Memorandum submitted by Parentline Plus
PARENTLINE PLUS
1. Parentline Plus is a national charity
that works for, and with, parents. We are the biggest independent
provider of parenting support in the country. We encourage parents
to see that asking for help is a sign of strength, and work with
them to offer practical solutions and to suggest ways to manage
their particular situations and difficulties. We deliver this
support through an innovative range of free, flexible, responsive
services—shaped by parents for parents. Our flagship service
is our free, confidential line for parents—Parentline. Our
integrated face-to-face services are delivered in our area offices
located in: London, Essex, East Midlands, North East, North West,
Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol and North Somerset, Hampshire
and Hertfordshire.
2. We work with many parents affected by
divorce and separation, and are all too aware of the range of
emotional difficulties faced by these families. We answered over
111,000 calls from parents to our free and confidential line for
parents—Parentline—in 2005-06, of which:
— 46% came from lone parents.
— Almost 16.000 calls concerned the
impact of divorce and separation on children.
— Over 13,000 calls concerned the impact
of divorce and separation on adults in the family, including almost
6,000 that specifically referred to financial difficulties.
Questions about divorce and separation remain
the most frequently asked on our message boards and via our website
question and answer service. Our leaflets and publications to
support parents during divorce and separation as well as adjusting
to new family arrangements are consistently among the most requested
and over 5,000 were distributed in 2005-06.
3. Our expertise is in enabling parents
to put the needs of their children first, but not in providing
detailed advice on money post-separation. We signpost and refer
to a range of more specialist organisations who provide this advice,
including One Parent Families and the Children's Legal Centre.
4. This paper is informed by the issues
raised by parents who contact Parentline Plus concerned about
issues related to child maintenance and divorce or separation.
We also consult parents on a regular basis via focus groups, mailings
and website surveys. Our most recent survey related to divorce
and separation explored the experiences of non-resident fathers
and was carried out in spring 2006. We have included quotations
(in italics) from the fathers who responded to this survey
to illustrate points made in this submission.
5. We welcome the emphasis, within the White
Paper, on helping parents to make their own agreements for contact
and financial arrangements. However, we support the concerns made
by the Child Poverty Action Group regarding the capacity of existing
services to meet potential need as well as the importance of monitoring
private arrangements to ensure that children's interests are not
compromised by tensions between their parents. [70]The
research cited on page 37 of the White Paper identifies that parents
prefer to "discuss their circumstances with someone neutral"[71]
such as our telephone, web based and face-to-face services. In
the past, CSA staff have worked with parents who are extremely
distressed and/or emotional and/or angry.
6. Not only does this require special call-handling
skills, but it also requires enabling CSA staff to signpost parents
to other sources of help and support. Several years ago, One Parent
Families together with Parentline Plus undertook training of all
CSA front line staff and we still supply a signposting directory
to the CSA. This needs to be reviewed, revived and built into
induction training for all staff at the new Child Maintenance
and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC).
7. However, there are also huge training
implications for staff within the voluntary sector so that they
are fully informed of the changes as they are implemented. The
voluntary sector will need access to the same type of specialist
information that C-MEC will hold. This provides an opportunity
to develop interactive web based services that parents can access
free of charge at a time and place to suit them. The voluntary
and statutory sectors will clearly have to develop a true partnership
approach to providing advice and support to parents as they go
through divorce and separation.
"Fathers are usually desperate for support
following separation from their families. They do not network
like mothers and often find themselves totally bereft and suicidal
in some cases. I have spent £50,000 on contact proceedings
during the past 18 months and this can't be right. They are still
going on and there seems to be no end in sight. My conclusion
is that the effect of divorce on children is much, much worse
than anyone cares to admit. Possibly in the case of a high conflict
marriage children may benefit from divorce but nothing less."
(Response to web survey April 2006)
8. The funding arrangements for the statutory
and voluntary sectors remain unclear. Within the White Paper there
is a welcome recognition of the valuable role of the voluntary
sector, and Parentline Plus in particular, but without clarifying
how capacity will be built to support parents effectively. We
anticipate a massive increase in parental anxiety as the changes
are introduced. On receipt of adequate funding, our existing services,
apart from Parentline which is fully funded by the Department
for Education and Skills, could be developed and scaled up to
ensure that free independent advice and emotional support is available
to parents while they make the necessary arrangements to ensure
their children's well-being and security. This funding must also
cover intensive training of our staff and volunteers to meet and
reflect changes to the law and rights. We would also want to develop
our established and accredited training for professionals on signposting
based on previous work with the CSA.
"... But to be honest, my concern is
not about educating the father (or any parent without care), but
rather educating the parent with care, educating the schools and
GPs and other professionals, so they can understand how best to
create and maintain a non-confrontational relationship with both
parents, for the betterment of the child(ren) in question."
(Response to web survey April 2006)
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations were submitted
to Lord Hunt in the autumn and have been drawn up as a result
of all of Parentline Plus' work with parents whose children are
affected by divorce and separation. We recommend that in order
to maximise the chances of parents reaching agreement, more could
be done by the DfES to provide information and signposting. Specifically,
we make three suggestions:
1. The DfES has produced a guide for separating
parents, which is available online. We suggest that there should
intensive awareness raising via a media campaign and work with
professionals to promote the existence of this guide directly
to parents, and to explore ways that the C-MEC might be able to
make it available to its clients.
2. We understand that the DfES, working through
CAFCASS, will be developing and rolling out local services and
networks for separating parents. It will be really important to
ensure that these connect with the C-MEC.
3. Thirdly, the DfES is exploring enhanced
helpline provision via "Parents Direct". In the meantime,
Parentline Plus continues to increase the use of Parentline by
fathers and continues to provide help and support to parents and
extended family members about post separation and post divorce
parenting. As such a proven telephone based service already exists,
it would be unwise to add yet another helpline to cater for parents
facing divorce and separation. Parentline Plus is funded to support
parents contacting the DfES as part of the formal complaints system
open to parents concerned about bullying, and we would suggest
this issue-based speciality—and the promise of the same—be
used to make Parentline the first port of call for parents. The
initial toplines of a recent external evaluation of Parentline
demonstrated that 83% of parents felt calls were helpful; 94%
were very positive about Parentline listening skills and more
than 80% got through to Parentline on their first attempt.
"My ex wife does a very good job of raising
the children (on her own). Although she does not directly consult
me on any major issues, the children speak to me regularly about
what is happening in their world—knowing that they can turn
to me (which they frequently do) when they feel they can't talk
to mum. Sometimes it's almost as if I'm a big brother or favourite
uncle rather than dad, but I have learnt not to judge them and
to talk through their options rather than dictate what they should
do." (Response to web survey April 2006)
January 2007
70 http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/briefings_policy/CPAG_response_to_Government_consultation_on_Henshaw_review_of_
child_support.pdf Back
71
Department of Work and Pensions 2006, A New System of Child
Maintenance London: DWP. Back
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