28th Jan 2019

Family Law in Partnership’s Felicity Shedden speaks at Scottish Parliament

At two events organised by Families Need Fathers Scotland in Edinburgh in January, Family Law in Partnership consultant Felicity Shedden gave a stark example of the limitations of what a family court can do when communication between parents remains poor or their concept of putting the child first still eludes them – hardly surprising when they may have spent many months and a great deal of money telling the judge of the other’s parenting failings and character weaknesses.

In a 2014 court hearing in front of Sir James Munby, it had been agreed that the handover of the child should be at Clapham Junction but the parents couldn’t agree which platform. Sir James refused to decide, saying, “The courts cannot micro-manage the parenting relationship”.

Felicity described how a new professional role, the Parenting Coordinator, has been developed to address this issue of making arrangements work and resolving disagreements about what is often in reality trivial detail. “Parenting Coordination” was originally developed in the USA and now also operates in Canada, South Africa and England.

Families Need Fathers Scotland arranged for Felicity to talk about Parenting Coordination at an afternoon briefing session for Scottish practitioners on January 15th followed by an evening presentation to the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Shared Parenting.

For further information on Parenting Coordination, contact District Judge Felicity Shedden on E: hello@flip.co.uk or T: +44 (0)20 7420 5000.