It is taking its message to a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference in Brighton this week and to Conservative party delegates at their conference in Bournemouth next week.
In its summary of recent research, Stuck in the Middle, NCH said that a quarter of children whose parents split up are not told what is happening and only 5 per cent are given full explanations and a chance to ask questions. In 2002, 149,000 children in England and Wales experienced parental divorce. A quarter of them were aged under five and seven out of ten were under ten.
NCH's policy director Caroline Abrahams, said, 'The Government needs to fund many more support services to help parents through the process of breakdown. Much more emphasis needs to be placed on encouraging adults to talk to and listen to children about big decisions, like where they will live.'
Although the Government has recently published a Green Paper on parental separation, NCH said that, ironically, it was finding it 'increasingly difficult to secure Government funding' for the eight mediation projects it runs across England and Wales.
The charity wants more contact centres and support for the minority of children whose welfare is seriously at risk and 'a far more systematic set of support services'. It said it is 'very disappointed that the Green Paper does not deliver this strategic response'.
The NCH findings concur with key elements of the contact principles and guidance outlined in a current consultation document by CAFCASS, a non-departmental public body that gives specialist assistance to children, families and courts in matters concerning children.
CAFCASS said, 'When children do express clear views, they do not always feel heeded when those views fail to fit with what parents, practitioners and judges would prefer to hear.'
Currently children have limited opportunities to make their views known in contested court proceedings. However, they should have the right to be represented by a solicitor or guardian once the power to order it becomes law with the expected passage of the Adoption and Children Act at the end of 2004.
* NCH's new-look website to support children whose parents are separating is now at www.itsnotyourfault.org.
