Charities call for bill to make contact safe

Children’s and domestic violence charities called today
for the Children and Adoption Bill to be amended to ensure child
contact visits are safe, as the legislation received its second
reading.

Barnardo’s, NCH and Women’s Aid warned that the
bill’s provisions to enforce contact would not give the
courts powers to assess the risks of contact to both children and
resident parents.

They said the bill assumed that women were denying non-resident
fathers contact unreasonably rather than out of concern for the
safety of their children or themselves.

They called on the government to include a mandatory risk
assessment checklist and measures to ensure contact is safe in the
bill.