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"Family is for life," says minister
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The Government has today made public two documents which will be issued by the Courts Service to the parties to divorce or judicial separation.
The documents are titled Parenting Plans: A Guide for Separating Parents and Model Parenting Contact and Residence Plans.
The first document is a Guide to the new Children?s Act together with a draft agreement reminding parents about all the areas they need to agree upon in order to prevent disputes about children in the future.
The second document deals specifically with the issue of residence (i.e. with who will the child live) and contact (i.e. when will the child have contact with the non-residence parent). This document is broken down into key periods in the development of a child (e.g. birth to twelve months and twelve to twenty four months and so on) with an explanation of how children develop during that period.
After that explanation there are suggested residence and contact plans in the form of weekly or monthly schedules based on the way a child of that age is expected to develop and react. There are no hard and fast rules and the decision is for parents but this will hopefully help them reach an agreement over these issues in light of good advice and information.
Daniel Feetham the Minister for Justice said ?The Government is conscious that divorce and separation are very stressful and in their aftermath many parents may feel disorientated. Access to good information and advice is important to all stages of relationship breakdown.
"Well-informed parents are better placed to make soundly-based decisions in the interests of their children and themselves. The Government is keen to ensure that parents have access to sources of advice and information that are sensitive to the needs of people who are experiencing relationship breakdown.
"These should hopefully help parents resolve issues without recourse to the courts and help more people realise that whilst couples divorce or separate, the family is for life and it is important to safeguard family relationships in these situations.?
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