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Court reporters - CAFCASS - Sellout - Fairness
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CAFCASSI SECI Contact Principles and Practice
Guidance I Draft 1 Draft issued16.08.04
from assisting the introduction of the child to a parent for
the first time, bridging a gap by using the Internet, to making
arrangements for SJpervised contact using a family centre
or child contact centre, in circumstances of significant risk.
There will be a minority of cases where direct contact between
child and parent is temporarily inappropriate or disrupted,
or just not possible. In these cases it is important to maintain
a link for several possible reasons, so the child knows the
parent is safe and well; with a view to re-establishing contact
in the future; to avoid the child developing an unrealistic
fantasy about the non-resident parert; or to ensure the child
knows that the non-resident parent cares and remembers them.
Indirect contact may be maintained through correspondence,
by telephone, the Internet, sending presents and sending photographs
and school reports.
Where there is significant risk, correspondence may need vetting
and contact via the Internet or telephone may be undesirable.
CAFCASS can be an intermediary in these situations and supervised
child contact centres can offer this service.
"... a simple equation of rights and responsibilities
does not work well with questions of care... such decisions
require an ethic of care... this does not discard notions
of justice and rights but focuses on the practical ethics
which ensure fairness for all concerned". 16
Decisions need to take into account the reality and practicalities
of the lives involved, for example the reality of violence
cannot be overruled by the principle of shared care. Caring
for a child also means respecting children and childhood as
well as considering the quality of that child's parental relationships
and how they might be supported and encouraged over time.
Post-separation feelings of loss, grief and reduction of self-esteem
should be recognised as needing to be worked through by parents,
as part of the process of moving on and establishing new roles.
This focus on reality, care and recognition of loss forms
an 'ethic of care,17 helping promote fairness for those concerned.
"In any proceedings in which any question with respect
to the upbringing of a childarises, the court shall have regard
to the general principle that any delay in determining the
question is likely to prejudice the welfare of the child".
18
The shorter the time between family breakdown and the establishment
of cooperative parenting and contact, the better. If there
will be a delay before final arrangements are established,
consider the desirability of some form of interim contact.
Delay should be avoided or minimised wherever possible, as
it can be abusive to children and can hinder the re-establishment
of relationships, unless that delay has a clear purpose.
16 Williams F (2004) 'Rethinking Families', ESRC CA VA Research
Group, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London, p79
17 Smart C and Neale B (1999) 'Family Fragments?' Polity Press,
Cambridge pp 192-7
18 Section 1(2) 'Children Act 1989'
Page 14 of 68
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