This page is intended for visitors who are interested in developments in family law. Whether it be funding, what guidance should be followed, what that guidance is, the opinion of key individuals and institutions, the performance of services, over time, we'll be listing it all. If you have suggestions as to what we should be including, or spot anything we've missed, please email: feedback@thecustodyminefield.com

November 2006 - Legal Services Commission Consultation Responses - 'Legal Aid: A sustainable future - analysis of responses.'

TCM Comment: How do you make legal aid sustainable? By making the funding so unattractive that firms of solicitors no longer find it financially viable to offer to carry out legal aid work. Fewer practitioners means less of a strain on the budget. ...and how many firms of solicitors who replied to the consultation agreed with the proposed funding structure for legal aid funding for private law cases... none. See point 7.5. When you're watching the Olympics in 2012, now you know where the money came from.

29.03.2000 The guidance that Social Services should follow when conducting risk assessments 'The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families'.

April 2006 Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This documents sets out how organisations and individuals within the public sector and who work with children should work together and safeguard and promote the interests of children. Published by the Department for Education and Skills.

By Ofsted on CAFCASS

04.08.08 An inspection of service provision by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) to children and families in South Yorkshire.

22.05.08 An inspection of service provision by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) to children and families in the South-East and CAFCASS Press Release in response

15.02.08 An inspection of service provision by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) to children and families in the East Midlands and CAFCASS Press Release in response.

By the National Audit Office

2007 'Family mediation and legal aid.' Statistics on the use of mediation when the client is funded by legal aid.

TCM Comment: 33% of solicitors had not made their clients aware that mediation was available as an alternative to adversarial proceedings. Profiteering?

2007 Compulsory mediation?

TCM Comment: An interesting report into a pilot scheme using compulsory mediation and the experiences of those involved. Perhaps the people running the pilot should liaise with Swedish authorities, since mediation is mandatory in Swedish Family Law.

Documents from the Department for Children, Schools & Families

2008 A Review of How Fathers Can be Better Recognised and Supported by DCSF Policy: Research Report DCSF-RR040

Documents from the Department for Education and Skills

2003 Important peer review research on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills which concludes that children are disadvantaged when both parents are not involved in children's education, and that positive educational attainment is linked to father involvement. "The Impact of Parental Involvement in Children's Education"

Documents from Families Need Fathers

2007 A summary of 'Research on The Importance of Both Parents in Children's Lives' and in support of the principal of shared parenting.

Documents from the Ministry of Justice

03 March 2008 'Care Profiling Study' and research summary. A study providing baseline data on care proceedings brought under the Children Act 1989, which could be used to evaluate reforms to the care proceedings system.

27 March 2008 'Just satisfaction? What drives public and participant satisfaction with courts and tribunals?' and the research summary.

Extract: 'As a result of weaknesses in the evidence base, we cannot say with authority whether the public, or indeed those who have participated in civil or family cases, are generally satisfied with those courts and tribunals, and why they are satisfied (or not). Lack of such data about a key public institution is concerning.'

Research on Shared Residence

2000 'Children 5-16 Research Briefings. New Childhoods: children and co-parenting after divorce'  - Professor Carol Smart and Dr Amanda Wade - Centre for Research on Family, Kinship & Childhood - University of Leeds.

December 2003 'Drifting Towards Shared Residence' - Professor Carol Smart, Dr Bren Neale and Dr Jennifer Flowerdew - Centre for Research on Family, Kinship & Childhood - University of Leeds - published in Vol 33 of Family Law Week Dec 2003.

TCM Comment: Both pieces of research have been widely quoted when policy decisions were made about shared residence and when guidance has been written. I suspect that few who quote it have actually read the reports, or understand that the findings were limited by the small sample size.

Looking at the later report, should it be that a sample of only 30 children's experiences affects the opinions of decision makers within the public sector which then impact on thousands of children? I'd say no, and the authors clearly never intended that it should. The research is commonly held to be on shared residence (which the title suggests) but is actually about equal parenting time. In legal terms, shared residence does not mean a 50:50 split of time between the parents' homes, and this is a common misconception. My other concerns regarding the research are listed below:

·         The original study referred to in the 2003 report was only based on a sample of 117 children.

·         The second study only took into account the views of 30 children and young adults who'd been subject to equal parenting time arrangements (not shared residence as the title suggests).

·         The report views shared parenting as what the laws defines as shared residence, and shared residence as what would commonly be referred to as equal parenting time.

·         The sample uses a narrow base of white, middle class children – not demographically representative.

·         The sample only looks at the experiences of children aged 11 and over.

·         With such a narrow sample being used, the report suggests that the problem for the children subject to equal parenting time wasn't the structure of contact so much as the quality of parenting and lack of flexibility provided by the parents.

·         The sample mainly focusses on teenagers, and no allowance appears to have been given to the fact that the parent/child boundaries can cause issues for any teenager - irrespective of whether or not the family is intact, and regardless of the contact arrangements if the child has parents with separate homes.

·         The report mentions that Australia has moved to a model of shared parenting, and that prior to this change to the law being made, the concept of shared parenting was subject to scrutiny by a Senate Committee. The authors of the Leeds based study do not appear to have obtained empirical research conducted by the Australians, but instead rely on the very small and skewed sample from their own, limited surveys.

·         The report mainly focusses on the negative experiences of the children, while only briefly mentioning that children also experience positive outcomes from equal parenting time.

·         The researchers admit that their study 'was not designed to determine whether one kind of post-divorce residence arrangement was better than another'.

·         The researchers do not consider or discuss the negative aspects of alternative contact/residence scenarios, including the loss of a meaningful relationship with the non-resident parent, nor the harm caused through broken contact arrangements.

·         The researchers do not consider the harm caused by protracted and adversarial legal battles.

2008 Speeches by the head of CAFCASS

16.10.08 Speech by Anthony Douglas CBE - Best Practise in Supporting Separated Families Conference: "Transitions: the new norm" (powerpoint presentation) and the accompanying press release.

Speeches by Members of the Judiciary

20.11.08 Speech by the Honourable Mr Justice Ryder- Conkerton Memorial Lecture 2008: “The Autonomy of the Citizen in the context of Family Law Disputes”.

27.06.08 Speech by the Honourable Mr Justice Ryder– The Twenty Fifth Anniversary of the Butterworth’s Family Law Service July 2008: “The Family Courts of the Future” 

13.05.08 Speech by the Rt Hon Sir Mark Potter, President of the Family Division– "Report on the Private Law Programme"

06.05.08 Speech by the Rt Hon Sir Mark Potter, President of the Family Division– "The Voice of the Child: Childrens “Rights” in Family Proceedings" 

14.04.08 Speech by the Rt Hon Sir Mark Potter, President of the Family Division– "Launch of the Public Law Outline"

07.04.08 Speech by the Honourable Mr Justice Coleridge– Resolution National Conference: “Family Life – Family Justice – Fairness”

11.03.08 Speech by the Rt Hon Sir Mark Potter, President of the Family Division- Resolution Inaugural Annual Lecture

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08.11.07 Speech by the Honourable Mr Justice Ryder, on behalf of the National Youth Advocacy Service - 'The Risk Fallacy - A tale of two thresholds'

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29.06.06 News Release:  'Lord Justice Wall calls for Media Access to Family Courts'