Families Need Fathers (“FNF”), a charity dedicated to supporting loving and safe relationships between children and families post separation throughout England and Wales, has announced the appointment of Mr Sam Morfey as its new Chief Executive Officer. Sam has been a member of FNF for 17years, the branch secretary of the Exeter Support Group and most recently a Trustee and Board Member of the charity. 

Link for consultation's document found here: LINK

Your charity put in a reply to this, as it always does on government consultations. The response can be read here:   LINK

The Government is proposing to modestly raise the income levels below which court fees in civil actions are reduced or not payable at all. Useful and welcome within their limits. A lot of the proposals are detailed and technical to do with the calculations of income and capital.  

The main thrust of our comments, which we hope will get the attention of at least the Junior Minister, Mike Freer MP, are to do with the context of which this is a detail. He mentioned, in his foreword to the paper the need for Justice to be accessible. So, we have picked up on that. Particularly drawing attention to how family law, which is about the futures of children, differs from other ’private’ ‘civil’ disputes between citizens.  There needs to be ‘joined-up thinking’ across the board to improve things for the children affected by separation and divorce.  

This is a taster for the more important consultation, about promoting mediation as an alternative to litigation. We will welcome non-adversarial proceedings. However, we are sceptical about whether the proposals -of Dominic Raab who is no longer in charge – will make the difference that he (and ourselves) would like to see. 

Get ready to move those legs!

We are raising awareness of what we do to support better outcomes for separated parents.

8th July 2023, 11am at Exeter Cathedral: meet at the steps in front.

The 5-mile route takes us from Exeter’s Cathedral Green through Exeter to Southernhay gardens, then on to the Crown and County Court, making our way along the river to Double Locks and then finishing at the Mill on the Exe and is perfect for any walkers to simply enjoy a leisurely walk by the River Exe with friends.

For details: Walk for Families Need Fathers (Exeter & Cornwall)

Annual conference and AGM 

Reminder to reserve the date.  

Saturday 04 November. Manchester University, one stop or medium walk from Piccadilly station. More details to follow. Sue Whitcombe, our friendly expert on what is now called alienating behaviours has agreed to speak. Others to be confirmed. 

Boost to Government Child Care Payment

The Department of Work and Pensions has revealed that Universal Credit’s maximum childcare payments will rise nearly 50% this month up to 1,630 pounds per month for two children. Find out more here. The governments stated aim is to get parents back to work. Given that childcare costs have risen dramatically, and many single parents are expected to add extra funds to the government-assisted places, one wonders if work is the first thought on hard pressed parents' minds. 

Judges discuss the success of the Pathfinder Courts in Dorset and North Wales :   LINK

HHJ Chris Simmonds Designated Family Judge for Dorset, and HHJ Gaynor Lloyd, Designated Family Judge from North Wales discuss the Law Pathfinder pilots and how they are working. In both districts the normal CAP process has been disabled to allow new procedures that have reduced delay, hearings, and stress apparently. No proposals for family court procedural improvement as yet, but we look forward to change. 

Sergio Martinez, Trustee, reports on a case as follows: 

Another great outcome reached yesterday in court with one  regular attender to our support meetings. ‘Live with’ order and nearly 50/50. Considering he had five years of complex proceedings, in the face of allegations, not being represented, and against a legally aided mother, it was an excellent result for the child. This dad claims that it was mainly thanks to the Central London Branch of FNF. 

Please report more successes. As the underdogs, we cannot expect to win all the time, but can grow stronger.

Lip presents false citations to court after asking Chat GPT

Litigants in person can find themselves in a frantic state as their hearing date gets closer and reach out to any source of information or help in desperation. This case, reported in the Law Gazette serves as a valuable reminder to get advice from somebody you trust before putting pen to paper. The LIP used the Artificial Intelligence chatbot Chat GPT to find research citations to back their argument that turned out to be fictional. More worrying is there have been cases in Columbia and India of Judges using the same software to make rulings. Watch this space for more ideas on how we can protect children in the family court. 

Everyone who has been affected knows the scene. And all those who might be affected need to know.  

Often, the first sign that something is awry is the delivery of a ‘NonMol’, as they are known.  The terms vary, but they usually forbid communication with the other party, usually the mother, going within a range of her home or other places she might be. Sometimes this includes the school the children attend.  Contact with our children is sometimes forbidden too, amongst other things.  

Breaching a Nonmol is a criminal offence which involves immediate arrest. In the worst cases, the mother invites the father to discuss things, he responds, and gets taken into custody.  

Huge thanks to Vincent McGovern.

Central London Branch claims to be one of our best. No-one currently knows how long it has been operating. Probably 35 years. It meets every week. There is no record of one ever being missed. Zoom during lockdown but live meetings recently resumed. Before the pandemic there were about 1,000 attenders a year. Numbers are building up again, there were 12 on the 5th of June. Upstairs room of the Three Kings public house, 7, Clerkenwell Close, near Farringdon tube. Every Monday 20.00-22.00.

For the last 11 years Vincent has been branch chair and the principal meeting host. With his work as McKenzie friend (he does not do it anymore) there must be possibly several hundreds of children re-united with a parent as result. His guidance and support to LIPs was priceless and stellar, as it was his career in child protection. 

He also led lobbying work. The branch, with him and John Baker as main organisers, run workshops on Parental Alienation, False Allegations, how to cope personally with exclusion, the failings of the family courts and prospect on contact denial as Child Abuse. 

His book ‘The War on Dads and Children: How to fight and win’ (from Amazon) is must-read. His interview with Ann Widdecombe, her site, ‘Heresies’, episode 7, from 19 to 36 minutes had got 56,000 views of a year ago. 

He leaves a strong branch and an infinite sentiment of gratitude and admiration from the CLB committee and the thousands of people he has helped in his 15 years of involvement with FNF.

Our warm thanks and best wishes for him personally and for his carrying on in a different capacity. As he will.