Fathers are being cut off from their children because the courts have “fallen short”, the incoming head of the UK family court division has said.  Speaking to the ‘Families Need Fathers’ conference, Sir Andrew McFarlane acknowledged that some men felt let down by the court system.

“You are in this room because something has gone wrong for each of you as individuals, in terms of relationships within your family and, further, that attempts that you have made to seek help and achieve redress for those difficulties in the Family Courts have fallen short, no doubt well short, of what you had hoped to achieve,” he said.

The charity, which was established in the 1970s to campaign for equal rights for both parents, helps fathers who want to stay in touch with their children after a split.