For far too long it seems that the Family Courts have struggled with the dilemma of what to do to enforce court orders for children to have contact with their parent (or grandparent). Sometimes the only real remedy for a breach of the order has appeared to be to send the offending parent to prison, effectively often making the child to suffer. Understandably family Judges very rarely take this course of action.
On the 8th December 2008 new legal provisions were added to the Children Act 1989 which are intended to give the Family Courts new powers to promote contact and enforce contact orders.
It is too early to say whether the new provisions introduced in December will make a real difference but this change does appear to signal a new and more proactive approach to this thorny subject.
Two new concepts have been introduced, a Contact Activities Direction, and an Enforcement Order. A Court can now direct a parent to take part in a specified activity such as attending parenting classes, counselling or guidance aimed at promoting contact.
The Court can ask CAFCASS (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) to provide information on the suitability of such a direction and to monitor compliance and report back to the Court if there is a failure to comply.
In addition to the Contact Activities Direction, where there is a breach of a contact order the Court has new powers to make an Enforcement Order which can impose a requirement to do unpaid work or a requirement to pay compensation for financial loss caused by a breach of the order.
These new provisions clearly have significant resource implications. CAFCASS is already an overstretched organisation, but it is to be hoped that when a Court orders that contact to a child should take place, this new regime of remedies and enforcement provisions might mean that such an Order is one which a parent would be minded to comply with knowing that the Order would have "teeth" which might indeed be a change for the better. We shall have to wait and see.
Natalie Cutting, family lawyer with Charlesworth Nicholl & Co, 31 High Street, Crediton, Devon, telephone 01363 774706, nc@charlesworthnicholl.co.uk