Supporting Children When Parents Separate: Embedding a Crisis Intervention Approach Within Family Justice, Education and Mental Health Policy, by Mervyn Murch,  Policy Press, 2018

This is an important book for everyone, especially for politicians and practitioners in the field of child and family mental health. The author identifies and addresses exactly those issues which have been of such deep concern to many of us during the devastating years of austerity. In fact, Professor Murch states in his Preface that his very reason for writing the book was his awareness of the effects of the cuts on legal aid and child mental health services.

He brings a rare combination of academic and legal credentials as Emeritus Professor of Law and Politics on the one hand, with practice experience in social work and probation on the other. In addition, his years of work with the family justice system (for which he was awarded a CBE in ) have added to his understanding of the emotional, as well as the legal, issues for children at times of parental separation and divorce. To quote from psychotherapist Christopher Clulow's tribute to him, included in the Preface:

… he has been at the forefront of interweaving and understanding the psychodynamics of family life with a keen knowledge of legal process to signal directions of change that might enhance community well-being. In particular, he has identified the importance of interdisciplinary work if families undergoing stressful change are to be empowered to behave responsibly. (p. xv)

Clulow has also provided a commentary on a chapter that Murch contributed to Balfour et al. (2012).

His focus is on schools and the family justice system, and he repeatedly emphasises the significance of prevention, of the painful experience for children and families at such times of crisis, and of ensuring space for them to be properly listened to. He gives evidence throughout of the “unintended consequences” of cuts to legal aid on the family justice system, as well as to the services of a preventive kind that were previously there for children and families. As many of us have experienced, directly or indirectly, through our connections