Child Inclusive Mediation

Listening to Young People

The voice of the child is becoming more important in mediation.  Research shows that children benefit from being able to express their wishes and feelings and from the process of feeling heard. We follow Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which indicates that every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes and to have those views considered and taken seriously in all matters affecting them. We bring an acknowledgement into mediation sessions that children don't get to make the decisions, but that it is important that their wishes and feelings are heard.  

Children are afforded the same confidentiality as parents receive in the first MIAM assessment meeting, following the usual safeguarding guidelines.  This means that we only feedback to parents what the children agree to be fed back to them. Alongside feeding comments back to the parents, children can find it very helpful to be given information about support for children that is available to them when their parents separate and tend to cope better with future arrangements when they have been given the opportunity to feed into decisions about those arrangements. Often, this might be the first time your child has spoken to anyone about how they are feeling, as children can tend to try to protect their parents when they see that they are finding things difficult by not expressing their own sadness and struggles with adjustments.

Mediation is legally privileged and therefore children’s stated wishes, feelings or thoughts cannot be used in court proceedings.