Counselling and Mediation
Children now have the opportunity to participate in counselling when decisions are being made about parenting matters, due to the passing of the Family Matters Bill on 2 September 2008.
Provided the parents agree, children will be able to attend part of the counselling, or speak with the counsellor directly. Up until now, children’s involvement in counselling was not specifically provided for by legislation.
In many cases, the benefits to both the children involved and their parents will be significant, as from an early stage in the process the child’s view on what is important can be expressed and considered.
As well as counselling, parties involved in parenting matters (and other matters such as relationship issues) will be able to request family mediation to help them identify issues and to resolve matters by agreement. The mediation will not be overseen by a Family Court Judge but by a specialist mediator. The purpose of the mediation is to divert less complex family disputes away from formal court proceedings and to resolve them quickly and inexpensively. Children can also be involved in the mediation and will be able to attend the counselling, as mentioned above, to help them formulate their views.
Following the mediation, the mediator will be required to provide a report to the Court detailing the resolution reached between the parties, the issues still to be resolved and non-binding recommendations as to the next steps to be taken by the parties.
If parties (now including grandparents and other family members) are considering entering into a parenting agreement, they can request mediation or counselling. These can also both be accessed to help resolve a dispute arising from an existing agreement.
Other changes resulting from the passing of the Family Matters Bill include
· Extending the duties of the Family Court Registrars.
· New positions of Senior Family Court Registrars, with the intention that they will be able to relieve the pressure on Judges and reduce delays by dealing with, for example, routine procedural matters.
· New provisions for openness in Family Court proceedings have also been included with support persons and accredited media allowed to attend proceedings. Reports on the proceedings can be published by the media, but it is an offence to publish a report without leave of the Court where the report includes identifying information and a child or vulnerable person is involved. Support people will also be able to attend proceedings provided the judge agrees, and
· The restriction preventing Family Court Judges wearing gowns in court has been removed.
Implementation
The above changes are intended to increase the openness of Family Court proceedings and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Family Court. The Bill was divided into 12 amendment Acts and will be implemented in stages. It is intended that most provisions will be in place by early 2009, although the introduction of new services like the counselling for children, and family mediation, will take longer and the exact commencement dates are yet to be announced.
For more information contact Sarah Vyle at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
