Maebh Harding was awarded a Nuffield grant of £106,453 to look at ‘How do County Courts share care of children between parents?’ In December 2013, a briefing document on the initial findings of Nuffield Project was submitted to the House of Lords in advance of the debate over Clause 11 of the Children and Families Bill.

The briefing paper was referred to in the debate and was influential to the vote which amended the section to make clear to parents that there is no legal presumption of equal time in the post dispute child care pattern. The final report was published in May 2015 and has received a good deal of media attention with coverage in the Independent, Times and Telegraph. The final report improves the evidence base for assessment of the efficiency of recent reforms to the family justice system.

Maebh was also successful in obtaining funding from the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, so that hard copies of the report could be printed.

Maebh is currently working on distribution to maximise the impact of the report as part of a targeted dissemination strategy.