Ministry of Justice press release – fixxored

 
The MOJ sent me this press release today
A new law taking effect today will reinforce the importance of children having relationships with each parent following family breakdown. Parental involvement is the last part of the Children and Families Act 2014 to be implemented and marks the end of a significant phase of reforms to the Family Justice system.

The change will encourage parents to be more focused on children’s needs following separation and the role they each play in the child’s life. It will require family courts to presume that each parent’s involvement in the child’s life will further their welfare – where it is safe. However the needs of the child will always remain the paramount priority of the courts.

In 2011 the Family Justice Review landmark report found that the family justice system was ‘no system at all’ and that children’s needs were not being met. Since then the Government has made bold reforms so that the needs of children are firmly at the heart of the family justice system from now on.

The reforms include:
• The introduction of the new Family Court in England and Wales with a simpler single system and a network of single application points making it much easier for the public.
• The introduction of a 26 week time limit for care proceedings to reduce further the excessive delays in these cases and give greater certainty to the children involved.
• New child arrangements orders which will encourage parents to focus on the child’s needs rather than what they see as their own ‘rights’.
• Compulsory family mediation information meetings so separating couples must consider alternatives to the harmful and stressful court battles when resolving financial matters and arrangements for children.
• The Government continues to monitor closely the family justice system, and has recently announced a single mediation session for both parties if one of them is already legally aided.

I thought it was in need of a bit of modification, so I have fixed it for them. Here is the new version

The Government held an independent review into Family Justice, which concluded that there was no need for a statutory declaration about ‘equal parental involvement’ – but we ignored that and announced that we’d introduce it, then we got scared off by all the objections, but then we were too scared to admit we were wrong, so we cobbled together some meaningless form of words that achieves nothing and satisfies no one and changes nothing. That new meaningless form of words comes into effect today. You’re welcome!

In 2011 the Family Justice Review landmark report found that the family justice system was ‘no system at all’ and that children’s needs were not being met. Since then the Government has made bold reforms so that the needs of children are firmly at the heart of the family justice system from now on.

The reforms include:

 
Making it so that if there’s an allegation of rape the alleged rapist probably has to cross-examine the alleged victim themselves

Removing legal aid from private law proceedings and hiding behind a “it will happen for cases that deserve it” clause that we secretly brief is never to be used

Having the Children’s Commissioner report that our reforms have had bad consequences for children

Locking the doors to public counters so that nobody can talk to our staff

Using the word “Hub” at every possible opportunity, without ever outlining how these Hubs will be funded or staffed.

Making user-friendly new forms that are utterly unintelligible and take an eternity to fill in

Giving ‘residence’ and ‘contact’ a new name in the mistaken belief that that will make everyone behave reasonably at all times
The introduction of a 26 week time limit for care proceedings to reduce further the excessive delays in these cases and give greater certainty to the children involved (although the Court of Appeal have told everyone that as long as they tick the right box on the new user-friendly form, they can go over the 26 weeks).
Compulsory family mediation information meetings that have a far lower take-up rate than when they were purely voluntary

Introducing Regulations that were beyond the scope and the power of the Lord Chancllor to do so, which were xenophobic in intent and a sop for the right-wing Press / our MPs who were thinking of defecting to UKIP

Did we mention the Hubs?

Yes, I think that’s rather more accurate