1) An important meeting has taken place: between our Chair of Trustees and Sam Morfey, CEO and Lord Younger. Also involved is Prof Christine Davies of Royal Holloway. Who has helped us before.
There will be more, and we have been invited to join working parties.
Younger is junior minister, officially ‘Parliamentary Secretary of State’ in the Department of Work and Pensions. This deals with the social security/benefits system. His brief includes Child Maintenance, the Social Security Advisory Committee (to which we make representations), Maternity benefits and ‘parental conflict’. The precise remit of the last is somewhat unclear!
Younger’s commitment to look at child maintenance calculations is most welcome. The organisation of parenting time must be affordable. Sadly, – as we do not need to tell you – this can be a problem particularly at lower incomes and if there is much travel involved.
There are longer term issues too. Particularly over maternity pay and leave. Our stance has been this. There should be paternity leave for when mother and baby both need support. There should be maternity pay and leave for the time dictated by biology, but no longer. Thereafter there should be unisex ‘baby care leave’ and benefits.
Younger gave warm praise for our work. So, hopes he will vector other contacts in Government!
2) A meeting has been promised with Sir Robert McFarlane, President of the Family Division of the High Court. In less pompous language, boss of the Family Courts. A likely topic is how to make them less adversarial. As a counter to the demands of other lobbies – see elsewhere – that their main agenda should be preventing children being allowed a relationship with alleged domestic abusers.
