COURTS are not helping the best interests of children when family breakdowns occur, claims West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox ? he is asking the Government for a re-examination of the family justice system. Mr Cox has called on the Government to do more to ensure children are able to form relationships with both of their parents and their extended families. Speaking after a meeting at Westminster with trustees of the Devon-based National Society for Children and Family Contact and Shadow Children?s Minister Tim Loughton, Mr Cox said wherever possible children needed to spend time with their mother and their father as well as grandparents and aunts and uncles. ?We need to review the working of the family court so that more protection is given to those who suffer abuse,? he said. ?However, there is clearly a need to re-examine the manner in which the family justice system treats fathers in the context of family breakdowns. ?There ought to be a presumption that both parents should be as involved in a child?s development as possible, unless either parent?s behaviour has obviously disqualified them from further contact.? The MP said in many cases children were being delayed or denied access to both their parents and to their extended family.
