Courts advised: provide contraception to problem parents

Posted By: James

Wednesday 11th June 2014

A senior judge says courts should consider approving contraception for parents who have had numerous children taken into care. Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division of the High Court, said dealing with mothers who have a dozen or more children taken away by social services was a "distressingly regular occurrence" for judges. Sir James said that Family Drug and Alcohol Courts were attempting to deal with the issue by involving social workers, addiction counsellors and doctors, with the aim of changing parents' behaviour, but that such cases were still frequently occurring. "With some local authorities contraception is an important part of the thinking," said Sir James. "The whole thing is very intensive but it does seem to work. The savings if you can avoid care proceedings are enormous."

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