And the answer is... yes - the Family Justice Review Panel has recommended in its final report the abolition of the terms contact and residence in favour of "child arrangements orders". Mind you reading and hearing some of the reaction to the review you would think we were still pre 1990s with the old language of custody and access. It is amazing how slowly society's understanding changes and I wonder how long it will take for the idea of "child arrangements orders" to enter the social consciousness and into everyday language.
I have already written about how I think the media has overreacted to the decision not to include in the legislation a presumption of shared parenting or a statement about meaningful relationship with both parents. Meanwhile many of the recommendations have been underreported or ignored including this important proposal to significantly amend the Children Act to focus on...
Read the full article here.