‘What About Me?’ – do we have the ‘right’ approach to support for children when parents separate?

Jan Ewing Research Fellow at the University of Exeter

The child’s welfare is the court’s paramount consideration in private law proceedings (Children Act 1989 s1(1)). Despite this Sir James Munby [Family Law August 2015] notes that the child is largely ‘invisible’ in court. This led him to ask whether our traditional approach in private law proceedings is right accords with our international obligations and can be justified given the different approach of other countries and when so many representing the child’s voice seek change. Drawing on the recommendations of the Report of the Family Solution Group which called for children’s voices to be central to a radical reframing of our response to parental separation this article asks these questions of the out-of-court space. It concludes that despite evidence that young people want a voice the traditional approach in out-of-court processes in England mostly fails to hear from them. Further it flouts our international obligations. It goes against the direction of travel in most of the rest of the UK concerning children’s rights and ignores the many voices calling for...

Read the full article here.