Family Law Services
Aidhour Services for Private Legal Proceedings
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Aidhour is regularly used by the top ten Family Law Firms in London (source: www.Legaltop500.com)
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Aidhour is regularly used by 22 of the top 26 top law firms in the UK (source: www.Legaltop500.com)
Impartial, discrete and experienced. Aidhour provides quick access to Contact Supervisor and Independent Social Worker (ISW) services for courts, legal firms and local authorities’ legal department.
Click on the links below to go to the relevant paragraphs
Information for Parents
Mediation
Contact Supervision
Section 7 Reports
Other Social Work Assessments
All Services
Information for Parents
We appreciate how difficult it is when parents separate and there are disputes which impact on your children. Since 1998, Aidhour has been supervising contact between parents and their children and writing Section 7 reports for court. More recently Aidhour has also recruited experienced Mediators (accredited members of the Family Mediation Council).
Usually, our services are commissioned by Solicitors for parents who are seeking to establish safe and regular arrangements between themselves and their children in the longer-term. We can now take direct referrals from parents for mediation.
Aidhour services are impartial and discreet. Aidhour reports are concise and evidence-based.
Child and Family Mediation Services
Aidhour provides completely independent mediators to help you and your child’s other parent to sort out the arrangements for your children, such as where the children will live and how much time they will spend with each parent. And more importantly, Aidhour Mediators can help you establish means of communicating, so you can resolve the matters that will continue to arise as your children get older. Aidhour Mediators are accredited members of the Family Mediation Council.
You may already have Solicitors sorting out your finances (your house, your savings, your pensions, your debts, your child maintenance payments), but you also need help with sorting out arrangements for your children. You may not trust the mediators in the child’s other parent’s legal firm, and they may not trust your Solicitor’s mediators to resolve these matters.
Many people find that mediation is less stressful, less time-consuming, and much less expensive than going through the family courts. It is for these reasons that in most cases, the court will expect you to consider mediation seriously before going to court. A mediator helps you and your child’s other parent or carer without taking anyone’s ‘side’.
Research shows that family mediation can cost less than a quarter of the price and take a quarter of the time of going to court and, more importantly, it can ensure better results. National Audit Office figures on legally-aided mediation show that the average time for a mediated case to be completed is 110 days, compared to 435 days for court cases on similar issues. According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2013 “nearly two thirds of couples who attended a single mediation session for a child dispute reached a full agreement. Almost seven out of every ten couples who opted for mediation reached an agreement.” (Ministry of Justice Press Release published 20 August 2014)
Child Contact Supervision
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Aidhour regularly supervises contact for the top ten Family Law Firms in London
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Aidhour is regularly used by 22 of the top 26 top law firms in the UK.
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Aidhour has Contact Supervisors across the country with a concentration in London and the Home Counties.
Information for Parents
DISCREET AND PROFESSIONAL
Supervised contact involves parents and their Solicitors agreeing venues and timings for contact between themselves. You will select who is going to be most suitable to undertake the supervision from among the CVs we provide of professionals that work for us. We ask parents to provide their full contact details, to provide details of their children and any special needs they may have, and we ask you to share with us any areas likely to cause disputes or which may impact on the safety of your children.
Our supervisors contact you to introduce themselves, to discuss any concerns you may have and to agree the fine details of arrangements. This provides an opportunity to talk about practicalities such as how handovers and comfort breaks will be managed, along with anything that will support children to enjoy and feel safe during their contact time.
KEEPING CHILDREN’S NEEDS AND WISHES AT THE CENTRE
During contact, supervisors are focused on making the experience for children as enjoyable as possible. This may involve stepping back and allowing you and your child’s bond to take its natural course, it may involve active participation in play, or it may involve intervening to support you and help relationships to flourish. Less frequently, it may involve intervening to comfort a child who is distressed or negotiating a cordial ending to a session which a child is not enjoying.
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Our supervisors contact you to introduce themselves, to discuss any concerns you may have and to agree the fine details of arrangements. This provides an opportunity to talk about practicalities such as how handovers and comfort breaks will be managed, along with anything that will support children to enjoy and feel safe during their contact time.
At all times contact supervisors expect to stay close to the parent whose contact is supervised and to be able to see and hear all their interactions with children.
Contact supervisors are not Nannies, and the care of children remains the responsibility of parents. However, supervisors are available to advise and support parents to help ensure children get the most from their contact time.
Following contact, our supervisors write a report as agreed at the point when the service is commissioned. Most of our contact supervisors are qualified Social Workers with experience of writing reports and giving evidence in court. We typically allow one hour for the contact supervisor to write an account of what happened during contact. These reports are usually shared with both parents and their Solicitors. Further reports (including Section 7 reports) may be commissioned as required.
We have experience of supervising contact abroad and overnight. Depending on circumstances and contact supervisor availability, we may be able to provide contact supervision in similar unusual circumstances. If you have a request which doesn’t fit with what has been described above, please get in touch and we can discuss how we can help.
Information for Solicitors
Aidhour is regularly used by the top ten Family Law Firms in London. Aidhour is regularly used by 22 of the top 26 top law firms in the UK. Aidhour has Contact Supervisors across the country with most concentrated in London and the Home Counties.
In complicated family situations, the only way that clients may be able to have contact with their children is when supervised by a child protection professional.
Solicitors in family law handling mediation, divorce, adoption, child arrangements and care proceedings rely on us to provide fast access to highly-experienced supervisors from backgrounds in social work, mediation, children’s advocacy and CAFCASS.
Aidhour offers a range of discreet professionals who can ensure the physical safety and emotional well-being of a child. Our supervised contact service is available seven days a week and outside standard office hours. For court appearances where agreements have been secured, we can provide a fast turnaround, responding immediately to requests, even for next-day arrangements.
Solicitors will also note that using Aidhour can take much of the stress out of the whole legal process. Our suite of services can accompany your client throughout any or all parts of their journey through Mediation, Contact Supervision to Section 7 Reporting, as necessary.
“An excellent team of experienced contact supervisors, who always go the extra mile.” (Solicitor)
“We have used Aidhour as a provider of supervised contact for our clients for some years. We experience them as child-focused professionals who provide a discreet and sensitive service and we regularly recommend them to other colleagues” (Solicitor)
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Section 7 Reports
Independent Social Work assessments for court in accordance with The Children Act 1989
Suitably qualified and highly experienced Aidhour Social Workers are available at short notice to provide independent report writing services for legal firms. Parents, family law firms, courts, and local authorities recognise the authority of an independent assessment made by a child-centred practitioner.
In divorce and separation, the court may need to decide where a child will live, and where and when they will have contact with a parent. Aidhour independent social workers provide an impartial assessment of the situation, taking into account the child’s wishes and feelings.
Our social workers compile concise and analytical reports detailing all available evidence. The advice given to the court will always be in the best interest of the child.
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Social Work Assessments
(including Section 37 Reports, Parenting assessments and other reports for Court)
When, during any private law proceedings under the Children Act 1989, a question arises about the welfare of the child, and it seems to the court that it might be appropriate for a Care Order or Supervision Order to be made, the court will direct a local authority to undertake an investigation of the child's circumstances and report to the Court its findings.
Aidhour undertakes Section 37 reports, Public Law Outline (PLO) assessments, Parenting Assessments, Special Guardianship Assessments, Fostering (Form F) Assessments, Regulation 24 Connected Person (Form C) Assessments, Risk Assessments, Together-and-Apart assessments and many other assessments for local authorities.
Aidhour Independent Social Workers are impartial, sensitive and discreet. Their reports are concise and based on evidence gained through interviews with parents and professionals and direct work with children. Please contact us and within 24 hours we can supply you with a choice of Independent Social Workers available to undertake assessments.
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