Anne Barlow & Jan Ewing 
Children’s Voices, Family Disputes and Child-Inclusive Mediation 
The Right to Be Heard

e PDF and e PUB available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Recent legislative changes in England and Wales have eroded children’s ability to exercise their article 12 UNCRC rights to information, consultation and representation when parents separate. However, children’s voices may be heard through child-inclusive mediation (CIM).
Considered from a children’s rights perspective, this book provides a critical socio-legal account of CIM practice. It draws on in-depth interviews with relationship professionals, mediators, parents and children, to consider the experiences, risks and benefits of CIM. It investigates obstacles to greater uptake of CIM and its role in improving children’s wellbeing and agency.
Exploring the culture and practice changes necessary for a more routine application of CIM, the book demonstrates how reconceptualising CIM through a children’s rights framework could help to address barriers and improve outcomes for children.

Table of Content

1. Introduction
2. Children’s Right to be Heard? Points of View from Relationship Professionals and Children
3. Entering Child-Inclusive Mediation: Barriers to Uptake
4. Experiences of Child-Inclusive Mediation
5. Outcomes of Child-Inclusive Mediation
6. Conclusions

About the author

Jan Ewing is a Research Follow at the University of Exeter. Jan’s research has focused on children’s rights, particularly in the exercise of those rights when parents settle out of court following separation. She a member of the Family Solutions Group which works to promote a holistic, supportive and humane response to parental separation with safety and children’s voices at the centre of decision-making. She was a Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded Mapping Path to Family Justice’ project and the Wellcome Centre for the Cultures and Environments of Health-funded ‘Hea RT’ project.