Others have proposed that the law and psychologists function to provide a scaffolding for parents who will normally go on to construct anew their family relations more or less in their own design. Part of this scaffolding or framework comprises firm, practical plans for managing children. Parents temporarily in disarray are thus helped to re-establish routines with fewer points of potential conflict. Ms Weir raises with her clients simple, practical matters, such as the question of who will give young children their bath and tea around the conventional access changeover time of 5.00 pm Sunday evening. Even in the most harmonious homes, parents know that Sunday evening with its combination of tired, hungry children and parents contemplating another hectic week is a tinder box.
Some situations require more structure and intervention, at least for a time.
Clinical psychologist Dr Kenneth Byrne put forward a practical format for help in very troubled access situations. Based on the notion of protecting children from parental conflict and facilitating children's relationship with the non- resident parent, Dr Byrne's Professionally Facilitated Access is a model worth pondering by parents and professionals alike, since it suggests adaptations that might help in cases where children have not seen a parent for a long time and are timid about contact, as well as in cases when a parent is unable to take full responsibility for a child. The arrangement for the visit proceeds in three phases. Phase One Is divided into three time periods. As well as facilitating access, this procedure protects children from exposure to parental conflict, removes the opportunity for parental conflict being exacerbated, has the potential to be used in a variety of circumstances, and permits all concerned to explore in safety ways of managing the visits.