We think it is important that you know our values, so you know whether you agree with them, and you can hold us to these values in all our work with you.
All out Mckenzie’s and Mediators are professionally qualified social workers with a minimum of ten years post qualifying experience in Children and Families social work. In order to practice, they must be registered with Social Work England, the Social Work Profession’s Regulatory body. That means they are accountable to the standards and ethics of our profession, and are will face investigation and disciplinary proceedings if they fall away from these standards.
Learn more on the SWE website – click here
We also work to the code of ethics of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW). All our social workers carry £1m professional indemnity insurance, so that in the event of proven malpractice by any of our staff, our clients can be financially compensated.
Solutions for Families Ltd is a member of the Society Of Professional McKenzie Friends. It is a concern to us and others that anyone can set themselves up as a Mckenzie friend. The Society aims to provide a quality benchmark for practice and help with research towards eventual regulation of Mckenzie Friend services.
A fundamental feature of Social work as a professional discipline has been the importance of reflective supervision. Practitioners have regular consultation with their professional supervisor where they can reflect upon how to best help their clients, and also the impact of the work upon themselves. This is a key aspect of safe, accountable professional practice and is part of StF’s model of staff support.
Confidentiality is a key issue where services are holding information about the personal lives of others. Solutions for Families Limited is registered with the information commissioners office license number ZB220193. We retain your personal information on a secure server which is accessible only by staff employed by SFF. Our data storage systems are compliant with the information commissioners office regulations.
In our McKenzie Friend work, we operate a team based practise model, so that your McKenzie Friend can give you the benefit of not only their own insights and experience, but also that of their colleagues. This is standard practise in all social work settings, and the client benefits greatly. All our staff have years of experience of safe working practice that protects your confidentiality.
professional supervisor, and through case discussion with other team members can bring their insights to your situation also.
This is standard practise in all social work settings, and the client benefits greatly. All our staff have years of experience of safe working practice that protect your confidentiality.
Family Mediation works differently – there is no STF team input, as each of our mediators has a PPC (professional practice consultant) who supports and oversees their work. StF pays for the PPCs, who are independent of our company.
Reducing conflict reduces costs. And increasing conflict increases costs. It really is that simple. However, achieving a ‘good’ divorce is not easy, as everyone will know. If you can work out child arrangements and a division of the family assets and finances between you, maybe with the help of wise and discrete family and friends, then you will only pay the court fees to process your divorce or civil partnership dissolution and to confirm the financial arrangements – a ‘consent order. The next best option, both in terms of cost and staying in control of decisions about your family, is Family Mediation. Please see FAQs Is Family Mediation worth it? for more detail
Going to court as a Litigant in Person (an LIP) may only involve court fees (click here for FAQs How much will a divorce cost?), but unless you already have experience and knowledge of the family courts, you may find this a rather overwhelming process. Engaging a McKenzie Friend can be a great help, as our previous clients testify (please see What our Clients Say). Its also affordable – we are much less expensive than using Solicitors and Barristers. As everyone’s situation is different, the best way to get some idea of what our services would cost you is to book a free consultation to discuss your circumstances.
Finally there is using a solicitor. You can still control the costs by negotiating a robust working partnership with your lawyer, so that you stay in control and do as much of the work yourself as you can. One important advantage of having a lawyer is that they can speak for you in court – a Mckenzie cannot, unless they also have a qualification as a lawyer. However, our McKenzies will help you prepare what you want to say and what to expect in court and be seated beside you in court giving quiet advice, so you may surprise yourself! There is an option to combine Mckenzie Friend support and having a lawyer speak for you in court – you can employ a barrister through the ‘Direct Access’ scheme.
Book a Free Consultation tor more discussion about this option. The cost advantage is that you are not paying for both a solicitor and a barrister
Being a good parent is not easy. If you had parents who both loved you and knew how to be good parents, you are in the fortunate position of having good examples to draw upon – and they may well be around now to help you. Even with these advantages, we all know that being a parent is the classic ‘learning on the job’ situation. When one adds in the complications that arise when two parents, full of hurt and disappointment with each other, have decided they cannot live together any longer, and are likely to profoundly disagreed about many important things, it is no wonder that co-parenting is a significant challenge. Nevertheless, that is the challenge that children need their parents to meet after family breakdown. One of the most difficult things is to stop blaming each other about the past, accept that although you may no longer love each other, your children still love you both, and learn to cooperate in order to give them the best future.
You will hear again and again that the worst thing for children after their parents separate is if the parents won’t stop fighting each other – worst of all, involving the children in the battles.
This is why the SfF Values include helping parents to reduce the conflict between them, if at all possible. We recommend using Mediation if you can, rather than going to court. And if court is the only way, as experienced children and family social workers, helping parents reduce conflict and focus on the children’s needs is our bread and butter.
Cafcass stands for the Children and Family Court advisory and Support Service. Cafcass employs the Cafcass court officers, who are social workers, who provide guidance to the courts about the welfare of the children whose parents have applied to court for child arrangements orders.
This guidance comes in three main forms. At the first hearing, an initial report, called a Safeguarding Letter, tells the magistrates or the judge in the court whether there may be safeguarding issues for these children that they will need to take into account.
Safeguarding issues means anything that has happened in the past, the present or may happen in the future that has caused the child harm and is due to the parenting they have received. The Letter includes the outcome of the standard checks with the Police and local authority Children Social Services that Cafcass have already completed. So, for example, if the Police have been called to your home because you and your ex have had loud arguments or even fought with each other, the court will want to know about this. If one parent has accused the other of mistreating them or the children, and told the court in their application or told some other agency, then this will be recorded in the Letter.
The Cafcass officer usually attends each court hearing, unless its a short administrative hearing about setting dates for the court to meet and for documents to be sent in to the court. At hearings, the judge or magistrates will often ask the Cafcass officer for their opinion and their advice. At the hearing at which the court will reach its decision, the Final Hearing, you will have an opportunity to ask the Cafcass questions about their opinions and recommendations (called cross examining in legal language)
Thirdly the Cafcass officer prepares the section 7 welfare report to guide the court’s decision. The Cafcass officer should have met you both and spent some time with your children, and looked al any relevant reports or other evidence, read any relevant reports or other evidence that has been given to the court, and may have spoken to other professionals who know your children, for example school or nursery.
The purpose of these enquiries is so that the Cafcass officer is able to form their own opinion about the answers to the Welfare Checklist (see FAQs The most important piece of legislation about family and children) and include these in their report and their recommendation to the magistrates or judge about what will be best for the children.
The Cafcass officer is usually the only person in the court hearings that the court recognise as a childcare expert, which means they will have a lot of influence on the outcome of your case. Its therefore wise to prepare carefully for your conversations with this court officer Our staff are all qualified social workers and have a lot of experience of working with Cafcass, and so if you have one of our Mckenzies working you, they will help you prepare.
The government is encouraging people to try family mediation instead of coming to court. They are willing to pay £500 per family to help with the costs. In addition, the government allow legal aid for mediation for those on low incomes.
There’s really two reasons. The first is that going to court over arrangements for children tends to make the arguments between parents worse – and conflict between parents is bad for the children.
The second is that the whole family court system is overstretched and overstressed. On average, it now takes 45 weeks to complete a court case to decide arrangements for children. Such a long time in court is bad for families, especially children. The financial cost of legal proceedings to families is high. The cost to our justice system is also high.
In contrast, family mediation covering both child arrangements and financial mediation, can take just 12 weeks, it costs less, and it means you reaching an agreement together, not having a solution decided for you by a court.
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