Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley: the message that we send to parents is of huge importance, and that message will not get through if it is buried in case law. I added my name to Amendment No. 1 because I believe the principle that, wherever possible and safe, both parents should continue to be as fully and equally involved as possible in the parenting of their child. The object that we all want to achieve—in Grand Committee there was huge agreement about the outcomes that we wanted, although there was significant disagreement on the means whereby those outcomes were to be achieved—is that a child’s family life and his trusting and loving relationship with his parents should be as little disrupted as possible. As we all know, that is most likely to happen if future parenting arrangements are worked out, where possible, amicably between the parents. In order to achieve that, not only do the courts need to be clear on what they think and what they mean, but separating parents also need to be clear about what the courts mean and what they are likely to do. I have one reservation on Amendment No. 1—the words ““the presumption””. I should like to be assured that that presumption does not in any way intrude upon the paramountcy of the welfare of the child as set out in Section 1 of the Children Act 1989. In that context, I should like to quote from the Solicitors’ Family Law Association, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, referred, because I think that it is extremely relevant. In a report dated June 2004 entitled Practical Steps to Co-Parenting, it states:"““The Association was in favour of a legal presumption of contact for both parents, but with the proviso that the child’s best interests should remain the paramount consideration in any dispute:""‘A presumption, enshrined in law, that children should have an on-going relationship with both parents unless this would not be in their best interests. This should make it crystal clear that a child’s relationship with a parent is not dependent on the wishes of the other parent. The child’s best interests should remain the paramount consideration in any dispute. This principle is fundamental and should not be diluted by pressures to deliver rights for either parent’ ””." That is all that I need to say on Amendment No. 1.