Parenting Co-Ordination (PC) is a voluntary process which aims to create a ‘co-parenting alliance’ between you and your former partner as co-parents, making positive changes to communication and behaviours about your children.

Once you have in place a written parenting agreement or parenting plan from mediation, or a Child Arrangements Order from the Family Court, your parenting co-ordinator can assist you and your co-parent with the practical, day to day interpretation and implementation decisions of those agreements. Parenting Co-Ordination aims primarily to put your children at the centre of your thoughts rather than in the middle of the conflict, while still fitting within the requirements of your legal agreement.

What issues can a Parental Co-Ordination help you resolve?

  • PC can help you agree the dates you will each spend time with your children during the school holidays.
  • PC can help you agree on how to manage handovers when, for example, the children are not at school and drop offs and collections can’t be at school
  • It can help parents identify their ‘triggers’- things that they feel they react strongly to and support parents to calm the situation rather than stoking the fire with confrontation.
  • If you cannot make agreements on the management of your court order the PC can provide an arbitration process to help settle the disagreement without going back to court.

How is Parenting Co-Ordination different to Mediation?

Parenting co-ordinators are there to support you make day-to-day changes to how you communicate and interact with one another and to notice how this might be affecting your children rather than addressing one or a few specific problems that you may use mediation to resolve.

The PC process is voluntary just like mediation and it is confidential, with the exception for safeguarding concerns, as in mediation.

PC is a practical, on-going intervention to support parents, rather than a series of sessions like mediation.

If you can’t reach an agreement through mediation, you may end up going to court to resolve issues, whereas if an agreement cannot be made through parenting co-ordination, your PC can take implementation decisions on your behalf (these decisions would however only ever be practical decisions which formed part of your agreement).

How much will Parenting Co-Ordination cost?

Currently we can only offer this as a subsidised service to families in Norfolk.

These rates are per person and each party will be assessed separately.

Assessed Group

Individual Meeting Rate

Joint Meeting Rate Per Client

Uplifts

Maximum over program of support per client

Those eligible for Legal Aid

£0

£0

£0

£0

Those who earn less than the Real Living Wage

£10

£10

If 2 PC staff are required £20

£250

Those with income between £18,855-£30,000 per year

£40

£40

If 2 PC staff are required £50

£500

Those with income between £30,000 -£50,000 per year

£75

£75

If 2 PC staff are required £50

£1000

Those with income of £50,000+ per year

£100

£100

If 2 PC staff are required £100

£1500


These rates have only been possible as part of a trial project with grant funding. To find out more please have a look at our news article.

The Key Steps to PC

following a discussion with you around the process if it sounds like your case would be suitable, we will invite both parents to attend their own PC Assessment meeting. During this meeting we will explore the issues around your case and your experience of the conflict with your co-parent, we will review any court order or parenting plans you have in place. After the meeting has concluded, we will let you know whether we feel that PC will be suitable for you and your family.

If your case is suitable, you will sign an agreement to engage in the process for a 12-month period. During this period, the PC will provide approximately 12 sessions to your family, the structure of these sessions will be designed around your specific issues and situation.

Next Steps

If Parenting Co-ordination sounds like a service that could support you, please email PC@thefamilymediationtrust.org with your contact details and one of our parenting coordinators will call you back to talk this option through.

Further Information

The Parenting Coordinators Alliance website provides significant information on this innovative approach to supporting separating couples.

Please also have a look at the following Blogs to understand how PC operates.

Understanding the Role of a Parental Co-ordinator

How Parental Co-ordination can help your family