DadTalk

Government backs 'shared parenting' legislation after separation.

Ministers dismiss advice of independent report on access to children that warned of fallout from similar law in Australia.

Fathers and mothers should be entitled to a legally binding "presumption of shared parenting" after separation, the government has announced, rejecting advice by an independent review on family justice.

While the interests of the child are to remain paramount, a ministerial group will report back in two months on what form of words will be inserted into legislation ensuring that children maintain a "meaningful relationship" with both parents. The plan is opposed by David Norgrove, whose report last year warned of the situation in Australia after the country introduced shared parenting rights. A landslide of legal claims and counter-claims led to severe delays in child custody cases.

In advance of the government's formal response to his family justice report, Norgrove, who chairs the Low Pay Commission, last week said that his review "thoroughly considered the issue of shared parenting and concluded the law should not be changed. If the government has decided to legislate, I regret that and it will be vital to find words that avoid the difficulties encountered in Australia."

Stressing that the government "agreed with 99.9%" of Norgrove's conclusions, the justice minister, Jonathan Djanogly, said there should be a legal presumption of shared parenting. "Mr Norgrove [agreed with] that position in his interim report," Djanogly said. "He did not disagree with it conceptually in his final report but he saw there were possible problems in Australia. We agree with that too; we see there are real problems and that's why we have set up a ministerial review (reporting in April) to look at ways of dealing with those issues. The particular problem [in Australia] was equal parenting time. The courts started getting a lot of equal-time applications."

The UK government is not in favour of giving separated parents rights to equal time, nor will it consider setting legally enforceable "minimum amounts of time" for fathers or mothers, Djanogly added. "We are not violently moving away from what the current law is."

The government response declares: "Any changes will be complementary to, not in conflict with, the principle in the Children Act 1989 that the welfare needs of the child are the paramount consideration.

"The court should consider an ongoing relationship with both parents as something that in most cases will contribute to the child's welfare – and should look at the question through this lens, of what is best for the child – rather than as a 'right' for the parents."

Asked whether the plans reflected the impact of groups such as Fathers4Justice, Djanogly said it was not a question of "favouring" either fathers or mothers in custody cases. Although "we have heard harrowing experiences from fathers with which we have sympathised, we need a system that is fair", he added.

Other government proposals focus on speeding up child custody disputes where the number awaiting decision has almost doubled in the past four years to 20,000 cases. Care and supervision cases take an average of 55 weeks to process.

A six-month time limit will be set on child custody disputes to ensure cases are processed more quickly. It will also become mandatory for separating couples to attend a mediation hearing initially in the hope of persuading them to reach agreement without going to court.

In order to ensure that it works, an extra £10m in legal aid is being made available for mediation. Ministers will also examine whether "more robust enforcement tools" are needed to encourage errant parents to comply with settlements. Parents who defy court orders can already be imprisoned; any change is likely to look at less draconian but more practical punishments that will curb misbehaviour.

There will be a better deal for grandparents, the government maintains, but it will not be enshrined in law. Djanogly said: "When going through the check list for a parental agreement, the role of grandparents should appear and the same thing in mediation. So we do think the role of grandparents should be extended in the system."

The Ministry of Justice will eventually absorb Cafcass, the government agency that looks after children involved in family proceedings, into a new Family Justice Board to ensure the agencies work closer together.

Maggie Atkinson, children's commissioner for England, said: "Many children are caught up, through no fault of their own, for months at a time in a system that is hindered by delays and still fails to give them an adequate voice. A statutory six-month time limit on care and supervision proceedings will mean speedier decision making and resolution for the children involved. "We welcome the government's confirmation that legislating in this area will focus on parents' shared responsibility for their child and it is not about guaranteeing each parent an equal amount of time with children.

Read more about this story at the Guardian Website.