The Government estimate that England and Wales currently has some 2.8 million families that have been seperated by relationship failure, which encompasses some 3.9 million children out of the approximately 12.7 million currently in England and Wales and who are between 1 month and 16 years old – that is around 30% of the children in the country at this time.

Many have a happy and enriching relationship with both their parents, that is good for them, good for the parents and great for society as a whole, but it is estimated that around 32% of relationship failures result in a toxic family relationship where children become a tool to be used as a weapon in the psychological game of revenge, this impacts both mothers and fathers, but the biggest impact is on the young minds it confuses, traumatises and damages for life.

There are no clear figures, but circumstancial evidence indicates that fathers are more likely to be alienated from their children than the mother, the reasons for this are complex in many cases, but ultimately, it boils down to shoddy and biased work by CAFCASS case workers and biased decisions in family court. Since 2016, a mother only has to make claims of some form of abuse to be granted legal aid, but the father, no chance, he has to defend himself, and more often that not, the claims of the mother are accepted without any evidence or investigation. This is not to say claims are false, there are many cases where the claims have a sound footing and the father is not a good person, but this is also true of mothers. Men, sadly, are often aggressive and physically abusive when there is a toxic relationship, however, women, generally being physcially weaker than most men and not as aggressive, tend to use psychological means to abuse their partner, this is harder to prove and the state agencies tend to ignore it as a result.

Lets clarify, abuse is abuse, there is no excuse for it, but two people having an argument is not abuse, its two people who need help resolving their differences without shouting or insulting each other – this leads to the National Mental Health Service that is so critically needed in the UK and is covered here.

The Family Courts in the UK need serious reform, they need better training for the Judges, they need to be less formal, similar to employment arbitration hearings, and they need far better resources. Where a person is accused of abuse within a relationship, this should be investigated by family court investigators who are trained psychologists, not CAFCASS case workers, equally, the person accused whould be granted legal aid to represent them within the the hearing(s) to ensure that they are treated fairly and within the procedures laid down in law, as it is clear this does not happen all the time. Further, legal aid should pay for a lawyer, trained in family law, to represent the children, because it is their interests that matter the most in these disputes. Children are easily manipulated by a parent who wishes to keep control, and children often want to please both parents but are torn. This psychological trauma inflicted on the children of the British Isles must stop.

Family Court needs better resources, better training, dedicated offices rather than court rooms, and there needs to be a change in the law. British Democracy would introduce the automatic provision of 50/50 co-parenting when a relationship breaks down, however, we recognise this may not work for many, if not most parents, where a more practical co-parenting arrangement must be worked out. We would introduce mandatory mediation for all parents, no matter how amicable the split, where they make an agreement on co-parenting with a Para-Legal of the Family Court which, once signed, becomes a legal contract that both must adhere to. The agreement would have provisions within it to allow for temporary changes to the provisions of the agreement to allow for changes in work, travel, holidays, illness etc, which could all be recorded on the web via an account unique to the agreement number, each parent having unique login details so they may record events which are then communicated to the other parent via an encrypted email.

Serious breaches of the agreement would see the parent hauled before a Judge to explain their behaviour and for the Judge to decide the outcome, this could be a fine, a sanction within the agreement or mandated counselling to enable them to understand that their behaviour is damaging the children, counselling would be the only recourse in the event of attempts to block access ot the other parent, attempts to alienate the parent or behaving in a negative way toward that parent in front of the children. If counselling fails, in extreme cases, then stricter sanctions can be imposed, such a criminal record for child abuse and a community order with supervision by probation services – in the most extreme cases, this may result in a prison sentence.

Within this framework we see no need for CAFCASS, they have largely failed in their mandate and demonstrate consistant and repeated bias and unprofessional reporting. The money saved by disbanding CAFCASS will be put to fund changes to the Family Court system, although it requires significant more public funding overall.

Now we come to the Child Maintenance Service, a wholly reprehensible body within the Department for Work and Pensions. These people have no morals, they are responsible, along with the family court/CAFCASS fiascos, for hundreds of suicides annually. They make mistake after mistake, they fail to correct mistakes, the messaging service is ridiculous, there staff are rude and they hound people with threats of prosecution based purely on the word of another parent.

Children need financial support, and it is right that this should come from the parents, but in ost cases, once the CMS is involved, they make calculations that are wholly unrealistic, impracticable and drive people into bankruptcy, depression, crime and suicide – how does that help the children?

The CMS do not take into account the living costs of the paying parent, normally a father, but a percentage are mothers, they have legitimate expenses, but the only thing that CAFCASS takes into account is income tax, not even National Insurance contributions, and they will claim up to 40% of the remaining income, its a disgrace, because the less the non-resident parent sees their children, the more the CMS will demand, which is a financial incentive for the resident parent to block access – it becomes a vicious spiral where a government department actively encourages and excuses psychological child abuse.

The CMS will be disbanded, we will find a better way to retrieve money from non-resident parents to support their children, it is a fine balancing act, but it needs to be done to end the abuse of the children and the suicides caused by Parental Alienation, currently unrecognised by the UK Government – We will not only recognise it, but we will make it a crime.