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Dyllan Eagles and his supervisor Dr Ben Hine from the University of West London are recruiting participants for their research project on the Effect of COVID-19 National Lockdown on Non-Resident Father's Parent-Child Relationships.
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Please save the date! On Saturday 19th February 2022 we will be holding an online Annual General (AGM). The AGM will be available for signed-up FNF Members to attend. The workshop will be open to everyone who registers to attend and will cover relevant issues to achieving the best shared parenting outcomes for your children. Further details will be communicated at a later date.
If you are not a Member, but would wish to attend the AGM and hear of our progress and plans please consider joining here. It only costs £39 a year (£35 for renewals) or as little as £5 for a month and £4 for monthly renewals.
If your membership has lapsed, please consider re-joining by logging in using your current details and then renew your membership.
7th December 2021
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DWP are consulting on ‘Child Maintenance: modernising and improving our service’. The deadline for this is this Friday 6th August 2021.
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Seasonal message from Michelle Cook - Director of Operations
The last 6 months have passed by rapidly as I gain more insight into our structures, services and the priorities of our Members and Service Users. We’re a small organisation, but collectively we have a mighty determination. I’m endlessly impressed with what FNF achieves within limited means. Our charity has grown organically through hands on experience resulting in a very rich & detailed level of understanding and FNF are now at a peak of knowledge within our sector. Our growth is inevitable.
We aim to put our full effort into increasing our funding over the next 2 years, to increase the reach of FNF services and become more defined as leaders within the field. We’re working away in the background to streamline our systems and services and I’m confident that we’re very well placed to grow and develop noticeably in 2022.
It must be said that this is only possible as a result of the unwavering support of our remarkably dedicated volunteers and the generosity of our supporters & patrons. We look forward to continuing to support anyone who needs us in the new year, and we hope that everyone involved will contribute in any way they can to helping the charity thrive.
What we do as a service is essential and I’m really honored to be a part of this growth. I thank you wholeheartedly for being a part of FNF.
Michelle
Seasonal message from Michael Lewkowicz - Director of Communications
It has been very helpful to have Michelle join us and contribute with her wealth of experience in governance and operations!
As Michelle says, there will be a real focus next year on growing our income so that we can provide more and better services and campaigns. Even with limited resources, with the support of Members, we are making a real difference, often against the odds. During this year we have re-launched our website and new articles are being added to this every month. Parliamentary briefings, such as the one published in December 2021 on Child Maintenance are not only referring MPs to FNF, but are covering agenda items that we have set such as the unaffordable nature of the assessments made. Several FNF Members have been involved in supporting Cafcass consultations on complaints, on their Learning and Improvement Board and on their Family Forum. The National Audit Office sought our views on the value for money of Child Maintenance. More recently we have been invited to contribute to a review of how the Child Maintenance Service deals and should deal with cases involving allegations or findings of domestic abuse. In January we will be publishing a report on these and many other activities over the last year or so and setting out our priorities going forward. We will also be providing further information on how you can assist in campaigns we will be running.
Both personally and on behalf of our Trustees I would like to your support, without which we would not be here.
We wish you a great Christmas and New Year. Our thoughts are especially with the many children and parents who will not be able to spend this festive time together.
Michael
24th December 2021
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Cafcass are carrying out a review of the way they deliver their information, and support to parents, in particular the Separated Parent Information Programmes (SPIPs).
To assist with this they have prepared a survey that should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. The closing date is 30th December 2021.
We have provided feedback to Cafcass on their proposal already.
In broad terms, SPIPs are good and have some good content. Cafcass recommend these in the course of family court proceedings and they are then free. However, this rarely happens until well into court proceedings by which time conflict tends to escalate and it is simply too late. In this respect, the proposal to offer SPIP education for parents BEFORE a first hearing seems like a positive step, so long as this does not delay the date of a first hearing - time is the enemy of children and their non-resident parent! Indeed, helping parents to understand the harm to children of conflict, delay and inappropriate withholding of contact seems like a good thing not just before court, but even before mediation. If progress is made between an application being made and the first hearing, the hearing can always be cancelled or used to rubber stamp any agreement reached.
Please complete the survey, based on your own experience and views.
Other points you may wish to consider are:
The link to the survey can be found here.
You can read our former article on SPIPs here and on Early Intervention Pathways here.
7th December 2021
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