Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review the effectiveness of the content on domestic abuse in the Children and Family Court Advisory Service's separated parents information programme guidance.

The Separated Parents Information Programme (SPIP) is a course for separated parents that helps them to understand how to put their children first, even though they may be in dispute with one another. SPIPs are aimed at parents where there are no safeguarding concerns and are not designed to provide comprehensive advice on domestic abuse. The SPIP content is reviewed regularly, and is currently under review.

All Cafcass practitioners are social workers with at least three years’ post qualifying experience, and all social work staff joining Cafcass receive specialist training on domestic abuse. Cafcass has developed a Domestic Abuse Practice Pathway and recently launched a Child Impact Assessment Framework (CIAF) to provide its practitioners with additional tools to assess the impact of domestic abuse and inform its recommendations to the court about child arrangements. Cafcass keeps both tools under review.