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Campaigners against domestic violence are concerned about plans to help courts enforce parental contact orders - warning that they could place women and children at greater risk, writes Craig Kenny.

Powers to force compulsory parenting classes on parents who breach parental contact orders were unveiled in a new draft bill this week.

The Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill will enable courts to refer parents who default on contact orders to parenting classes or counselling, or force them to do unpaid community work.

Non-resident parents who have been violent could also be subject to compulsory parenting lessons.

Also, where a parent has suffered financial loss because of their ex-partner’s breach of a contact order – for instance on a holiday booking – they will be able to claim compensation.

Enforceable

Ministers hope the new powers will make parental contact orders more enforceable.

‘At present contact orders can be enforced only through contempt of court proceedings, leading to fine or imprisonment,’ said education secretary Ruth Kelly. ‘Courts have quite rightly been reluctant to use these measures because of the potential negative impact on the children involved.’

The government estimates that the new powers will reduce repeated applications for enforcement of contact orders by 60 per cent.

Ministers suggest that children are losing out because they are deprived of contact with their fathers.

‘There are too many cases where the children suffer because they don’t maintain a relationship with their fathers after parental separation,’ said constitutional affairs secretary Lord Falconer. ‘This bill will reduce the number of such cases.’

Domestic violence

But Hilary Saunders, children’s policy officer for the charity Women’s Aid, said there are often good reasons why women refuse to allow children to see their father.

‘Domestic violence is the major reason why women are not complying with contact orders, yet the courts are continuing to grant contact to violent parents,’ she said.

‘Our concern is that most emphasis is being put on processing cases through the courts as soon as possible, and pushing parents into consensual agreements in cases of domestic violence. That puts women and children in danger.’

In its recent study of 29 children killed by a parent under contact arrangements, Women’s Aid found that in five cases, the contact had been ordered by a court. ‘In three of those cases unsupervised contact was granted, either against professional advice or without asking for it, and no court professionals were held accountable’ Saunders added.

Contact centres

However, the group welcomes government plans to expand contact centres - providing supervised contact in domestic violence cases - with an additional £7.5 million over the next two years to site them in extended schools and children’s centres.

Plans for the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) to deliver more in-court conciliation services for separated parents were also outlined last month in the Department for Education and Skills report Parental Separation: Children’s Needs and Parents’ Responsibilities.

Moderate fathers’ groups are broadly supportive of the Government’s aims. ‘In really hard cases it’s obviously better to have a range of measures for improving contact,’ says Jack O’Sullivan, co-founder of the information service Fathers Direct.

‘But the key to the vast majority of cases is effective early intervention so that both parents agree plentiful contact between themselves and work in partnership.’

Trafficking

The draft bill also contains new powers to clamp down on child trafficking via inter-country adoptions. The secretary of state will be able to publish a blacklist of countries whose adoption practices give cause for concern.

Chris Beddoe of the pressure group End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism UK said: ‘I would be concerned if this was a knee-jerk reaction to the tsunami. It has to go with a broader basket of measures looking at what’s happening at airports and ports.’

Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/childrensneeds/

Women’s Aid research at: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/policy&consultations/briefings/children/childhomicides_execsumm.htm