Children and Adoption Bill

I have heard mention of projects in other countries, but have not come across the full, long-term evaluation of them. I feel that, logically—perhaps my background as a school teacher showed me this—we cannot make people, or children, do something that they do not want to do. On the family resolutions pilot project, I know that there was general disappointment about the number of cases that were referred to it. However, it was a starting point. I regret that we cannot discuss the evaluation of that project, as we were not aware that it was put on the website today. I look forward to the Minister telling us a bit about it later. Returning to mediation, it would help if the court application triggered compulsory attendance at the preliminary meeting. At that introductory session—the couple in question might choose to meet the mediator separately—the options for mediation could be outlined, including offers of other parenting help. That information could be given to the parents face to face, which, I suspect, would be the most efficient way of dealing with some of these difficult cases. The first meeting must be free; otherwise, cost could prove a barrier. Of course, there is the question of what happens if one partner is on legal aid and the other is not. If both are not on legal aid, that could present difficulties. I take on board entirely the point about risk assessment before mediation and the desire to intervene as early as possible. Here, we need to strike a balance. Perhaps that first meeting could be held even before going to court. I realise that that would present difficulties, but the sooner the conciliation process begins, the better. The whole package—mediation, counselling, parenting classes, contact activities—is important, but we need to consider the money and skills needed to resource such activities. That is particularly true of the domestic violence programmes. It is difficult to know how big the problem is. Contact is a high-profile issue and we all know of people who feel aggrieved. Indeed, we probably all have friends who have told us how big a problem this is. Such people appear to have genuine grievances and we cannot just brush them aside and say, ““We are doing all these other things—it’s going to be all right.”” We need to address the question of contact and bear in mind the United Nations convention on the rights of the child. A child has the right to direct and regular contact with both parents, unless it is contrary to the child’s best interest. It is generally acknowledged to be in the child’s best interest to sustain a full relationship with both parents but, obviously, in some cases it is not—for instance, if there is a risk of harm. Indeed, relationships involving conflict can be immensely mentally damaging for the child caught in the middle. We should not be too prescriptive—I would hate to go down the 50:50 route and argue that that is a fair starting point—but we should go a bit further than we currently do. As we have heard, various documents acknowledge the presumption of joint contact.