Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I speak to Amendment No. 22. I thank the Minister for his reply in Committee. However, we believe that delay is the enemy of resolving many of these problems. This amendment would require the court to consider the time by which a contact activity can be provided, and is likely to be completed, before making a direction, in order to allow sufficient time to work with the parent or family concerned, but to avoid such directions in themselves causing delay if the facility is not available. The amendment also highlights the issue of the need for adequate resources for the provision of a framework or range of contact activity services across the country in order that children and their families may benefit from them. As I said in Committee, there is an acknowledged need for better facilitation of contact orders, and this amendment was suggested by the Law Society. However, we are concerned that there should be adequate resources for the provision of contact services across the country, in order that children and their families may benefit from them in a timely manner with less need for recourse to more lengthy or further court proceedings. The range of options to assist the implementation of an order needs to be sufficiently flexible to address the problem, and the options themselves need to be available. For example, there is no point directing a parent to undertake a parenting programme designed to address intractable contact disputes if the facility is not available locally and is not accessible. In order to avoid directions in themselves causing delay, we therefore suggest that the court should be required to consider the time by which this time can be provided, and whether it can be provided over the likely appropriate period of time in respect of the family concerned. There is already continuing concern among practitioners on the ground about the capacity of existing resources in some areas. For example, I believe that in some courts CAFCASS is not yet in a position to provide the additional facilitation and support services to fulfil their intended changing role in resolution, or supervised contact centre services may be unavailable. I believe that only one contact centre is available in Wales. In Committee, the Minister stated that he thought that the amendment,"““would impose an unnecessary burden on the courts and the providers to specify a precise time period over which the contact activity is to be provided””." He went on to say that this would run the risk of,"““reducing the flexibility that the Bill provides””.—[Official Report, 12/10/05; col. GC 95-6.]" I argue the opposite. It will reduce flexibility and increase the burden only if the resources are not there. If they are not there in adequate measure, the principle of contact activities within this Bill will be empty, as they will not be able to be used in a timely and efficient manner.