One Family is delighted to announce the date of the next Family Law seminar which will take place on Monday 5 December from 4pm-6pm. This is the third in One Family's series of webinars looking at Building a Family Law System for Court Users.

This event focuses on the needs of separating families and will feature a panel of national and international experts to examine the recently published Department of Justice's Family Justice Strategy and the upcoming Family Court Bill.

In-Person and Online Courses

One Family offer a range of parenting supports. Group-based courses are currently offered via live Zoom sessions to small groups of parents. There are opportunities at various times over the year to take the course in person when we partner with a community organisation. Learn more about these courses here.

Our E-learning for parents’ offers a selection of five online courses that allows you to learn at your own pace. You can sign up for the courses here. We have also recently redesigned the Family Communications: Separating Well for Children e-course. You can learn more about the course here.

The professionals e-course will be launched in December 2022. You can register for the professionals course here.

In 2020, a number of organisations working with children and/or parents with the experience of family separation/divorce, came together to share opportunities for staff training and development. Their aim was to improve outcomes for children and their parents post separation by ensuring staff were supported, trained and working within best practice guidance in this area.

The steering group that oversaw the initial activities in 2020 & 2021, see great potential in collaborative working to advance service delivery and practice to children and parents experiencing family separation/divorce. The Separation Network has now formally emerged as a working Network. We are seeking to form a National Executive Committee to oversee the development of the network for the next two years.

The initial aims of the network are:

Peer support – to create opportunities for frontline personnel to come together, share practice, support each other, and develop good referral pathways.
Best practice – to explore and understand the needs of those working with separated/divorced families and to develop best practice guidelines.
Training – to make bespoke training available to frontline staff working with separated/divorced families, ensuring an increase in confidence when working in this complex area of family work.
Policy Change – work to seek change and advancement across the sector on issues affecting separated/divorced families.

Contact details:

If you are interested in becoming a Network Member please email:

Anne Staunton, Chair of The Separation Network and CEO of Rainbows Ireland

Email – anne@rainbowsireland.ie

Policy and Media

Reforming the Family Law System

Ireland finally has a strategy to inform the development of a modern family law system which is long overdue as families continue to be pushed into adversarial, expensive, slow court processes.

The Family Justice Strategy was published by the Department of Justice on 16 November 2022 by the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee. One Family made a submission to the Family Justice Oversight Group who developed the strategy and we also sat on an Advisory Group feeding directly into the work.

The strategy has been described as a foundational approach and is for 3 years. One Family welcome the centrality of a child-centred approach to the work but we are disappointed that there is no commitment to the development or funding of out of court services to help families avoid court where possible. In fact there is no commitment yet to any additional resources or funding.

We are waiting for the publication of the Family Courts Bill which will set the legislative framework for the development of specialist Family Courts with trained judiciary. We also made a submission which can be viewed here.

Submission on Child Maintenance to the Committee on Justice

The Government has published the long-awaited report from the Child Maintenance Review Group and announced key changes to how child maintenance will be administered.

The Child Maintenance Review Group worked throughout 2021 consulting with groups such as One Family and gathering information from Ireland and abroad. The report makes a number of key recommendations, some of which the Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphries, announced will be implemented by the Department.

The key announcements made by the Minister include that child maintenance will no longer be means tested by the Department and that the requirement for parents to seek maintenance as a condition of eligibility for payments will be removed. These are most welcome developments that will have a significant positive impact on thousands of families, and something One Family has long campaigned for. We understand that the changes to legislation required to implement these changes are scheduled for 2023 and we will keep you updated on developments as they happen.

The Child Maintenance Review Group also made recommendations that the Department should no longer seek to recoup a portion of claim costs from the ‘liable relative’ and we understand this will also be implemented as part of the reforms. The Group was split 4 to 3 in favour of establishing an independent child maintenance agency and unfortunately this does not seem to be part of the Government’s plans. This is disappointing as the majority of groups consulted as part of the Review, including One Family, felt strongly that this was a necessary tool in insuring parents aren’t left to fend for themselves when it comes to agreeing and managing their children’s maintenance. You can view our submission here.

Issues facing one-parent families have been prominent in the media with One Family and other NGOs advocating on behalf of families. Please see below a selection of stories from the month:

Radio and News Articles

One Family, Rainbows Ireland and Ozanam House are working together with the support of Toy Show Funding to roll out Rainbows Groups for children.

Groups start on Oct 17th and will be running until June 2023.

The Rainbows Ireland service is an inclusive service, supporting children and young people experiencing grief and loss resulting from bereavement/parental separation/parental relationship breakdown /divorce. Attending the programme provides children with an opportunity to meet with other children of a similar age and loss experience.

We will work to engage their parent in a 6-week programme, so they feel more able to support their child following an experience of loss through separation or bereavement.

We are open to all queries - you are welcome to call into Ozanam House on Monday or Tuesday to meet with Roisin for more details also.

Please share this project with your colleagues – there is no catchment area.

Contact details:
Project Coordinator – Roisin Sarsfield
Phone number – 089 9407519
Webpage – https://onefamily.ie/the-pillar-project/
Email – roisin@pillarproject.ie

FIND US

CONTACT DETAILS

One Family, 8 Coke Lane, Smithfield, Dublin 7.
t: +353 1 662 9212 | e: info@onefamily.ie
askonefamily lo-call helpline: 1890 662 212
Contact Us | Find Us on Google Maps
website: www.onefamily.ie

Trading as One Family, Cherish CLG is a company limited by guarantee not having a share capital, registered in Dublin, Ireland with registered office at 8 Coke Lane, Dublin 7 and registered Company Number 45364. One Family is also a charity (Charity Regulatory Authority No. 20012212 and Charity No. 6525).

Directors of One Family: Helen Hall, Jennifer Good, Nuala Haughey, Eimear Fisher, Jack Eustace, Donagh McGowan, Rosemary Wokocha and John Bohan.

Copyright © 2022 One Family, All rights reserved.

Why am I getting this email?
You are receiving this email as you signed up to One Family's mailing list or had previous communication with us. If you'd prefer not to receive it, please click on the link below to unsubscribe.

You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.