Family Proceedings Rules 1991, with a view to ascertaining whether the service provided by guardians and specialist children s lawyers was satisfactory as far as the children were concerned. Most of the children liked the idea of someone appointed by the court to help them have their say in the proceedings.
Source: Gillian Douglas, Mervyn Murch, Claire Miles and Lesley Scanlan, Research into the Operation of Rule 9.5 of the Family Proceedings Rules 1991, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
Statistics were published on marriages and divorces in 2003, and adoptions in 2004, in England and Wales.
Source: Marriage, Divorce and Adoption Statistics: Review of the Registrar General on marriages and divorces in 2003, and adoptions in 2004, in England and Wales, Series FM2 31, Office for National Statistics (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
Researchers examined a pilot scheme to designed assist parties involved in court proceedings about contact after separation or divorce. The agreement rate was very good for those cases that became embedded in the programme: but the difficulty in getting cases started and through the pilot meant that the overall agreement rate for all referred cases was low.
Source: Liz Trinder, Joanne Kellett, Jo Connolly and Caitlin Notley, Evaluation of the Family Resolutions Pilot Project, Research Report 720, Department for Education and Skills (0845 602 2260)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
A report presented the findings from a study that aimed to identify the effectiveness of three different models of in-court conciliation. It said that estranged parents battling over child contact should be sent to co-parenting and conflict management classes to minimize harm to their children.
Source: Liz Trinder, Jo Connolly, Joanne Kellett, Caitlin Notley and Louise Swift, Making Contact Happen or Making Contact Work?: The process and outcomes of in-court conciliation, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Mar
A briefing paper presented the interim findings of research into the kinds of support, both formal and informal, which were helpful to young people at times of change in their household and parenting arrangements.
Source: Cool with Change: Young people and family change, Briefing 26, Centre for Research on Families and Relationships/University of Edinburgh (0131 651 1832)
Links: Briefing
Date: 2006-Feb