22nd October 2025
Right to Equality welcomes today’s announcement by the Government that it will repeal the legislative presumption of parental involvement that for too long has put children and victims at risk.
After launching our campaign in 2023, Right to Equality published a report in 2024 entitled “Ending the Presumption of Contact in Family Courts,” which outlined the need to repeal this harmful part of the Children’s Act and implement broader reforms to improve safety in private family law proceedings.
This decision represents a long-overdue reset of the family justice system. It makes clear that a child’s welfare and safety must always come first, and must never be superseded by the perceived rights of non-resident parents.
Dr Charlotte Proudman’s book ‘He Said, She Said: Truth, Trauma, and the Struggle for Justice in Family Court’ has powerfully exposed how victims and children are failed each day in family courts throughout England and Wales.
“This is a victory for children’s rights, for survivors, and for justice,” says Dr Charlotte Proudman, barrister and Co-Director of Right to Equality. “I’ve represented rape victims who have been forced by family courts to take their child to spend regular time with their rapist, and if they refuse, they are at risk of going to prison or their child being handed over to their rapist. This is abuse. We have been campaigning for more than five years for this groundbreaking legal change – no longer will abusive parents have an automatic presumption to see their child. This will keep children safe and I honestly believe, it will save lives.”
Since it was introduced into law in 2014, the presumption of parental involvement has served to entrench a damaging pro-contact culture in family courts. It has led to cases in which victims of domestic and sexual abuse, including children, have been forced to maintain contact with their abuser and repeatedly fight their case in court, causing psychological and financial devastation.
“The repeal of the presumption acknowledges that, as the Court of Appeal said 25 years ago, ‘domestic abuse is a significant failure in parenting’, said Dr Adrienne Barnett, Co-Director of Right to Equality and lead author of its Report on the statutory presumption. “We are delighted that the Government has taken this important step towards a safer family justice system that puts the welfare of children at its heart, and removes the impossible burden on protective parents of rebutting the presumption.”
Right to Equality’s survivor-ambassador “Rose” says – “I was previously ordered to send my child to abusive contact sessions. I know that sinking feeling, the heart-racing moment when you must tell your child to spend time with their abuser, and I know the feeling of failure when your child leaves the car for contact.
The decision to end the presumption of contact is exactly the outcome we fought for and won. The relief, the feeling of security and the improving well-being of my child has never been so palpable. I can feel my child becoming confident, safe and secure.
For that reason, I welcome the change that this government brings to families like mine. “
Today’s announcement is a testament to the tireless work of organisations like ours, alongside MPs such as Apsana Begum and Marie Tidball, who have refused to stay silent. We’d like to thank all our individual and organisational ambassadors including our survivor ambassador “Rose”, Jenny Beck KC, Natalie Page, Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno, Dr Rachael Grey, Ciara Bergman, Dr Jessica Taylor, Tamar Nwafor, Shanika Mahendran, and organisations including Latin American Women’s Aid and WeStand.
Most importantly, we’d like to thank Claire Throssell, MBE, for her fearless campaigning on behalf of her two boys, Jack and Paul, who were murdered in 2014 by her ex-partner during court-ordered contact. This change would never have happened without her.
But the work is not yet done. A legislative vehicle for this change must be found and this change must be swiftly implemented. Too many children and victims and survivors have already suffered under this dangerous law and the pro-contact culture it upholds.
Furthermore, Right to Equality urges the Government to build on this welcome decision with further reforms to family justice, including:
- Prohibiting the use of ‘parental alienation’ and similar pseudo-scientific terminology in family court proceedings;
- Legislating against the use of unqualified or unregulated psychological ‘experts’;
- Preventing the removal of a child from their primary carer in order to enforce contact or for the purpose of repairing or improving the child’s relationship with the other parent.
- Reviewing past cases where children were removed from the care of protective parents on the basis of alleged alienation;
- Ensuring all family court professionals, including judges, receive ongoing, specialist training on the dynamics of domestic and sexual abuse.
Right to Equality will continue to advocate for a family justice system that is child-focused, trauma-informed, and uncompromising on safety.