Conferences and Seminars

The Centre for Separated Families has been responsible for organising a number of events bringing together practitioners, academics and policy makers in order to share knowledge and expertise.

The first of these was the highly successful Putting Children First: best practice in support to separated families conference which was held in October 2008. The event, which was staged in east London, heard key note speeches form the Commissioner for Child Maintenance Stephen Geraghty, the Chief Executive of Cafcass Anthony Douglas and the founder of the Centre for Social Justice, Iain Duncan Smith. There were also nine seminars addressing specific issues around family separation and a question and answer session with a panel of experts.

In November 2008, the Centre brought together key people from the October conference for a Round Table Seminar and Discussion. A policy paper was presented which contained four key recommendations for Government.

The Centre also believes that it is important to share understanding and best practice on an international level and, to this end, convened a Best Practice in Europe meeting in May 2009. The meeting, which was held in the Czech capital Prague, resulted in the formation of the European Network for Shared Parenthood, with member organisations from eight European countries.

You can learn more about each of these events in this section.