CHILDREN'S ACCESS TO PARENTS

That this House recognises that it should be normal practice that children have rights of equal access to both parents who have not been accused of violence, irrespective of whether the parents live together; believes that the Government should put in place effective provisions for compulsory mediation prior to any legal proceedings when a parent has applied to the courts for contact; further believes that the Bench should be given a range of sanctions which can be applied progressively against non-violent parents who ignore the needs a child has to see regularly the other parent and that the available sanctions should include referral of a parent to services, including information meetings with a counsellor, and parenting classes designed to deal with contact disputes, referral of a parent to a psychologist, psychiatrist, education programme or perpetrator programme, placement of a parent on probation with a condition of treatment or attendance at a given class of programme, imposition of a community service order, with programmes specifically designed to address the default in contact and financial compensation being awarded from one parent to another, and takes the view that these powers should be imposed incrementally, with the court taking account of previous penalties imposed, previous breaches of the court order, the severity of the breach of the court order, and other factors that the court deems to be reasonable and that these sanctions may be used prior to the existing powers of fines, imprisonment and the transfer of custody from the resident to non-resident parent.