Collaborative Decision-Making

The use of Family Group Conferences for families going through separation and divorce is an innovative approach to collaborative decision-making, which seeks to settle or minimise private family disputes out of court. The main advantage of using the Family Group Conference model in Private Law cases is that it recognises the importance of extended family members in the life of children as well as addressing the individual needs of children and the wishes of the parents. Family Group Conferences may be the way forward in enabling the family to arrive at a joint decision and at an earlier stage. This is likely to be more supportive, will preserve children's relationship with other family members and will reduce the impact of separation upon them.

The major decisions affecting the children are likely to be:

• Where they will live
• The arrangements that will be made for them to spend time with each parent, grandparents and other close relatives
• Special provisions, if any, which might need to be made about such matters as education, religion, health and travel
• Any other support that is required to meet their needs

What are the advantages?

• The involvement of the family network will help to keep the focus on the needs of the child
• It will involve grandparents and close family members from both sides of the family, whose involvement will be important in keeping aspects of the child's life stable
• It will identify any support for parents at the meeting and in the future implementation of the agreed Family Plan
• It will protect children from disruption to their day to day care, routine and relationships
• It may involve hearing the views of the child through the use of an advocate
• It will help couples to find a way to continue to jointly parenting their child despite their separation and ongoing disputes over other matters
• The Plan can potentially form the basis of a Consent Order thereby avoiding the need for protracted and costly legal proceedings, the outcome of which will be uncertain

The Review Process

For the Plan to succeed all parties need to put into action all that has been agreed. Families are offered a review meeting about three months after the initial Family Group Conference to review the Family Plan and make any adjustments as agreed.

If the plan breaks down irretrievably, then another intervention may be required, including the more traditional route through the courts and litigation.

Leaflet

See attached

Referral

The decision to participate in a Family Group Conference must have the consent of both parties. This will be confirmed by their Lawyer.

Costs

Each party will be responsible for sharing the cost of the service if this is agreed between the parties. This is likely to be substantially less than contested litigation through the courts, which will be protracted, stressful and uncertain.