Hansard

I very much welcome the debate and am grateful to John Mason for bringing it to the chamber this evening.

Mr Mason’s motion rightly refers to the “important” role played by fathers and “their rights and responsibilities”, and I think that we will all agree that the ideal environment for bringing up a child is within a loving and stable relationship between a man and a woman. However, I would be the first to acknowledge that we clearly do not live in an ideal world and that we need to consider other models that, as Anne McTaggart has suggested, can be successful.

A sad but simple fact is that marriages and relationships, often involving children, break up every day in every country across the world, and the priority following what are frequently traumatic events for all involved must be the wellbeing of children. The irreversible collapse of a relationship can sometimes lead to great bitterness in one or both of the partners. Children can become pawns in custody battles; access rights can be denied; and children suffer because they do not get to see one or other of their parents. Sadly, it is the father who all too often loses out.

Few of us in the chamber could have failed to be moved by the briefing paper from Families Need Fathers Scotland, which was set up to help, support and provide advice to parents of either sex. Examples include the father who received a legal letter from his ex-partner, complaining that he had taken his child to the library during a contact visit, and the father who had been the main carer for his son before his partner left and who then did not see the boy for six months—and was then allowed only two hours of supervised contact just once a month. That sort of situation is hard to explain to a young child, for whom such separation is a bereavement experience that will stay with them forever, no matter how hard the other parent tries to fill the gap.

I read with interest the story of Jonathan Agnew, the cricket commentator, who described what he called the “tough time” he went through as he tried to maintain relations with his two daughters after he divorced the girls’ mother and how it was in stark contrast to the conscious effort that he and his second wife made to ensure that her ex-husband had a relationship with his children. Those are just a few examples, but I am sure that many in the chamber will have similar stories, some from personal experience.

The motion refers to the national parenting strategy, the aim of which is to champion the importance of parenting

“by strengthening the support on offer to parents and by making it easier to access that support”.

The emphasis on the father’s role in nurturing children is significant because too often it is perceived as being less than that of the mother. I pay tribute to the Scottish Government for its pledged financial support to improve access to information.

As the Health and Sport Committee’s inquiry into teenage pregnancy has progressed, I have become aware of how easy it is to focus on a young mum and her baby and to forget the important contribution that a young father can make to his child’s early wellbeing, whether or not his relationship with the mother continues. I am therefore encouraged by the evidence that we have received on projects for teenage mums that also seek to involve the fathers and by the commitment of those dads who wish to actively participate in their child’s development and progress.

Grandparents can make an enormous contribution to a child’s healthy development but, sadly, when partnerships split up they are often sidelined and kept away from their grandchildren. I have a lot of sympathy for groups such as Grandparent Rights that campaign for greater access and which remind us of the devastating impact that family breakdowns can have on children.

A very serious issue has been given the much-needed oxygen of publicity in this debate and I once again pay tribute to John Mason and Families Need Fathers Scotland for all their work in this field.

17:24