Family Mediation Matters
Helping you resolve children and financial issues after separation or divorce, in a calm, clear and cost-effective way.
Services
Confidential discussions
Family mediation is a private and confidential process for couples going through separation or divorce. At Family Mediation Matters, mediation gives you a safe, neutral space to talk about child arrangements, parenting plans, housing and financial settlement without going straight to court. What you and the other person say in mediation stays between you, so you can speak openly, explore options for children, property, pensions and money, and work towards a clear, fair agreement that suits your family. A qualified family mediator helps you stay focused on practical solutions, reduce conflict, save on legal costs and reach decisions you both understand and can live with, now and in the future.
Non binding
During family mediation, both of you can talk openly about the issues and put forward different ideas for solving them. This safe space helps you test options and work towards an agreement that feels fair to you both. Where appropriate, especially in financial and property matters, the final agreement can be made legally binding by turning it into a court order. In children matters this is less usual, as many parents prefer to keep arrangements flexible and focused on their children’s needs.
Mediation is a voluntary process. It is designed for people who want to sort things out themselves, in a way that suits their family, rather than having a judge or other stranger impose a decision on them. By choosing mediation you keep more control, make decisions at your own pace and reduce conflict wherever possible.
ABOUT
George Allingham - Mediator
Background
George is a highly experienced family mediator and family law solicitor, with over 40 years of working with families facing separation and divorce and more than 15 years in family mediation. He offers an all-inclusive family mediation service, helping clients understand their options and move from separation towards clear, practical agreements.
Clients benefit from his in-depth knowledge of family law and court procedure, combined with his calm, structured approach to mediation. He supports people to identify what matters most to them, explore different options and test out proposals in a safe, confidential setting.
He is a formally trained family mediator and works in line with the Family Mediation Council code of ethics. George is committed to high professional standards, transparency and fairness in every case.
Mediation style
George understands how stressful and confusing separation, divorce and child arrangements can feel. Many clients arrive unsure where to start, what information they need or which choices are realistic. He works in a pragmatic and sensitive way, helping clients explain their situation in their own words and clarify their priorities.
He is skilled at guiding clients through negotiations about children, housing, money and other complex issues. He helps each person understand their options, adjust expectations where needed and work towards arrangements that feel workable now and in the future.
Remaining neutral and impartial, George supports both parties as they explore what needs to be put in place and how realistic different proposals are. His aim is to reduce cost and conflict and to keep discussions focused on practical solutions.
Drawing on his extensive experience of a wide range of families and cases, George helps people who feel stuck to move forward, often turning long-standing conflict into clear, concrete plans.
Mediation services
Clients often need to resolve immediate pressures while planning for the future. George offers a wide range of family mediation services, so clients can choose what best suits their circumstances. These include:
- Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) - an initial information and assessment session to understand your situation and discuss whether mediation is suitable.
- Co-parenting and child arrangements mediation - negotiating and implementing parenting plans.
- Review and re-negotiation of existing child contact or living arrangements where agreements have broken down or circumstances have changed.
- Family group mediation, involving wider family members where appropriate.
- Communication-focused mediation, agreeing communication protocols and boundaries to reduce conflict.
- Finance-only mediation, reaching a negotiated settlement about property, pensions and other financial matters.
- Full-service separation and divorce mediation, covering children, housing and finances and leading to a comprehensive mediated agreement that can, where appropriate, be turned into a court order.
- George uses a clear, step-by-step process, tailored to each family's situation. He helps clients gather the right information and work at a pace that feels manageable. Throughout the process, clients are encouraged to make informed choices based on:
- sufficient, shared financial and practical information
- a clear understanding of the options available
- access to independent legal and other professional advice where required
- knowing their rights and responsibilities
- time and space to think before making any final decisions
This approach places clients in a strong position to present their mediated proposals to their solicitors and other advisers and, where needed, to the family court for approval.
MIAM
Mediation Assessment and Information Meeting
(MIAM)
This is an opportunity for the mediator to explain the process, ascertain that the subject matter and the parties are suitable for mediation, and undertake a safety assessment.
This meeting is on a one to one basis and is confidential.
The MIAM is repeated with the other party and if the mediator and the parties consider mediation to be appropriate and desirable, then a mediation meeting with the three parties is arranged.
Each MIAM will be about thirty minutes with a fixed fee of £150 shared between the parties.
Initial MIAM
£150
Children mediation
As parents your children are incredibly important to you now, and will be well beyond their childhood.
It is therefore essential that parents work together in a constructive way at a time, and continuing, when how their parents behave towards each other are lessons in life for them.
Points scoring, blame and an unwillingness to work together can make for a miserable time, for everyone.
Each session will be about 90 minutes. The number of sessions will depend on the issues, and the parties. Often one session, and sometimes 2 or more.
Children mediation
£200 per hour.
This is shared between the parties equally, or in some other agreed proportion.
Financial mediation
Financial mediation firstly involves the parties making full open and honest disclosure to each other, and to the mediator.
When that process is completed, and possibly before, the parties meet with the mediator to look at their assets, including pensions, and liabilities and discuss how they will be shared. There may be lots of options, or very few. Each couple's circumstances will be unique to them.
Mediation is constructive and outcomes can be agreed and be imaginative. That tends not to be the case if "discussions" are carried out at the kitchen table or convolutedly through solicitors. The court in tightly constrained in what orders it can make.