When Children Speak: Attuning to Voice, Responding with Adult Responsibility

This one-day, in-person CPD training brings together perspectives from mediation, psychology, systemic practice and child mental health.

Led by Katy Harris, Prof. Ben Hine, Penny Ruth Willis and Lucy Morrison-Childs, the day offers a rare opportunity to step back from process and consider a more fundamental question: When children speak in the context of conflict, what are we actually hearing?

Across family justice, therapeutic and support systems, children’s words, behaviours and expressed views are often taken at face value, shaped by professional assumptions, or placed into processes that require clarity children are not always able to provide.

This training does not offer a model or a fixed approach. Instead, it creates a structured, reflective space to explore:

• how children’s communications are shaped by context

• how interpretation is formed across different professional roles

• where misunderstanding can arise, even within well-intentioned practice

• and how those misunderstandings can influence outcomes for children and families

Through a combination of input, shared discussion and case-based exploration, the day brings together different lenses without reducing them to a single way of working.

Participants are invited to think more carefully about how children are understood and how responsibility is held within adult systems.

Who this is for

This training is designed for professionals whose work is influenced by children’s voices, including:

• Family mediators

• Family lawyers

• CAFCASS and court professionals

• Therapists and psychologists

• Those working in and around high-conflict family dynamics

Important positioning

• This is a reflective, cross-disciplinary training day.

• It does not provide instruction in child-inclusive mediation practice, safeguarding decision-making frameworks, or professional accreditation.

• Its purpose is to deepen understanding, not to teach a specific method.

Early bird - £210

Early Bird with Lunch - £245