In 2002, the Australian
Government
Attorney-General's Department funded a national project entitled: A child focused professional development program for family law practitioners and other providers of dispute resolution assistance to separating families .
It was part of the government's overall family law strategy to guide separating people to use counselling and mediation first rather than turning to litigation. This strategy was based on findings that non-adversarial, primary dispute resolution processes were more likely to produce results
that
were in the best interests of the child.
Children in Focus programs – promoting pathways and skills for achieving child-sensitive outcomes with separating parents in conflict – were born out of that government initiative and are continuing. In the ensuing years, Children in Focus has
produced a number of resources including multimedia training material for practitioners and a parent education booklet.
Many of the papers published as a result of Children in Focus work are published in the Journal of Family Studies. The focus of the Journal is on the wellbeing of children in families in the process of change. It publishes research articles and practical papers of interest to academics, researchers, administrators, educators, mediators, lawyers, and clinicians.
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