Promoting and Enforcing Contact
On 8 December 2008 the Children and Adoption Act 2006 (Commencement No 3) Order 2008 came into force. It contains various provisions intended to give Courts new powers to promote contact and enforce contact Orders made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989
The underlying aim of the new legislation is to encourage compliance with contact orders and to enforce those orders where there is no voluntary compliance. It gives courts powers to order ‘contact activities’ where parents are repeatedly unable to agree contact arrangements themselves.
To achieve these ends the Act has added two new important concepts to the powers of the Court – a Contact Activities Direction or Condition and an Enforcement Order.
The primary aim of these provisions is to encourage and educate parents in order to facilitate contact rather than to penalise parents for non-compliance.
A Court now has power to direct a party to take part in an activity which may promote contact. In the event that a Court does not make a contact order at a hearing, it may still make a contact activity direction. If a contact Order is made the Court is empowered to make participation in such an activity a condition of contact.
An appropriate contact activity would be a programme, class and counselling or guidance sessions that may assist with establishing maintaining or improving contact with a child. Other possible contact activities are programmes designed to address a person’s violent behaviour in order to facilitate contact, and information sessions about arrangements for contact including sessions on mediation. However a contact activity direction cannot be used to require medication or medical or psychiatric treatment.
Contact activity directions apply not only to the child but to the individual who is the subject of the direction or condition. Such an order cannot be directed to a child unless the individual is the parent of the child concerned in the application
The Court must ensure before it makes the contact activity direction or condition that the activity is appropriate in the circumstances of the case; that the provider of the activity concerned is suitable to provide and; and that the activity is available in a place which it is reasonable to expect the person in question to travel.
The Court must specify the activity and the person providing the activity
The Court’s powers in cases involving a breach of a contact order are increased by adding a power to make an enforcement order imposing an unpaid work requirement and/or a power to order one person to pay compensation to another for financial loss caused by the breach. These powers are in addition to the Court’s powers as to contempt and the Court’s ability to alter the residence and contact arrangements concerning a child
Family law group Resolution have warned that these new legal powers to help courts maintain contact between separated parents and their children are unlikely to help those going through family breakdown without a properly funded national network of contact support services,
Fathers’ groups and Judges have often complained at the lack of effective powers available to the courts to deal with parents who block contact without good reason. The new Act will enable Judges to order that parents attend ‘contact activities’ such as a meeting to discuss the possible benefits of mediation, or a parenting information group workshop or a domestic abuse prevention programme.
Chris Goulden, Chair of Resolution’s Children Committee said: “The principles behind these new powers are laudable but they are unlikely to bring about any meaningful improvement unless the new services are up and running, properly funded and readily available for the Courts to refer families to.
“At the present moment there is a disturbing lack of clarity as to what activities will be available, where, when and who will pay for them.”
Whilst the cost of attending some contact activities looks set to be covered for those on legal aid, other families on low incomes will have to foot the bill themselves and pay fees which could range from £200 - £2500, unless they can prove that payment would cause them financial hardship. People on working tax credits or disability benefits are often not eligible for legal aid and these costs would come at a time when families are already having to make significant financial adjustments as a result of the family break-up.
“It is vital that issues around contact are resolved as speedily as possible. The introduction of ‘means testing’ adds a layer of bureaucracy and delay to a process which already takes too long,” said Chris Goulden.
“Access to help and advice for parents struggling to handle the impact of family breakdown must not become another post-code lottery.”
