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Training for the IFLA Children Scheme: a delegate's view

Date:12 APR 2016
Third slide
Collaborative lawyer, mediator and arbitrator
Solicitor, collaborative lawyer, arbitrator and mediator
It's the first day of training for children scheme arbitrators. Back with our trainer Suzanne Kingston from our financial arbitration training this time partnered by Janet Bazley QC  there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air as we gathered. All the delegates were qualified as financial scheme IFLA arbitrators and all were clearly intrigued to find out how that scheme had been adapted to meet the unique needs of determining a child arrangements dispute.

The course outline was impressive covering a huge volume of material in a day and obviously having involved an enormous amount of work to develop. Starting with a quick canter through the procedural requirements of an arbitration under the Arbitration Act 1996 we quickly moved on to look at some of the particular challenges of providing an arbitration solution in children matters.

One area focused on was the question of safeguarding in family arbitration. Inevitably this provoked strong responses from the assembled delegates. Unlike the courts we will not have the assistance of Cafcass in early identification of any safeguarding risks in an arbitration case. A lively...

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