Kids in the Middle

Gingerbread's research on contact

Our research on children’s contact arrangements revealed that many parents, both fathers and mothers, and children would have liked more help and support in dealing with the issues they faced following separation. Not just on child contact, but on other issues such as disputes about child maintenance, general advice and support and – in the case of children – simply having their voices heard.


That’s why Gingerbread, along with Relate, the Fatherhood Institute and Families Need Fathers, is involved in this campaign, aimed at getting more Government investment in support services for parents and children during and following relationship breakdown.

Over the summer, the organisations ran a national online survey of parents and children, to ask what help they felt they needed and would have liked following separation and divorce.

See Kids in the Middle survey report

Agony Aunts' support

The campaign has been backed by a wide range of the nation’s agony aunts. In October, the four organisations plus eighteen of the agony aunts, led by Deidre Sanders of The Sun, delivered the results of the national online survey in person to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls. The group then went on to meet the Shadow Secretary of State, Michael Gove.

Deidre Sanders (The Sun's "Dear Deidre") on Kids in the Middle

The agony aunts backed our calls for:

• More services for parents to help reduce conflict, particularly for the 90 percent  of families who do not go to a court to resolve their disputes.
• Counselling in schools and other support services working directly with children.
• A ‘seedbed’ of ten properly funded and evaluated pilots to develop and test effective and affordable ways of providing services to families dealing with separation and its aftermath.