A Journey Through the Family Courts to NOW!
Our Story: Why Putting Families First Exists
In January 2021, I (Zac Holloway) unknowingly stepped into a bitter, draining, and ultimately likely to fail journey: navigating the Family Courts in England and Wales.
It began with a seemingly simple child arrangements order to regain contact with my daughter after my ex partner abruptly cut all contact. What followed was a four year struggle that took me from a stable life to feeling like a second class parent, a failure, and as if the world was against me.
I was eventually granted contact later that year, but the battles did not end there. Repeated court applications became necessary as my ex partner entered dangerous relationships, first with someone who had an extensive criminal record, then with a convicted child sex offender. It was during this period I realised the system was not designed to protect children from real harm when fathers like me tried to act.
Despite alerting social services to the risks, including my daughter communicating with a registered sex offender, the response was inadequate. I was under a barring order at the time, accused of being malicious, while my only goal was to protect my child. Eventually, my parental responsibility forced me to restrict contact between my daughter and her mother to keep her safe.
Even after formal assessments by CAFCASS and social services confirmed the dangers, highlighting lies to the courts, grooming, and risks to my daughter, the system failed to act decisively. The local authority’s response? Parenting classes. The court’s response? A temporary review. Ultimately, the case was closed, and the risk, according to the system, had “ended,” even though months earlier it had been serious and clear.
The Birth of Equal Parenting UK
From this experience, Equal Parenting UK was born — not as a brand or social media page, but as a refusal to accept that what many parents and children endure in the family court system is inevitable or acceptable.
Equal Parenting UK became a platform for communication, evidence gathering, and reform — bringing together parents, professionals, councillors, journalists, and policymakers to ask a vital question:
"Why does a system that claims to act in children’s best interests tolerate delay, inequality, and non enforcement as standard?"
We are pro child, not anti parent. Children are harmed when one parent is marginalised, when safeguarding is inconsistent, or when court orders go unenforced. Yet the system does not presume safe, equal parenting; it starts from imbalance and treats breaches, risks, and parental alienation as secondary.
The Evolution: Putting Families First
As the platform grew, it became clear that our mission needed to be broader. This evolution led to Putting Families First, building on the foundation of Equal Parenting UK with a wider focus on:
- Protecting children
- Supporting parents
- Ensuring families are treated fairly
Putting Families First combines advocacy, policy reform, evidence collection, and public engagement to create systemic change, because no child should be left at risk, and no parent should feel powerless in a system designed to protect them.
An Open Invitation
- To councillors: understand the reality families face in your communities.
- To MPs and Peers: help reform a system that too often marginalises one parent.
- To journalists: investigate a system operating largely in the shadows.
- To parents: share your experiences and evidence.
Delay is not neutral. Non enforcement is not benign. Silence does not protect children. Change will not come from one campaign or one voice; it comes when enough people decide looking away is no longer acceptable.
Join us. Comment, share, sign petitions, and help us reform a system that is failing parents and, most importantly, children.
