Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Howe, for putting the case so eloquently for his amendment. As Anthony Douglas, the chief executive of the Child and Family Court Advisory Support Service, has said to me, 30 to 50 per cent of these cases are fairly straightforward, and the rest are complex cases verging on public law. As I said before, there is a balance to be struck between the hell of a child not having reasonable contact, so he cannot be read a bedtime story by his father, and the other hell of him or her being caught in a continual conflict between warring parents. It is a difficult balance to get right. Several of your Lordships have referred to the HMICA report. In chapter 3, regarding domestic violence, it says:"““Practitioners and managers told Inspectors that, whilst they may not always agree with it, private law practice is driven by what is known as ‘the presumption of contact’ . . . Inspectors were told by practitioners that ‘the presumption of contact is so strong. It makes it difficult to challenge and we don’t give adequate attention to the continuing impact of the abuse on the child’””." This is a report on domestic violence, but it findings are relevant to a wider group of families in these proceedings. My assessment of the report is that it underlines that CAFCASS, as the noble Earl has said, is faulty and struggling in several ways. I was glad that the chief executive, Anthony Douglas, acknowledged the strength of the report in this chapter, and that there is a lot of work to be done at CAFCASS. There is such a strong presumption of contact that not only the safety of children but also their welfare is being put to one side, in a drive to get contact between parents as far as possible. There is a balance to be struck but the report suggests that the balance is not being struck and that it is going too much in one direction. I am concerned that the amendment, with its laudable aims, would push the balance too far in the wrong direction at the current time and in the current context. I look forward to the Minister’s response to the amendment.