Shared Parenting Information Group (SPIG) UK

- promoting responsible shared parenting after separation and divorce -

UK government misses the opportunity to promote Shared Parenting

- prefers to keep with outmoded 1980's concepts -

On 21 July 2004 the UK Government published a Green Paper on Parental Separation: Children's Needs and Parents' Responsibilities.

The Green Paper, published by the Department for Education and Skills, the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Department for Trade and Industry, sets out a series of proposals which it claims are:

'designed to improve outcomes for children who experience the separation of their parents'.

We do not see how this can be achieved by this document, as the government has failed to take 50/50 Shared Parenting as a starting point.

The paper can be downloaded in .pdf format from http://www.dfes.gov.uk/childrensneeds/docs/DfesChildrensNeeds.pdf

Consultation responses are invited until 1 November 2004.

Misses the point

While accepting that:

'The current way in which the courts intervene in disputed contact cases does not work well.'

the paper states that:

'Some fathers’ groups have come to believe that the courts and the law are biased against them. We do not accept this view'.

and

'We consider that no change is needed to the core principles set out in the Children Act 1989.'

Did they not hear what Sir Bob Geldof said? - We agree with him that the sytem is fundamentally flawed - the law is discriminatory and unjust and should be scrapped.

We reject the outmoded concepts of 'Resident parent', 'Non-resident parent' and 'Contact' - we consider that parents should share Parenting Time - in recognition of the importance of the time which parents spend with their children after divorce.

The law needs redrafting - no amount of tinkering can put it right.

Useful reading:

Last updated - 22 July 2004


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