Family Law

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has published information for legal aid providers interested in applying to deliver family mediation from February 2015.

Recent recommendations made by the Family Mediation Task Force for increasing participation in Family Mediation, included proposals that the LAA should:

• fund the first mediation session in all cases where one of the people involved is already legally aided; and
• review its future contracts with mediation services to enhance overall service quality.

In light of the recommendations, the LAA intends to:

• extend existing mediation contracts by 12 months to the 31 October 2016;
• invite expressions of interest from existing providers for new Outreach locations; and
• open a tender process to give new organisations the opportunity to provide publicly funded Family Mediation services while the long-term tender approach is developed. 

The tender process will open on the 1 October 2014 and run until the 31 October 2014. Contracts will commence on the 1 February 2015 and run until the 31 October 2016.