No to contact ban for violent parents

Children can have positive relationships with non-resident parents who have committed domestic violence, a conference heard this week.

But violent parents had to accept and regret the impact of their actions for contact to be viable, said Danya Glaser, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, at the court guardians’ body Nagalro’s conference.

She also said the courts needed to do more to verify whether domestic violence had taken place. Independent child care consultant Sally Wassell said research suggested many children enjoyed contact with non-resident fathers “even where there has been domestic violence”.