Gingerbread Group for Single Parents releases research into Child Contact issues

Gingerbread, the support group for one parent families in the UK, has released research done in conjunction with Oxford University’s Centre for Family Law and Policy, surveying 559 parents about child contact arrangements. The survey, “Problematic contact after separation and divorce?” focused on direct contact where children met with their non residential parent and ignored indirect contact such as phone calls, emails and letters. The key finding of the survey was that 71% of resident parents said their children had direct contact with the non residential parent. Where children had overnight stays on a weekly basis, both residential and non residential parents were happiest with contact arrangements. Most contact arrangements of the 559 parents surveyed did include overnight stays and those who included overnight stays on a weekly basis, were more likely to have holiday contact. Other findings include:- • An unexpectedly high proportion of parents reported that they shared care with 12% of all those responding to the survey saying they had shared care arrangements. • Of resident parents who reported no contact, 63% said there had been no contact since the relationship ended. Most residential parents (69%), where there was no contact, were comfortable with the lack of contact. • Contact arrangements are rarely fixed and frequently change over time. • The majority of non resident parents are more dissatisfied with contact than residential parents. Reasons for stopping contact were mostly around the other parent’s inflexibility, unreliability or lack of commitment and this applied to both residential and non residential parents. Other factors in stopping contact included bad feeling and concerns about the children’s welfare. Disputes over child support payments were common but less likely to impact on contact. Non residential parents felt that the residential parent’s reluctance for contact was a factor in stopping contact. Those parents reporting concerns about children’s welfare cited alcohol abuse (46%), drug abuse (24%), mental illness (14%) and child abuse (5%). However, in these cases, 61% of parents with child welfare concerns still had overnight contact arrangements. Other concerns included other parent saying negative things (12%), lack of routine (10%), not looking after the child properly (9%), child mixes with unsuitable people (4%), other parent is too harsh with the child (2%). “Problematic contact after separation and divorce?” highlights that after divorce or separation, most parents do want contact to take place. Gingerbread is calling for more funding of contact centres so children can continue to see parents in safety where there are welfare concerns, more support for parents who find it difficult to satisfactorily arrange contact and measures to encourage more separated parents to make contact arrangements. Family Solicitors at Lawson-West are also members of Resolution who have launched a “Parenting after Parting” initiative to support parents help their children through separation or divorce. If you are concerned about child contact issues or need to make child contact arrangements, please contact Alistair Dobson on 01858 445480 or James Haworth on 0116 212 1080 for a free initial consultation now.