Gzira Mayor Conrad Borg Manche is working with Happy Parenting Malta on writing up a proposal for a law which would set up an agency aimed at, among other things, advising the family courts on the safety of children and their needs, especially when it comes to living arrangements, he told The Malta Independent. 

Borg Manche said that the proposal would lead to the creation of an agency like the British Cafcass. According to the UK Government’s website, The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) looks after the interests of children involved in family proceedings.

The aim of such an agency is to represent the interests of children and young people in court. It independently advises the family courts on the aforementioned, and ensures that their voices are heard.

Borg Manche said that right now, as the law stands, the Maltese courts are given full discretion on deciding who has access to the children and on child maintenance. 

From cases he had witnessed, the Gzira mayor, who is also a lawyer, said that some parents end up seeing their children once every 15 days, “this means that in a year a parent would see them on just 26 days”. 

He said, that depending on the circumstances of the case, when such decisions are taken, “it is like they manage to create a divorce between the parent and the child,” adding that the less the parent sees the children, the more distant the relationship grows. 

The lawyer also touched upon parent alienation. 

He said that in some cases, one parent starts to speak against the other, which in the end results in affecting the bond of the other parent with the child. 

Borg Manche said that the proposed agency would handle such situations “with needed professionals”. He said that the judge is no psychologist and that such an agency would assess both parents to test their fitness as parents, helping the courts in settling access to children and child maintenance disputes. 

Speaking in general, he said that from what he has usually witnessed, “both parents are fit for parenting”, adding that with the aid of such an assessment, a level playing field for both parents in this light would be created, which would in turn avoid situations where “just because one party has a good lawyer, they create a disadvantage”.