Family Analysis
The decision of the Court of Appeal in the parental contact case of Re Q (A Child) was effectively resolved via a non-judicial method to meet the child’s best needs. Kayleigh Long, barrister at Goldsmith Chambers, says the case goes to the core of assessing a child’s best interests, and highlights that sometimes they cannot be secured through the courts and instead require the use of non-judicial methods to go to the root causes of the problem.
Original News
Re Q (A Child) [2015] EWCA Civ 991, [2015] All ER (D) 136 (Sep)
In private law proceedings relating to a child, Q, an order was made, which included a specific issue order that both parents were to cooperate in the referral for an assessment of the psychiatric and emotional well-being of Q, together with such treatment as required and a direction that there was to be no further order in respect of child arrangements. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the father’s appeal, held that the judge had taken a course which was not merely open to him, but which had been, in reality, probably the only course that had stood the slightest chance of achieving what had been so pressingly needed, namely, the resumption of Q’s relationship with his father.
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Related practice areas: Family
