Coventry & Warwickshire Family Mediation (CWFM) - Family Mediation - an alternative route through family relationship breakdown

Mediation not litigation

Jenny - Manager — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:27:31 +0100

"Mediation should be the first option for separating couples" says the Which? essential guide to Divorce & Splitting Up.

CPD workshops for Family Lawyers - September 2008

Jenny - Manager — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:33:38 +0100

CWFM has updated and added to the CPD workshops for Family Lawyers delivered in Autumn 2005.

Feedback from the 2005 workshops was excellent and as places are limited at each workshop, to aid discussion, places should be booked as soon as possible. Click here to access more information and a booking form.

Relate (Coventry) offers new course aimed at separated people

webadmin — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:23:23 +0100

Relate has developed a new course to help cope with relationship breakdown. To read the article in the Coventry Telegraph click here.

"Divorce doesn't have to be a disaster"

Jenny - Manager — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:13:31 +0000

So says Jane Cassidy, psychotherapist, in her article in Times Online - Click here to read her article

Mediation can help reduce the confict experienced by children.

CWFM welcomes the findings of the Public Accounts Committee 15/10/07

Jenny - Manager — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:18:12 +0100

CWFM has been aware of the findings of the National Audit Office for some time (See below). What is most pleasing is that the Public Accounts Committee has upheld these findings.

It is shocking that 1/3 of divorcing families have not been informed about mediation as an option to the court process.

The new Legal Aid Contract (from 1st Oct 2007) appears to incentivise solicitors to refer clients to a mediation provider at an early stage. We hope that they pick up on this quickly and give clients the opportunity to make an informed decision about using mediation.

Press articles can be found by following the links below-

Positive Images Festival - 29th June 2007

Jenny - Manager — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:20:23 +0100

Coventry & Warwickshire Family Mediation set up an information stall at the Positive Images Event in Smithford Way, Coventry City Centre on FRIDAY 29th June 2007 promoting "Positive Separated Parenting".

It was a wet and cold day! but a number of passers by took the opportunity to pick up leaflets.

National Audit Office report on legal aid and mediation

Jenny - Manager — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:35:52 +0000

The National Audit Office (NAO) report confirms what CWFM and all professionally trained mediators have known for some time - MEDIATION is worth trying and it can WORK.

The report suggests that mediation provides a less adversarial route than the courts for many families involved in a breakdown and results in savings in legal aid of over 10 million pounds a year. We would suggest that clients who are not eligible for legal aid also save substantial legal costs.

The NAO report "Legal aid and mediation for people involved in family breakdown" published today. says that only 20% of families involved in dispute use mediation to resolve the difficulties and a further third are never told about mediation as an alternative to the Court process.

CWFM on BBC CWR talking about separated dads and children.

Jenny - Manager — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:21:32 +0000

Jenny Lewington, Manager of Coventry & Warwickshire Family Mediation, was invited to participate in a discussion on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio, on 8th February, along with the author of The Divorced Dad's Handbook - Steve Davis; Dr Angharad Rudkin a clinical child psychologist and Rebecca Probert - professor of Law at Warwick University, about the difficulties that absent dads have establishing quality contact with their children after separation and the impact this can have on the children.

Says Jenny "It was a very interesting discussion and great that Steve was so positive about trying mediation before resorting to the Courts. We (the participants) all agreed that parents need to be able to communicate as parents in the best interests of their children, but that they don't need to "like" each other."

Please help us to add to this website

Jenny - Manager — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:18:02 +0000

We are keen for people to get the information they need when experiencing relationship breakdown, whether they live locally to our service or not.

If you have any information or can recommend other websites that we can provide a link to or books that you have used that would help us do this we would be pleased to hear from you.