The ASP AGM was held at the usual venue, Friends Meeting House, in Birmingham and was attended by the usual eclectic mix of concerned parents, and interested others; including representatives from the Birmingham Contact Centre and also a practicing CAFCASS Officer.

The meeting was chaired by Graham who gave an opening address with the central theme being that of 'shared parenting'.

The ASP Secretary, Jim Rowan gave an account of ASP's administration over the past year; and perhaps the most noteworthy point was a suggestion that the Birmingham Branch would cease to hold it's monthly advice shops at Christmas, due to low turnouts in the past and also the ASP 'chairs' were unable to commit themselves to future meetings.

Graham, in his capacity of Treasurer, gave details of the financial accounts of not only ASP but also the Contact Centre. There was an acknowledgement that the Contact Centre was currently running at a financial loss, but this was not seen as cause for concern.

The current Chair, Treasurer and Secretary were re-appointed to their positions for the following year.

The AGM guest speaker was Lorely Burt, newly appointed LibDem Member of Parliament, and also one of the founding members of ASP itself !

Lorely gave an overview of the current government legislations affecting Family Law and also gave an indication of the LibDem position.

As is usually the case, there was a lively question and answer session with Lorely bravely fielding questions from the audience and acknowledging the existing shortcomings in the System; as perceived by the assembled questioners.

• CAFCASS seeks ongoing dialogue with fathers' groups
  
• Open letter to groups representing the interests of fathers in private law

Subjects covered were a review of the management changes underway within CAFCASS. This was delivered by Anthony Douglas the Chief Executive. It sounds like a root and branch reform is being conducted, the emphasis being on a decentralisation of functions away from London. Mr Douglas went on to explain that CAFCASS were actively seeking working relationships with other organisations including voluntary groups such ASP. (CAFCASS in Birmingham have always valued the Shared Parenting Contact Centre which we have run since the mid 90s’. They have just indicated that they may be able to provide a grant of £750 towards the cost of interpreter provision.)

Baroness Howarth gave a short resume of the Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill. The full version will be found at: www.parliament.the-stationary-office.co.uk

Steady progress but still in need of some tweaks. Deferred now until after the election. If Labour are returned it will eventually become law. If the Conservatives gain power they are likely to take a firm stance but it would mean a start again job.

Finally Chelsey Bonehill CAFCASS Policy Officer gave a short round-up of the wide variety of replies received in the consultation process for the Draft Domestic Violence document. The ASP response is posted elsewhere on this site. We gave it a good beating as, in our view, it would serve only to make matters worse. A report on the responses will be out in late May.

The next SUIG meeting will be late June – early July. We received a promise that the ASP presentation on CAFCASS reports will be on the agenda this time.

Read A.S.P's submitted response here.

To their credit the new CAFCASS recently introduced a Service Users Interest Group as part of their new transparency and willingness to consult widely with all sections of the ‘system’. The meeting on Friday 17^th September 2004 covered comment on the draft Contact Guidelines booklet and the proposals for the Complaints and Compliments procedures.

The next meeting is scheduled for December and any ASP member or any other interested party is more than welcome to email Graham at spring.cott@btopenworld.com to discuss any topic that they would like to be raised.

Also please note that various consultation documents are available on the CAFCASS website. Have your say – either individually or as part of the full replies that ASP will be sending in shortly.

All fertile grounds for ongoing discussion and debate. In the summer a new Green Paper is being published with, we hope, some positive proposals. ASP will be keen to comment. Watch this space.

Read A.S.P's submitted response here.