The Parenting Apart Programme (PAP) during the Pandemic in July 2020 were awarded a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund. The organisation worked with 30 hard to reach and low-income families, who could not self-fund the PAP. These families were going through Court proceedings, in most cases for at least two years, and had been unable to find a way forward. For some they had been in Court for over four years, and PAP was seen as a last resort.
Unlike the advice parents may receive from their legal advisors, the advice from the PAP focuses on the child’s wellbeing and providing stability for the child(ren). The PAP enables parents to form and develop a good respectful parent working relationship. The support is a real lasting and proven alternative to the costs, time, and emotional damage of litigation. The results show that the project was successful in getting parents to think about their behaviour in front of their children and significantly reducing their children’s exposure to conflict, as well as the co-parents undermining each-other less and encouraging a more positive view of the other co-parent’s parenting abilities. They were also able to find more agreement on co-parenting and division of labour. The results also highlighted that many of the parents had separated over a year ago, and were involved in lengthy court processes (several for over four years), the PAP had been used as a last resort for many – when it really needed to be a first resort.
Read our full Social Impact Report 2020 here.
#Parenting #Divorce #Seperation #Mediation #Children #Support #Family