Children’s Voices in Family Separation: Embracing Best Practice and Meeting Professional and Legal Obligations

Sir Andrew McFarlane

Andrew McFarlane was called to the Bar in 1977 and practiced in chambers in Birmingham until 1993 when he moved to specialist family law chambers in London. He appeared at all levels of court including the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. He was appointed as a QC in 1998. In April 2005 he was appointed to the High Court, Family Division and was, for five years, the Family Division Liaison Judge for the Midland Circuit. He was the legal member of the Government ‘Family Justice Review’ Panel.

In July 2011 he was appointed to be a Lord Justice of Appeal sitting full time in the Court of Appeal in London. On 28 July 2018 Sir Andrew succeeded Sir James Munby as President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice.

Together with the late David Hershman he is the co-author of a loose-leaf legal text book entitled “Children: Law and Practice”. In addition, he has contributed to other publications and lectured throughout the UK and abroad. Sir Andrew has been a trustee of YoungMinds (the national young person’s mental health charity) and is Patron of HOPE Family Centre (Bromyard).

In addition to being Chancellor of the Diocese of Exeter, Sir Andrew was Chair of the Church of England Clergy Discipline Commission and President of Clergy Discipline Tribunals for five years until 2019.

He has been a native of Herefordshire and Worcestershire for over 20 years.

Ms Justice Harris

Ms Justice Harris DBE is a judge of the High Court and Deputy National Lead for Private Law on Children and Domestic Abuse. She has previously served as the Designated Family Judge for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire and Designated Family Judge for Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Shropshire.

Before being appointed to the Bench, Ms Justice Harris was Professor of Family Law and Policy at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Jan Ewing

Dr Jan Ewing is an Assistant Professor in Law, a Fellow of Homerton College and Deputy Director of the Cambridge Family Law Centre at the University of Cambridge.

Jan’s research interests lie in children’s rights to be heard in the decision-making when parents separate, particularly when parents settle arrangements without going to court.

Jan is a member of the Family Solutions Group, which was set up by Sir Stephen Cobb in 2020. The group considers how to improve the experience of children and families before an application is made to the family court. She is also an invited member of the Family Justice Council’s ‘Voice of the Child Working Group’, which was set up in 2024 to advise the Family Justice Council on enhancing children’s participation within the Family Justice System.

Jan was formerly a family law solicitor. When in private practice, she was a member of the Family Law Panel and Children Panel and was a trained mediator.

Louisa Whitney

Louisa Whitney is an accredited family mediator and child inclusive mediator. She is also a PPC and trainer and is passionate about passing on her skills, knowledge and practical experience. She worked as a family lawyer for 11 years before undertaking mediation training. She describes the transition like this: "as a lawyer I was helping people to put out fires they'd started, but as a mediator I was teaching the separating couple how to avoid starting the fires in the first place".

In 2013 she set up a standalone mediation practice to offer high quality, empathetic mediation to separating couples with an emphasis on teaching them the communication skills to manage their separation calmly, constructively, consciously and compassionately. Since this time she has also dedicated herself to providing information online, and through social media, to help those separating to access a plethora of resources, tips and tools that might otherwise only be accessed by those with mediators and lawyers.

Beverley Sayers

Beverley has been mediating in family disputes involving children, finance and property for over 30 years, including founding the largest independent legal aid mediation service in the country. She is qualified as a PPC and as a Child Inclusive Mediator (CIM), meeting with children directly and online.

Beverley is a member of the Family Solutions Group established by the Private Law Working Group, and a contributor to its influential ‘What about Me’ and ‘A Childs Right to Matter’ Reports. Beverley was on the Family Justice Council under four Presidents of the Family Division and in that capacity set up and chaired the ADR committee and sat on the FJC Executive, Private Law, Children in Families, and Friends and Families Committees. She also represented the FJC on the Ministry of Justice Family Mediation Project Board. She has recently been invited to sit on the re-convened Voice of the Child Working group for the FJC.

Beverley is a Director of The Family Mediation Council and a Board member of the Family Mediators Association. She is a trainer in Mediation Foundation, Professional Practice Consultancy and Child Inclusive Mediation. Beverley is currently engaged with the Legal Aid Board of Ireland developing their child inclusive mediation provision, having trained all their CIM mediators over the past 3 years. Beverley helped develop the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland (MII) CIM Standards Framework.

Helen Adam

Helen is a former solicitor and now works exclusively as a family mediator. She is a foundation trainer for the Family Mediators’ Association, a Professional Practice Consultant and a Child Consultant. She is a firm advocate of bringing the voice of the child into mediation.

Helen is a member of the Family Solutions Group, set up by Cobb J in 2020. Their three reports ‘What about me? Reframing Support for Families following Separation’, ‘Language Matters’ and ‘A Child’s Right to Matter’ all highlight the need to reframe support for families following separation to be less adversarial and more child-focused.

Helen Pittard

Helen Pittard has been a Long Standing Advocate for NCDR and voice of the child having practiced Mediation including Child Inclusive mediation for over 25 years. Helen practices all aspects of family disputes in mediation meeting with children regularly both on private and legally aided basis. She set up her independent Family Law practice in 2020 purely with a view to provide a service to promote a more holistic supportive approach to family separation. Whilst Helen is still a Family Solicitor the majority of her time is now spent mediating.

Helen is a regular presenter at Family Law updates and a Professional Practice Consultant helping to nurture future mediators on a national basis. Helen is one of the founder members of “Voices in the middle” a digital support facility for Children whose parents are separating written by children, in their language for children. She is also a member of the Positive Parenting Alliance supporting a better way for families to separate.

Tom Brownrigg

Tom is a solicitor and a mediator in Goodman Ray’s Divorce and Matrimonial Finance Department based in London and Brighton. He specialises in any issues arising from the breakdown of a relationship between married couples, civil partners and unmarried couples. These may be discussing any division of individual or joint assets, where any children should live or how they should proceed with a divorce. He regularly deals with international issues and high-net worth clients.

Tom has been an accredited by the Family Mediation Council to undertake All Issues Mediation, and is also a child-inclusive mediator. He conducts mediation for a variety of different individuals regarding both children and financial issues and is a big proponent of the mediation process for resolving family disputes. He can conduct MIAMs as well as mediations.

He is also a member of Resolution and a Resolution Accredited Specialist in Complex Financial and Property Matters for high income households or where there are substantial assets. This is in addition to being accredited for Children Law where there are disputes between parents or relatives. He is a trained collaborative lawyer too, which involves working closely in person with both parties and their lawyers to resolve issues.

Tom advises a variety of individuals on financial matters. He often represents client with a high earning capacity and those with a high net worth, be that because of business interests, asset protection, inheritance, trusts or overseas assets. Many of his cases have an international element and he can assist in advising on Spanish assets in particular as he speaks Spanish.

Tom regularly deals with children disputes between parents or other family members, including when one parent may wish to leave England or Wales, or if a child has been abducted and taken overseas.

Tom focuses on trying to resolve matters without going to Court wherever possible and establishing a dialogue between parties. He specialises in a number of issue-resolution options to offer the best option for his clients. He finds this often results in a far more amicable settlement for a family. This is not always possible though, and Tom is also an experienced advocate, and often appears on behalf of his clients in Court.

Tom joined Goodman Ray’s Divorce and Matrimonial Finance Department in August 2015, having spent over 4 years working at a family firm in the West End. He studied Law and Spanish at the University of Sheffield and is a fluent Spanish speaker having also studied Law at The University of Granada in Spain. He qualified as a solicitor in November 2009 after training and subsequently being taken on as a solicitor at a regional firm in Yorkshire.

Jo O'Sullivan (Chair)

Jo O'Sullivan is an accredited mediator, collaborative solicitor, and a pioneer of the Solicitor Neutral process, known as 'One Solicitor: One Couple'. As the founder of O'Sullivan Family Law Ltd, she is dedicated to guiding clients through divorce and separation without resorting to the family court, aiming to minimise emotional harm, especially for children.

In 2011, Jo established Sussex Family Solutions, uniting professionals from various disciplines to collaboratively support separating families. She also authored '(Almost) Anything but Family Court', with a foreword by Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, to help readers explore alternatives to court proceedings.

Jo has been a member of Law Society Family Law Committee and Resolution’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committees; she is currently chair of East Sussex Resolution and the Equality, Diversity Inclusion Team for the Family Mediation Council. She regularly delivers seminars and workshops across the UK, promoting non-court resolution methods among fellow practitioners.