Gwenda Kendrew says children’s safety concerns can go unheard in Family Court

Gwenda Kendrew, principal clinical adviser at Canterbury family violence organisation Aviva, says children’s fears are not always given enough weight in Family Court decisions involving family violence. In comments to the New Zealand Herald, she described concerns raised through the organisation’s work with families. The report cited cases in which children said they had been hurt by a parent and did not want further contact, yet supervised visits continued. In other situations, children’s accounts were interpreted by legal professionals as possibly influenced by the other parent. It also described two children who had witnessed family violence being required to spend time in a home where violence was still happening. Kendrew said Aviva encountered families facing similar circumstances frequently. She warned that when children say they are frightened but are not heard, they may lose trust in the adults and institutions expected to protect them. In her view, the experience can also affect how children understand abuse as they grow up. She questioned whether lawyers appointed to represent children always meet with them often enough, and whether decisions can sometimes rest on assumptions drawn from adults’ accounts. Kendrew also raised concerns about whether some legal professionals fully understand psychological abuse, coercive control and the dynamics of family violence. The time taken to resolve Family Court cases was another concern, she said, because lengthy proceedings can leave families living with uncertainty and distress. Kendrew called for a broad overhaul of the system and said children’s experiences and views about their safety should be heard and given meaningful weight. The report noted that the Care of Children Act makes a child’s welfare and best interests paramount in parenting decisions and requires protection from violence. Changes that took effect in August 2023 strengthened children’s participation in decisions about their care and required judges to consider family violence.