Kevin Kane

The conference will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow from 8-10 September.

The theme will be “Children’s Rights and Shared Parenting”.

The biannual ICSP conferences bring together academic researchers, practitioners, policymakers, legal professionals, family justice campaign groups and parents to share insight and experience of challenges to families and parenting around the world.

This will be the 8th ICSP international conference, and the first time it will come to the UK.

The conference creates space for discussion, collaboration and practical learning, showcasing academic research and connecting with real-world experience from families, services, courts, governments and civil society.

Kevin Kane, chief executive of Shared Parenting Scotland, said: “Securing this international conference for Scotland is a major achievement and a powerful statement of our commitment to supporting a child’s right to both parents. As chief executive of Shared Parenting Scotland, I am immensely proud that, in partnership with the International Council on Shared Parenting, we will host the first ever international conference on shared parenting to take place in Scotland and the UK.”

ICSP President, Professor Edward Kruk, associate professor emeritus of social work at the University of British Columbia, added: “The International Council on Shared Parenting has the distinct honour of co-hosting the Eighth International Conference on Shared Parenting with Shared Parenting Scotland.

“As president of ICSP, I am particularly pleased to be able to return to Scotland where, as a PhD student in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh, I undertook the first cross-national study on parental alienation and which led to my advocacy work in promoting shared parental responsibility as the cornerstone of needed family law reform. The year was 1985, when the very mention of shared parenting was met with scepticism at best and derision at worst.”