New Report Exploring How Families Experience Separation
A new report by researchers from the School for Policy Studies and University of Bristol Law School, funded by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, has examined how parents and children experience parental separation.
The research was conducted by Dr Jon Symonds, Professor Esther Dermott and Dr Eleanor Staples from the School for Policy Studies and Professor Emma Hitchings from the Law School. Their report makes a number of recommendations:
- Parents and children value support which is accessible, informative, realistic and emotionally aware.
- Families need a ‘safety net’ of support which includes authoritative information, legal advice and emotional support.
- More thought needs to be given about how parents are supported to help their children through the process by hearing their wishes and feelings, as well as providing them with age–appropriate information.
- Further efforts are needed to divert families from court and we need to look at services beyond mediation, which focus more on advice, guidance and emotional support for parents and their children.
- The language and court processes could be reviewed to make a more positive experience and children could be heard earlier in the process to feel their views have helped to influence decisions.
The reality is that the two options historically promoted of mediation or litigation aren’t anywhere near enough. All families are different, and all separations are unique. The more options the better, and we should all be promoting them all.
You can read the full report here – Separating families: Experiences of separation and support.
Author Name: Editor
Published content by The Divorce Surgery Editorial Team.
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