Shared Parenting: A Presumptuous Proposition

Researching Reform

There has been some very interesting debate on Researching Reform recently on the presumption of shared parenting but we’d like to extend the debate and take a look at the possible implications of such a presumption and ask whether this legal remedy is really a cure, or a likely cause of future harm to the welfare of children experiencing family breakdown in England.

The family justice system is often described as a blunt instrument by professionals who work in it because the family courts offer very little by way of truly tailored outcomes, restricted by process, conflicts of interest, culture and whether we like it or not, wildly fluctuating levels of competence in every sector of the system. Ensuring that families get the best possible outcome is fraught with constraints and results in both mothers and fathers feeling let down. And it is the children who suffer the most as…

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