5 November 2025

Across the United Kingdom, a national emergency is unfolding—largely unseen, yet devastating in its scale and consequences. Victims and survivors of domestic abuse, particularly post-separation abuse, continue to suffer systemic harm through the very institutions meant to protect them. The family court system has, for too many, become an instrument of continued coercion and control.

Evidence of Harm

Successive official reports have sounded the alarm:

The Harm Panel Report (2020) exposed deep-rooted cultural and procedural failings within the family courts, finding that the presumption of parental contact often overrides concerns for child safety.

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s “Everyday Business” Report (2025) highlighted the ongoing failure of public agencies, including the courts, to recognise and respond appropriately to post-separation abuse.

The Review of the Presumption of Parental Involvement (2025) confirmed that the presumption places children and protective parents at continued risk, perpetuating harm instead of promoting wellbeing.

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s latest report (2025) reiterates that post-separation abuse is systematic, unrelenting, and state-enabled through inadequate safeguarding, lack of accountability, and unsafe decision-making.

A recent survey by PEEPSA (Prevent Educate Eradicate Post Separation Abuse) analysed by the University of Manchester identified findings that only 0.9% of victims felt that social workers and Cafcass officers showed empathy to their disclosures of domestic abuse, and only 2.2% victims said cafcass and social workers were trauma informed.

88% said their ex abusive partners had reported that they (the victims) were suffering with mental health conditions to the authorities, friends and family to discredit the mother victims.

76% of these victims reported post separation abuse to the police with 71% saying it was not taken seriously.

Despite this clear evidence, little has materially changed. Survivors remain trapped in cycles of litigation abuse, forced contact, and institutional betrayal.

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and Institutional Neglect

Child Sexual Abuse remains one of the most under-reported and mishandled forms of harm within the family court and child protection systems.

It is estimated that 1 in 6 children experience sexual abuse before the age of 16 according to Rape Crises England and Wales yet the majority never see justice, with only a fraction of reports resulting in charges or convictions.

When CSA is disclosed within family proceedings, it is routinely dismissed, minimised, or reframed as “coaching” or “alienation” by court-appointed experts and professionals.

Protective parents are disbelieved and punished for raising concerns, with findings of pseudo-scientific constructs such as “parental alienation” and enmeshment used to remove children from their care.

Children’s voices are silenced, their disclosures ignored, and their trauma pathologised. This systemic dismissal not only perpetuates abuse but actively places children back into the hands of abusers.

Systemic Misuse of “Expert Evidence” and Pseudo-Science

A key driver of harm is the misuse of expert witnesses—both regulated and unregulated—who are often appointed under strict instructions to scrutinise the mother’s attachment, presentation, and behaviour, rather than the perpetrator’s coercive control and abuse.

These so-called “experts” frequently:

Pathologise trauma responses, interpreting fear, distress, or protective behaviour as instability or alienation.

Shift blame onto protective parents, particularly mothers, labelling them as “hostile,” “anxious,” or “enmeshed,” while minimising or ignoring the abuser’s conduct.

Apply pseudo-scientific constructs, such as “parental alienation”, which lack credible scientific empirical grounding and have been widely discredited by safeguarding authorities.

Silencing survivors and children, reframing disclosures as manipulation or coaching.

This process results in institutional gaslighting, pathologisation of trauma, and re-abuse by the state itself. It often leads to the loss of jobs and careers, as these findings made against the mother can mean they are struck off.

Not “High Conflict” — It Is Abuse

The widespread use of the term “high conflict” misrepresents the true nature of these cases. These are not mutual disputes; they are patterns of coercive control, post-separation abuse, and ongoing victimisation.

Under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, both protective parents and their children are recognised as victims in their own right.

To label abuse as “conflict” is to deny its reality, obscure accountability, and enable further harm.

Police Failures and Criminalisation of Victims

Police routinely fail to identify or investigate post-separation abuse as part of coercive and controlling behaviour (CCB)—a recognised criminal offence under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and the Serious Crimes Act 2015.

Reports of stalking, harassment, and breaches of protective orders after separation are frequently not logged or acted upon.

Victims are often subjected to DARVO tactics (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), with perpetrators manipulating the system to portray themselves as the “real victim.”

Police and prosecutors frequently criminalise survivors, particularly mothers, leaving them with criminal records that destroy careers and professional reputations.

This criminalisation results in loss of employment, long-term benefit reliance, and economic vulnerability, which in turn increases exposure to continued abuse.

These institutional failures send a devastating message: abuse after separation is tolerated and enabled by the state.

CAFCASS, Social Services, and the “Ping-Pong” of Responsibility

Instead of offering protection and stability, CAFCASS and social services often become instruments of further harm.

Survivors report derogatory and coercive treatment, being gaslighted, disbelieved, and forced to agree to unsafe arrangements to maintain contact with their children.

Findings based on pseudo-science, such as “alienation,” are accepted without scrutiny and used to justify removing children from the protective parent.

Professionals often collude with unsafe court narratives, treating protective mothers as mentally unwell or obstructive, rather than as victims of abuse.

Survivors are ping-ponged between agencies—police, CAFCASS, social services, and the courts—with no single agency accepting responsibility, accountability or recognising that post-separation coercive control is a criminal offence under the Serious Crimes Act 2015, as amended by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

This institutional fragmentation compounds trauma and allows abuse to continue unchallenged under the guise of “contact facilitation” or “family reunification.”

Post-Court Harm and Professional Collusion

Even after proceedings end, the abuse persists through professional systems.

Survivors face coercion from social workers, therapists, and child contact professionals to “accept findings,” “show insight,” and “work with the perpetrator” in order to see their children.

Compliance is demanded through coercion, with survivors told they must agree with false findings or risk permanent separation from their children.

Professionals engage in derogatory, shaming, and gaslighting practices, often minimising abuse and reinforcing unsafe contact.

This amounts to state-sanctioned coercive control, perpetuated through professional compliance with flawed or dangerous court outcomes.

Consequences for Children and Families

The consequences of these systemic failures are catastrophic:

Children develop complex trauma, depression, anxiety, disassociation and mistrust of authority. Many experience school refusal, nightmares, bed wetting, physical pain and confusion due to forced contact or being removed from their protective parent and unjustified prolonged broken primary attachments.

Protective parents, predominantly mothers, face homelessness, destitution, mental health crises, and professional ruin.

Loss of employment due to trauma, stigma, and legal entanglement leads to long-term benefit reliance and poverty.

Some families are trapped in proceedings for up to 18 years, unable to rebuild or recover.

The cycle of harm continues across generations, producing long-term health, social, and economic consequences.

The Human and Societal Cost

This is not a matter of “family conflict.”

It is a state-enabled human rights crisis.

Families are losing their homes, their safety, and their futures. Professionals who challenge unsafe practices are silenced or penalised. Meanwhile, abusers exploit systemic weaknesses, aided by outdated ideologies and pseudo-science.

Am Immediate Call to Action

We therefore declare a National Emergency in the Family Court System and demand:

Immediate roll out of urgent funding to DA services nationally across England and Wales to organise delivering urgent immediate and long-term support specifically for victims of post separation abuse through the family court and/or the related agencies.

Recognition and enforcement of post-separation abuse as a criminal offence under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, with police accountability for failure to act.

A full public inquiry into the systemic enabling of post-separation abuse through the family courts, CAFCASS, social services, and law enforcement.

Long-term, trauma-informed support for survivors and children, including mental health services, housing stability, and employment protection.

Cross-agency accountability mechanisms to end the “ping-ponging” of responsibility between services.

Conclusion

For too long, the UK’s family justice and safeguarding systems have protected perpetrators, silenced victims, and ignored evidence. The misuse of pseudo-science, the denial of abuse, and the criminalisation of survivors have created a national crisis of injustice, inability to protect citizens, and human right breaches.

Survivors and their children are legally recognised victims under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. They deserve protection, not persecution.

The time for reports has passed — the time for emergency action is now.

This is a national emergency! Please act now!