What impact have Child Specialists made so far in FDR mediation?

By Will Story for the Family Advocate, Summer 2024

It is over six months since the newly established Child Specialist role began working in Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) and many are curious as to what impact the role has made and the outcomes achieved for whānau.

While it is still early days, and FDR suppliers are utilising their Child Specialists in different ways, there are some key indicators giving us a read on the various successes and overall impact of the role so far.

Looking at our numbers, when the Family Court (Supporting Children in Court) Legislation Act 2021 came into force in August 2023, imposing an obligation on FDR practitioners to ensure children were provided with an opportunity to participate in the FDR process if appropriate, the uptake of the Voice of the Child in FDR was generally very low. On average less than 20% of parties to FDR with Fair Way were electing to have their children’s voices heard in the process.

While the residual 80% included cases involving very young children and others where it may not be appropriate to meet with the tamariki, the majority were parties who did not want their children involved in the process for various reasons (including concerns around coaching by the other parent and or that a child will be drawn into adult conflict). Against this backdrop, the prospect of navigating our idealistic goal of parental and guardians’ consent to the new Child Specialist role involvement in the majority of cases was daunting. It’s encouraging to see already that we have successfully had 42% of all cases since 1 July have a Child Specialist involved, and an additional 5% of cases a Voice of Child Specialist (meaning nearly half of all cases now have children participating).

The Fair Way numbers tell quite a story. Firstly, they reveal that the average total hours spent by our mediators on completed cases has reduced from 8.45 in March 2024 to 7.84 in September 2024, meaning our mediators are on average spending less time mediating the issues and helping parties out of impasse in each case.

Secondly, and here’s the clincher, the number of cases with some or all matters being resolved has risen steadily from 71% in December 2023 to 80% in September 2024. That’s a quick jump!

So why is this? And what exactly are Child Specialists doing that is making a difference?

The Fair Way approach to child inclusive practice has been designed with the child at the centre and involves significant input from one (or more) of our six Child Specialists around Aotearoa. While an important part of the Child Specialist role is to communicate the views and experiences of children in the mediation process to help parties to make best decisions together for their tamariki, it is also their task to understand and formulate the core experience within a developmental framework and to support parties in their understanding of this. And it is arguably in this area that the gold is found. The Child Specialists have proven effective and influential at educating parents around the core developmental needs of their children focusing on themes such as attachment, security, safety and building strong relationships.

The following are some examples of themes covered at different age groups, together with some real-life case examples which resulted in the parties resolving all matters at mediation.

Under 5 year olds

Building connection - a baby was being cared for by his mother with no involvement from the father. The father was unaware of a baby’s needs for attachment, so the Child Specialist spent time educating him in how to build this connection with his tamariki.

Providing security - a baby and toddler are living with their father whilst their mother is overseas. The Child Specialist explored the developmental needs of small children, especially the need for secure attachment, with the parents. They are now working proactively together to lessen the children’s sense of abandonment and to keep the connection with their mother. 

Under 12 year olds

Improving arrangements - a young child was able to let her parents know her pain at the distance between them and how she missed each of them when she wasn’t with them. This enabled the parents to better plan for how long each of them had her stay for and how to support her ongoing connection with the other parent when away from them. The Child Specialist provided education on ruptures in attachment and how to prevent these from happening.

Sharing safely - two primary aged children were supported to give their dad some hard feedback about his behaviour towards their mum and how it affected them. This brought about a realisation and positive shift in attitude by their father. This would not have been possible without the Child Specialist’s careful navigating with the children and parents, where skillful explaining of the children’s anxiety and vulnerability and their need for the dad to protect and encourage them, helped keep the children as safe as possible in this process.

Teenagers

Repairing damage - one parent had cut the other out of their children’s lives. Their two teenagers were supported by the Child Specialist to speak their truth, sharing the damage they felt as a result of being put in the middle of the conflict, having previously been afraid of how this would be received. The Child Specialist worked alongside them and their parents so this could happen safely. This opened both parents’ eyes and they agreed to work better together and try to keep the children safe from their conflict. 

Restoring relationship - a teenage boy felt dismissed by his father. Utilising careful feedback from his son alongside psychoeducational resources from the Child Specialist, the father saw his need be in-tune with his son, rather than dismissing him and damaging their relationship.

As can be seen in these examples, the work of the Child Specialist has proven highly valuable in facilitating the participation of the various children involved in the FDR process. Their work has also helped support parties to move from entrenched positions to become more attuned with the developmental needs of their tamariki.

But it is the expression of relief and gratitude from both tamariki and adults which is arguably the best measure of success. After meeting with a Child Specialist, with tears in their eyes, a teenager shared - “This is really good for me” later adding that it “It was a stress relief to get my side out” and “I felt listened to, it felt good!”

And it is not just children, of course, who are expressing gratitude for the work of the Child Specialist. In a recent case, a Child Specialist offered psychoeducation (information on the developmental needs of their children, in the cultural and familial context of the children) and gave some information pertaining to ADHD as one of the children had been referred for assessment. For the other child, it was information and strategies for managing anxiety around transitions, together with information around why the child was experiencing distress at one house and not the other. The Child Specialist provided information around how to speak with children about some very difficult topics without laying blame on the other party. The success of the conversation was measurable not just by the mediation outcome but by the words of the parties: “I don’t think I can tell you enough what this means, thank you, this has been fantastic!”

If the first six months of the Child Specialist role in practice is anything to go by, there is a lot to watch in this space and so much potential yet to be unlocked in the magic of child participation.

About the author

Will Story BA LLB (will.story@fairwayresolution.com) is an experienced family lawyer (not practising) and Operations Manager of Family Services at Fair Way.