Meeting of the Parliament 10 January 2023
Presiding Officer, thank you for affording me the right to make this speech. I had not intended to speak, but this is a high-quality debate and I wanted to play my part in the discussion.
I congratulate Fulton MacGregor, who has been a committed champion of shared parenting issues in his time in the Parliament. I commend Fulton on that work.
I welcome the positivity and dedication of Shared Parenting Scotland to engage with the legislative process in this place constructively and positively, and to engage openly about how to nurture and develop a child’s relationship with both parents when the relationship between the parents has broken down—that is vitally important.
As MSPs, we often hear about parenting issues only when things go badly wrong. Rhoda Grant alluded to that in her speech. We will have heard examples of controlling and coercive behaviour, domestic abuse and courts being used as a tool and a lever of power and control in the embers of a dying relationship between parents.
I know from my experience that some contact centres have not been of the required standard. I am pleased that they will now be regulated by the Scottish Government, and that those in contact centres who prepare reports that go to family courts will now have the skill set that they should always have had so that they can make informed decisions in relation to child care orders. I am pleased to work in partnership with the Government on that.
We should say clearly that, in all the examples that I just gave, it is predominantly— although not always—men who have engaged in controlling and coercive behaviour, carried out domestic abuse and abused the court system. However, we cannot demonise men. Most dads are great dads and good fathers, and they want to be better dads and fathers. We have to make sure that the structures that we have in society are there for dads as well as mums. However, I should say that all the negative issues that we have talked about predominantly impact women. I would not be doing my job properly, as a constituency MSP, if I did not put that on the record.
Positive parenting before and after a spousal relationship breakdown is vital. Even if mum and dad were doing a great job of bringing up their children before the relationship breakdown, that is a difficult job, as we have heard, and it is made even more difficult after that relationship breakdown. There needs to be positive parenting before and after a relationship breakdown.
The New Ways for Families programme sounds like an innovative approach to dealing with the situation after a relationship breakdown, and I wish it every success. Fulton MacGregor put some of its successes on the record, and I look forward to hearing more about it.