The government has responded to the consultation on mediation in family cases.
As it says in the introduction:
We know that long-term conflict between separating parents is harmful to children’s wellbeing, both in the short and long-term[footnote 1]. Exposure to parental conflict has links to increased rates of anxiety, aggression, and depression, as well as anti-social behaviour/criminality, reduced academic performance and substance misuse. This has an impact on wider society, with implications across health, education, employment, as well as the family and criminal justice systems[footnote 2]. There was consensus in the responses we received that providing parents/carers with support and information earlier can help them to resolve their issues more quickly and outside of court where it is safe to do so.
While most parents/carers resolve their child arrangements without coming to court, in 2022 there were 52,219 new child arrangement cases started. There were 39,423 applications for financial remedy orders, with 11,306 of these applications being contested. In addition, we know that many families who come to court to make child arrangements return to court. One study from 2016-17 suggests that approximately one quarter of families with a child arrangements order returned to the family courts either because the previous arrangement was not working or because new arrangements needed to be[footnote 3]. 63% of these returning applications were made within just two years of the previous one[footnote 4].
It is also taking longer for cases to conclude. As of June 2023, it is taking an average of 47 weeks for private law cases to reach a final order[footnote 5]. The Government is committed to reducing this timeframe to help families reach certainty over their arrangements more quickly and allow them to move on with their lives with certainty.
The responses we received to the consultation confirmed that there is support from across the family justice system including mediators, legal professionals, charity organisations and others for our goal to help families reach agreements earlier and to seek to reduce conflict at every stage of any dispute.
Where there is a will to reach a mutual agreement, mediation can be a very successful route to resolving disputes for many families. As of December 2023, our mediation voucher scheme has helped over 24,000 families to access mediation and attempt to resolve their issues without resorting to court. We will continue to support the scheme, investing up to £23.6 million by March 2025.
The Government remains committed to helping more families understand and benefit from dispute resolution. However, we are not proposing to change the law to introduce a requirement on parties to attend mediation before applying to court at this time. Instead, we will focus on delivering the package of measures that helps parents/carers resolve their issues at every stage of the process by:
- providing earlier targeted information before issues escalate;
- providing new dedicated support for pre-court resolution;
- reforming the private family law process to make it less adversarial with a greater emphasis on the voice of the child, and:
- increased support for parties who need it.
Improved domestic abuse screening and training for mediators
We understand the concerns that making mediation a compulsory pre-court step for appropriate cases could risk some individuals who do not fully realise they have experienced domestic abuse being put in a potentially inappropriate situation.