Written evidence from Miss Haidie Jago (CFA0026)

HOUSE OF LORDS CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ACT 2014 SELECT COMMITTEE INQURY

Please find below my submission for evidence, I cannot only comment upon relevant questions and therefore have submitted these only.

1.              If there were to be a Children and Families Act 2022, what should it include and what might be the barriers to implementation?

-To provide automatically legal aid to any residing parent for civil contact applications from the ‘proven’ abuser.

-To provide gatekeeping at application stage, with minimum criteria being met i.e applying parent is financially supporting their children, they are abiding to terms of any current court order, before their further application is accepted by the FJS.

Ensuring the application is fit for purpose and has a credible reason for the matter to be listed.

2.              Have the reforms to the family justice system succeeded in making the system faster, simpler, and less adversarial? How has the Act interacted with other reforms to the family justice system, for example the changes to legal aid?

I can never understand why, as a single working mother with assets in my home have, I been unable to access legal aid. My abuser has a criminal conviction for the children involved he seeks to gain access to. One’s whom he did not financially provide for at the time of applying to the courts or commitment to the court ordered contact before his application came before myself and the courts.

How as an abiding taxpayer, a lone parent, a proven victim of abuse should it be seen as appropriate for me to sell the home our children reside in to access legal support to defend another application for contact for contact from their convicted abuser?

Who has the means to and has been represented throughout? The stress and anxiety of cross examining my own abuser for 2 days to ‘prove’ the presumption incorrect has been more damaging than the abuse itself. No wonder so many parents remain in abusive relationships. Because the hell set to dictate their lives thereafter is equally as damaging.

3 years it has taken to be free of further abuse. Prior to these 1.5 years, when my children are only themselves 8&9 they have effectively spent more than half of their lives being party to the constant change of contact that in itself has proven to be more damaging and abusive whilst court’s work on a presumption of contact. 

The FJS is far from simpler, or less adversarial. Even the most competent of person’s have no idea of what is expected from them at each hearing, let alone what they should expect from the courts/cafcass/social services. Yet many parents are left to defend these applications to court completely unaided. There is so many simple things that could assist many parents to LIP effectively and save the FJS thousands of taxpayers money.

3.              How has the presumption of the involvement of both parents in the life of the child after family separation affected proceedings?

If parents cannot prove they have been financially supporting their child to the best of their means, why is it that they should have this ‘presumed’ right to contact? Why presume they are ever going to be a responsible, positive influence in a child’s life, when they will not even engage in the least complex level of responsibility? How can a parent have automatic PR whilst refusing to support the child financially??

It should not be ‘presumed’. To presume is a naivety of the law. The reason parent’s end up in costly (financial and emotional) legal disputes over child contact is because something is fundamentally wrong and therefore no presumptions can be made at this point.

This presumption has led to many families including my own spending years and years in the judicial system, levying stress, anxiety, and absenteeism of the primary carer (whilst being lost in the responsibility to ‘prove’ unworthiness of a parent to a court.) How can this be correct? To saddle the already oppressed, overworked, under financed single parent to ‘prove’ the other parents’ unworthiness. No presumptions are made on an abusive parent to ‘prove’ their worthiness to make such applications to court for contact, prior to the other parent receiving a summons demanding contact.

This presumption leads to multiple applications from known abusers, each time being bolstered by PR and presumptions allowing them a ‘right’ to continue to apply, continue to abuse the often-abused parent, regardless of past criminal convictions or civil findings.

4.              Does the Children’s Commissioner have the correct remit and powers? Are the correct accountability structures in place to ensure they discharge their duties effectively?

The fact this commissioner is not even on my radar (I now volunteer to assist others in FJS proceedings who have been past victims of abuse and have had no discussion’s or heard anyone having any contact/involvement) tells me that they are an unknown entity to many who may benefit from their position. Yet it’s unknown?

April 2022