On 16th January 2022 the Deputy Prime Minister Dominic announced £1.3 million additional funding for the scheme to increase the total fund to circa £3 Million.
The Family Mediation Council anticipate this will last until about the end of March 2022.
The voucher is non means tested and provides £500 towards the cost of mediation concerning child arrangements. It was introduced to help cut the court backlog due to Covid19, reduce family conflict and to encourage parents to sort their own child arrangements where safe to do so.
The government have said that the scheme has been a great success as “77 percent of cases reaching full or partial agreements away from the family courts”. The government have also explained that “further information about the scheme and how it works is provided to parties at their Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM), which all those involved in family cases are required to attend, unless they have a valid exemption. Mediation can be undertaken by other family members, not just separating parents”.