Juliette Dalrymple
Family Matters is delighted to annouce that, in partnership with Voluntary Action North Lincolnshire, it has been awarded a three-year contract from the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service (Cafcass) to provide the Separated Parent Information Program (SPIP) in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and York. This is the result of a successful bid in a competitive tendering process.
Understand how conflict affects children
The SPIP has been developed by Cafcass, which provides around 10,000 courses a year. The course is designed to help parents to think about how conflict impacts on children and ways in which they can reduce that conflict and its effects on their children. People who come to the course are often, but not always, ordered to attend by courts. Research indicates that parents who attend the course are more likely to engage in mediation and understand its benefits. One parent who attended a course in Grimsby said “I really didn’t want to come and was worried I would be told what a bad parent I was. Instead the presenters were really friendly and approachable and I got a lot out of it”.
Family Matters in unique position
As Family Matters can provide a mediation, information and assessment meeting (MIAM) that can lead to mediation and a SPIP, or direct access to a SPIP, it is in a unique position to provide people in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and York with a seamless service from the SPIP to mediation. This can lead to better uptake and involvement by parents and better outcomes for parents and their children. Family Matters’ director and deliverer of the course program, Juliette Dalrymple, said “I am delighted that we have been successful in our bid to manage this program, which fits well into our range of services and means we have an enhanced offering for clients. As part of our bid we were required to obtain Cyber Essentials Plus certification. This shows our clients that our business is able to prevent the most prevalent forms of cyber-attacks, and that doing business with us online is safer. It also evidences our commitment to managing the changes that GDPR will bring to data protection in the UK in May 2018.
Course delivered to 100 people so far
Alison McIlroy, Family Matters’ practice manager, said “We started to offer the SPIP programme in January 2018, and since then we have delivered nineteen courses to over 100 participants in total, and we have six further courses planned. We are in the process of developing a webpage to explain Family Matters’ SPIP provision, how it works and how parents and children can benefit from it.
Click here to find out more about the Separated Families Information Programme
