Shared parenting would help hundreds of thousands of children- Lib Dem

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton on Monday 18th September, Mid Sussex Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman, Serena Tierney called for the law to be changed to ensure that both parents remain equal after family breakdown.

"All the evidence shows that children thrive best when they have continuous loving relationships with both parents. Our current law results in one parent - the 'resident parent' - being treated as a real parent and the other as a non-parent. There are hundreds of thousands of children whose fathers want to be fully involved in their upbringing but have been excluded from their lives by the state. That is hugely damaging to the life outcomes of those children and it is unnecessary and unfair."

She reminded the conference that most children are born because two parents decide to create and bring up a child. If the parents' relationship with each other breaks down that should not result in the child losing the relationship with one of them.

"We have to ensure that as a society, we support the principle that a child is for life: not just alternate weekends."