Phones have been ringing off the hooks at EPC headquarters today. Government has leaked to the media their intention to announce the reforms they intend to introduce following the infamous Green Paper.

The media have commented to EPC that it is odd the way the Government have approached this announcement in such a cloak and dagger way! It is also strange that they chose to make this announcement while the Select Committee into the Family Courts is still part-way through its Inquiry! I don't think that is likely to go down well with the Committee's members!!!

Anyway, tomorrow promises to be a very busy day judging by the volume of media calls!

TUESDAY 18 JAN 05 - THE ANNOUNCEMENT

THE PROPOSALS:

They are sticking to a system that only works for people who don't need the family courts - that is to say parents who can agree their own parenting plan for their children! There is nothing in the proposals that will work for the hardcore cases, where the custodial parent is hellbent on excluding the other parent from their children's lives.

There are two main themes - more mediation and more enforcement measures.

EPC is in favour of mediation, but it won't work for hardcore cases until there is a legal presumption of shared parenting enshrined in statute. This means that all fit parents would have the right to substantial parenting time (meaning not less than one third on a year-round basis). Judges would have to make a Parenting Time Order on that basis at the first hearing. If they depart from the presumption, they would have to set out their reasons in writing. Once we have the Legal Presumption, we then need mediation that:

*starts with an education component
*is mandatory
*with a timetable strictly controlled by the court

While the mediation is going on, the ordered parenting time schedule must be enforced.

EPC cannot see the enlarged enforcement measures making any practical difference. Judges already have extensive powers. They just don't use them (a) at all or (b) soon enough. Also the Government misses the point that many parents can't get an order (or a worthwhile order) in the first place! They are therefore putting the cart before the horse!

Parenting time (so inadequately called "contact") needs to be ordered early and enforced early so that the child-parent relationship is given the oxygen it needs to survive the parental separation.

These proposals have not been thought out and they are toothless.

These are the points that EPC has been banging home in the media today. Wow, it has been an exhausting day!!!