Nottingham lawyers welcome improved legal support for families

Reaction to Government announcement on Childhood and Families Task Force.

Family lawyers in Nottingham have welcomed the announcement that the Government is setting up a Childhood and families Task Force to provide a wide range of support for children, parents and grandparents.

Sarah Perkins of Andersons Solicitors in Nottingham says the announcement covered several key areas that could help to improve family life including shared parental leave, extending the right to request working and greater support for disabled children.

"It is particularly encouraging to see that the Task Force will examine ways to provide better protection for children in the event of a family breakdown.

"It is often children who suffer the most as their estranged parents become entrenched in a bitter separation. There is already a review of family law underway which is looking at ways to use mediation between couples as a way of reducing the trauma both for parents and for their children.

"It's encouraging that the Task Force will also look at ways to provide greater contact rights to non-resident parents and for grandparents too.

"As the law stands at the moment, grandparents have no automatic right to have contact with their grandchildren.

"This means they can face a difficult battle if a family breakdown means they are denied access by a son or daughter-in-law.

"The Task Force will hopefully address this. There is already evidence that the courts are increasingly willing to recognise the valuable role that grandparents can play in their grandchildren's lives.

"In a major case, the Supreme Court recently ruled that a child would be better off living with his grandmother rather than be returned to his biological father. In another separate case, a grandmother won the right to be paid the full rate as her granddaughter's carer.

"These were important landmarks in recognising the role of grandparents and hopefully this new Task Force will improve the situation further, to the benefit of children, parents and grandparents.

For more information on this or any aspect of family law please contact Sarah Perkins on 0115 947 0641.