Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service) has developed a new Parenting Plan aimed at encouraging parents, and other family members, to parent cooperatively for the benefit of any child. It is envisaged that the Plan will assist parents in making practical decisions and assist in resolving disputes outside of Court whilst child […]
‘Relationship break down’,’ Separation’, ‘Splitting up’- We thought we’d heard every name possible for the ending of a relationship with a former loved-one but “Conscious uncoupling”- Now that’s one we’ve not heard before. Whilst we here at Higgins Miller may have very different views on Coldplay’s Music and Gwyneth’s dietary regime, we cannot disagree with […]
There have been two decisions this week on cases where a child has been brought to the UK by its mother without the father’s consent and in both cases the court has ordered that the child in question must return to its country of origin. In the first case Re F the parents had been […]
Despite warnings against the measure from the House of Lords, a plan to start charging parents for using the new Child Maintenance Service (replacing the Child Support Agency) have now been approved by Parliament. The Government appears to be of the view that by imposing these charges they will encourage people to resolve matters without […]
A survey by Netmums has revealed that in many cases children feel very differently about the impact of their parents separation than their parents believe. Worryingly 14% of children felt unable to be honest with their parents about their feelings and 2 in 5 admitted hiding their feelings from their parent to avoid upsetting them. […]
Abductions of children from the UK by one of their parents has nearly doubled in the last 10 years according to data from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). This amounts to a startling two children being abducted abroad every single day. The FCO has made a film called “Caught in the Middle,” which shows […]
The Ministry of Justice has published a report into the public’s confidence in the court system. The survey showed that less than half of those asked were either very confident of fairly confident that the family courts take into account the views of both parents when deciding what orders to make in respect of children. […]
The grandparents of a child who was the subject of court proceedings have been jailed for contempt of court. The child concerned was Alice Davies. The application before the court was made by Alice’s father for contact with his daughter however before the order could be enforced Alice was taken abroad by her mother. The […]
The High Court has ordered that two girls aged 15 and 11 must receive the MMR vaccination following a dispute between their parents. The parents are now divorced but when together had decided not to vaccinate their children in the wake of concerns raised about the safety of the vaccine and links with Autism. These […]
Tonight on BBC two there is a programme called “Mum and Dad are Splitting Up.” It will feature the experiences of both parents and children who have gone through family breakdown. An article in the BBC magazine today considers how much a child should be told by their parents about the reason for a marriage breakdown […]