Putting Children First calls for greater focus on child welfare when parents separate, and the creation of a Commissioner for Separated Families, to provide coordinated oversight throughout the family separation space and to ensure children’s rights and needs are represented and prioritised.
The report is written by Charlotte Bradley, Senior Consultant at law firm Kingsley Napley and Edward Cooke, Managing Director of Edward Cooke Family Law, and published by the Family Solutions Group.
“We all know the lasting damage children suffer from protracted parental conflict, toxic divorces and bitter family separations. Our report shines a light on the future role of the family law professional so that they can better support families through separation. We also call for a redesign of the wider system to help families who are separating.” Charlotte Bradley, Senior Consultant at law firm Kingsley Napley.
Putting Children First calls for:
- The role of a Commissioner for Separated Families to be created with responsibility for improving outcomes for children experiencing parental separation. The new Commissioner could conduct a review of the concept of child welfare both in law and in practice. Amongst other tasks the Commissioner could also develop and roll out an assessment tool to assist parents and their advisors in assessing children’s welfare. Read our briefing paper.
- Family law professionals to send their separating parent clients a newly developed letter signed by The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza to encourage them to put children’s welfare first during the process of separation and beyond. Dame Rachel de Souza’s letter highlights the importance of resolving matters well for children and avoiding parental conflict. She invites all family law professionals who have separating parents as clients, whether about financial matters or child arrangements, to send this letter to their client.
- Family lawyers to reframe their traditional adversarial approach to family separation, to consider it their responsibility to mitigate conflict between separating parents and to consider the voice and welfare of the child beyond their direct contractual obligation to the parents.
- For all those working with separated families (lawyers and non-lawyers) to have undertaken appropriate training in how to reduce conflict and best support separating families. The suggestion is a Family Solutions ‘kitemark’ should be developed to ensure the public can have confidence that the person they are relying on for professional advice has received such training which could come under the oversight of the new Commissioner for Separated Families.
“Promoting a kinder, gentler, and more humane approach to family separation putting children at the centre, requires change at a government level, within the family law community and from parents. If everyone rethinks their approach and truly put children first, we can change the experience of separation for the next generation.”
Charlotte Bradley, Senior Consultant at law firm Kingsley Napley and Edward Cooke, Managing Director of Edward Cooke Family Law
