9:15-10:00 – Registration

 

10:00-10:10 – Welcome Rebecca Giraud, Co-Director OnlyMums & Dads

 

10:10-11:00 – The Marriage Of Family Law And Psychology - How Soft Skills Are Fast Turning Into Essential Skills

'In Conversation' with Dr Angharad Rudkin and His Honour Stephen Wildblood KC, facilitated by Kate Daly

 

11:00-11:30 - Protecting The Child: Navigating Safeguarding In Family Breakdown Ellie Johnston, Head of Counselling, Spurgeons

 

Ellie will be presenting a compelling case study examining the impact of a parental relationship breakdown on a 7-year-old boy. We will delve into the emotional and developmental challenges faced by the child, with a strong focus on safeguarding. Attendees will explore how professionals can effectively identify risks and take proactive steps to keep children safe in similar situations.

 

11:30 - 12:00 - Coffee

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12:00 - 12:30 - New Tool For Professionals To Help Optimise Best Outcomes For Children – PILOT  Dr Angharad Rudkin MA(Oxon), Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society

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At conference we will be looking for 20+ professionals, ideally from a range of disciplines, to be part of the shaping and development of this tool and begin to pilot it with clients.

This tool has been designed for 3 main purposes:

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1. To bring the needs of the child to the centre of conversations with separating parents in order to maximise best outcomes for children

2. To collate evidence on what contributes to child well-being and good parenting

3. To use this evidence to prompt conversations with parents ensuring that the key areas of child well-being are being thought about and focused on so that they can identify in greater details what their child’s and their own parenting needs are

 

This tool is for any profession working with separating parents who have children between 3-18 years of age (the tool is not appropriate for under 3s as they have different developmental considerations)

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12:30-1:15 – Helping Children And Young People Find Their Voice: Using AI To Navigate Divorce, Separation And Changing Family Dynamics  Kate Daly and Holly Cooper, amicable

 

People often struggle with expressing their feelings or preferences during a divorce, leaving them vulnerable and uncertain. This talk explores the innovative use of AI to help children ask the questions they might be too scared or uncomfortable to ask their parents. Providing an accessible and empathetic platform, amicable is partnering with charities to create an AI powered chatbot to ease anxiety, clarify misunderstandings, and empower all young people to better cope with the challenges they face. This session is a call to action - we need your help! Attendees will gain insight into the chatbot’s development, how they can support the initiative and the future of AI in supporting young voices during family transitions. 

 

1:15 - 2:00 – Lunch 

 

2:00 - 3:00 - A Young Person’s perspective: the needs, impact and barriers for children and young people who experience Family Separation  Plymouth Youth Parliament, Facilitated by Carli Norris, Family Mediator, FSG Children's Group

 

When parents separate our voice can be lost… in this session we would like you to immerse yourself in the journey of a fictional family, to understand and feel the experience of the children involved. We see adults telling children all the time, but this is about children having a forum to share with adults what they feel is needed, where the gaps are and how we all have a collective responsibility to change the story. It will be an interactive workshop based on a fictional family with real issues, we will ask you some thought provoking questions and talk you through our thoughts. It is written and presented by us, Young People.

 

3:00 - 3:30 Tea Break

 

3:30-4:15 - Beyond Tokenism: Embedding Children’s Meaningful Participation In Decision-Making When Parents Separate Dr Jan Ewing, Cambridge University and Anne Barlow, Emeritus Professor of Family Law and Policy, Exeter Law School

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When parents separate, children have the right, under international and (at least in theory) domestic obligations, to participate meaningfully in potentially life-changing decisions about their futures. Research shows that feeling heard and understood in decision-making following parental separation can empower young people, yet we remain far from realising a system that truly embeds child participation. Drawing on findings from the Wellcome Centre-funded ‘HeaRT’ project (Barlow and Ewing, 2024) and international evidence, we will explore the case for, and barriers and enablers to, children’s meaningful participation and propose ways of realising comprehensive child-inclusive approaches that avoid tokenistic efforts to hearing children’s voices.  

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4:15 -5:30 - Panel Discussion  Chaired by Helen Adam, Family Solutions Group 

 

5:30-5:45 - Call To Action Bob Greig, Co-Director OnlyMums & Dads