From Arguments to Agreements
That is what NFM as the largest National provider of family mediation delivers, turning your disputes into agreements you can all live with and that are good for the children.
We are very pleased to be one of their major member services covering all of Greater Manchester and anywhere else online
The conference began with a keynote speech by its patron Baroness Brenda Hale who analysed 40 years of family law and some of the challenges in terms of funding and mediation becoming the “Go to” place for separating families.
This was followed by David Spenser from Direct Dialogue who had researched why people choose or do not choose mediation.
He showed that separating families value a professional child centred service but can be wary that mediators are not strong enough to deal with powerful or difficult people.
Whilst never taking over the discussions in mediation our staff are trained to challenge anyone who seeks to control or intimidate the other person.
We also offer shuttle mediation where the mediator goes back and forward between the clients and they do not have to meet or speak directly to each other.
He also identified that controllable costs were a key issue.
At CFFM we keep our costs as low as possible and you decide how many sessions you pay for.
We also provide free mediation through Legal Aid and part funded through the Government Voucher scheme.
There was also research from One Plus One on the emotional and support needs when separating with a look at their helpful free app Separating Better.
We ended with Elizabeth Coe from the National Association of Child Contact centres (NACCC) explaining how the national network of accredited centres helps if a safe neutral venue is needed as a stepping stone to rebuild a relationship between children and a parent or for handover.
She showed a powerful video “The Child of Separated Parents “ which has some key messages from children about how conflict etc affects them when parents split up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMHeQO-rEfU
CFFM specialises in focusing on children at the heart of all that’s we do and giving them a voice in what is happening around them.. How we do this is explained in this section of our website.
We hope that gives you a flavour of some National developments and how we at CFFM are learning all the time about how best to help separating families.
If you are currently going through separation, and not sure what your options are, get in touch to find out how mediation can support you and your family in these difficult times.
Sheena Adam
Director and Mediator
