Justice Committee family court reform submission October 2025

What I Submitted to the Justice Committee: When Distance Has Nothing to Do With Miles

July 10, 2026•3 min read

On 28 October 2025, the Justice Committee held an evidence session on the reform of the family court. The witnesses were the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, the Chief Executive of Cafcass, and the President of the Family Division the most senior family judge in England and Wales.

Five days later, on 3 November 2025, the committee received something else. A collection of parents’ accounts, presented by another mother who had spent months gathering them. My account was among them. The document I gave her was calledWhen Distance Has Nothing to Do With Miles.

What I Submitted to the Justice Committee: When Distance Has Nothing to Do With Miles

The contradiction the court cannot answer

Two of the highest-conflict countries in the world, India and Pakistan, are endorsing the work Gabriel and I have created, on either side of their militarised border. A mile apart in Gloucestershire, Gabriel and I cannot see each other.

The court’s conjecture said I was an unfit mother. The world finds what my son and I have created exemplary. Both cannot be true.

What the court ignored. What the world did not.

What the court and social workers ignored:Independent expert psychological evidence. Twelve witness statements. Gabriel’s repeated disclosures. Documented positive parenting. Gabriel’s expressed wish to see his mother.

What the world did not ignore:Two Amazon international bestsellers, reaching number 1 in the USA. 100% engagement across 465 children. UNICEF exploring our work for global distribution. Requests from Pakistan, India, Canada, the United States and Nigeria. International education media coverage.

Both sets of evidence exist. Only one of them is in the court file.

The pattern of documented failures

2017: Ofsted rated Gloucestershire children’s services inadequate overall. 2020: The MOJ Harm Report documented compounded harm. 2023: Armed police removed Gabriel from my care, officers stated neither Gabriel nor I had done anything wrong. May 2025: HMICFRS rated Gloucestershire Police inadequate in three key child protection areas. September 2025: Parliament confirmed families are being badly let down. Gabriel and I remain separated.

The questions the submission asked

Is what my son and I have created the work of an incompetent mother? Is it the work of a mother and son who wish to remain separated? When the UN condemns the system, Parliament accepts evidence and confirms it fails children, police and Ofsted admit inadequacy, who is accountable? What lawful claim is being made and by whom over me and my son, and upon what lawful basis and with what lawful testimony?

The Justice Committee’s response

On 11 February 2026, Andy Slaughter MP, Chair of the Justice Committee, responded. The committee acknowledged the submission. They noted the suggestion that an evidence session be held specifically on the outcomes of family court decisions where no contact orders have been made without proven safeguarding concerns. The committee said it may return to the issue later in the year, and if it does, the specific concern raised could be explored!

The system that silences individual parents cannot silence a community of them.

Never did I imagine it would require building a global movement to have contact with my son in the same town.

Kate

Kate Markland is a former award-winning physiotherapist with twenty years of clinical experience, the founder of StoryQuest Global, and the co-author of the international bestselling Adventures of Gabriel children's book series. She developed the StoryQuest methodology from clinical listening principles built across two decades of practice. Taken into schools across the UK, it achieved 100% engagement across 465 children in nine schools with zero behavioural incidents, including children with SEND, EAL learners, and reluctant writers. The research was conducted using Classic Grounded Theory across 318 children, identifying seven self-leadership transformations. It has been presented to the British Psychological Society, accepted by UK Parliament, and submitted to UNICEF. The methodology was built during the hardest period of Kate's life. One hour a week on FaceTime with her son. No desk. No classroom. No permission. What came out of that constraint became an Amazon number one bestseller, a validated research framework, and a movement now reaching schools and families across the UK, India, Pakistan, Canada, the United States, Nigeria, and Australia. Kate has been featured on BBC News, Times Radio, and in international publications across multiple countries. She has submitted evidence to the Justice Committee, the Independent Review of Social Work Regulation, and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. She was awarded the PhysioTimes Women in Leadership Award. She was told she was the danger. She built the proof that she was the answer.

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