Family law shift hailed as win for children who face abuse

added: “It sends a clear message: children’s welfare will always be the priority and parents who undermine their welfare cannot use the system to continue to perpetrate harm.”

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During decades of campaigning against abuse, experts have described the issue of the family courts as the biggest area of concern for victims and survivors.

“It’s incredibly significant because it absolutely reorientates the way that these courts work,” said Farah Nazeer, head of Women’s Aid.

Abusers have long used the family courts as a way of retaining control over ex-partners, while women who raise domestic abuse in the courts have been subject to counter-allegations that they are trying to “alienate” the child from the father.

“This is the policy area, and area of concern, that the vast majority of survivors and children want us to work on, because it’s the one that really touches the core of their safety,” Nazeer added.

“And this presumption of parental involvement has plagued survivors for decades, to a point where often women will choose not to leave a perpetrator because they know a court will be governed by this sort of sort of legislation, convention, culture of the presumption of parental contact being a good thing, rather than actually centring the child’s safety.”