The charity, Families Need Fathers (FNF), has claimed that the recommendations made in the final report of the Family Justice Review are inadequate to address the deep-seated problems at the heart of the family justice system, and are unlikely to improve outcomes for children or their families.
FNF provides information and support on shared parenting issues arising from family breakdown, and support to divorced and separated parents, irrespective of gender or marital status. According to the charity, the report fails to provide for children maintaining meaningful relationships with both parents and their wider family following family breakdown.
Ken Sanderson, CEO of Families Need Fathers, said:
“Sadly, I believe that the report’s focus on ‘making parental responsibility work’ is far too optimistic when it comes to improving long-term outcomes for children and their families. The problem is not that parents are inadequately aware of what parental responsibility means; the crux of the matter is that it is all too easy for one parent to simply ignore this and omit the other from their child’s life, with a justice system which is unable and unwilling to take firm action to prevent this. The absence of any firm recommendations to strengthen children’s rights to a meaningful relationship with both parents, and their wider family, represents a dereliction of duty on behalf of the review, and we implore the government to reconsider this before proposing legislation.”
