Understanding the Family Justice Council’s 2024 Guidance on Alienating Behaviour

Posted by the Family Law team on 19th February 2025

In December 2024, the Family Justice Council provided guidance on Alienating Behaviour.

If you would like to read the whole guidance, please follow the link – Family Justice Council Guidance on responding to allegations of alienating behaviour 2024.

The purpose of the guidance is “…to assist the court in determining the welfare of the child where allegations of ‘parental alienation’ or ‘alienating behaviours’ are made, by maintaining a focus on the impacts on the child rather than on parental behaviours…”

Key Elements:

1. Even when there are an increasing number of allegations of parental alienation made, actual findings of them will be rare.
2. A fact-finding hearing will only be required where it is relevant to the ultimate issues to be determined and where such a hearing is both necessary and proportionate.
3. The Court should not direct an instruction of an expert unless it is necessary and proportionate to the issues.
4. If alienating behaviours are alleged, this must be proven with evidence that the party intends to rely on.
5. A child’s reluctance, resistance, or refusal to spend time with the other parent is not evidence of Alienating Behaviours simply because no other explanation can be found.

Re C (‘Parental Alienation; Instruction of Expert’), Sir Andrew McFarlane observed that what is important is the particular behaviour that is found to have taken place within the individual family before the court, and the impact that that behaviour may have had on the relationship of a child with either or both of his/her parents.

The Court would need to be satisfied on three elements to conclude that Alienating Behaviours had occurred:

1. The child is reluctant, resisting or refusing to engage in, a relationship with a parent or carer; and
2. the reluctance, resistance or refusal is not consequent on the actions of that parent towards the child or the other parent, which may therefore be an appropriate justified rejection by the child or is not caused by any other factor such as the child’s alignment, affinity or attachment and
3. the other parent has engaged in behaviours that have directly or indirectly impacted on the child, leading to the child’s reluctance, resistance or refusal to engage in a relationship with that parent.

Parental Alienation and Domestic Abuse

The guidance states that the “…risk, relevance and weight attached to ‘parental alienation’ and domestic abuse should not automatically be considered equal”.

Alienating Behaviours will not be found in cases where findings of domestic abuse are made which have resulted in a child’s appropriate justified behaviour.

New terminology from Family Justice Council on alienating behaviour:

• Attachment, Affinity, and Alignment (‘AAA’) are the reasons why children may favour one parent over another or reject a parent. These are typical emotional responses to parenting experiences and are not the result of psychological manipulation by a parent.
• Appropriate justified rejection (‘AJR’) – a situation where a child’s rejection of a parent is an understandable response to that parent’s behaviour towards the child and/or the other parent.
• Alienating Behaviours (‘AB’) – psychologically manipulative behaviours, intended or otherwise, by a parent towards a child which has resulted in the child’s reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with the other parent. [This term is capitalised throughout the guidance to refer to this definition.]
• Protective behaviours (‘PB’) – behaviours by a parent towards a child to protect the child from exposure to abuse by the other parent or from suffering harm (or greater harm) as a consequence of the other parent’s abuse.
• Reluctance, resistance or refusal (‘RRR’) – behaviours by a child concerning their relationship with or spending time with a parent, which may have a variety of potential causes.

If you would like to speak to either of our Family solicitors about this or any other children’s issues, please get in touch.

You can call our Worthing office on 01903 229999 or our Chichester team on 01243 781000.

Alternatively, email info@bennett-griffin.co.uk, and we’ll get back to you shortly.