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Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

The defect of both amendments, as I read them, is that they do not actually say what the mediation is for. My understanding is that the mediation which has proved successful in the United States is based on trying to secure an agreement between the parents to a parenting plan for the child—not for any other purpose, such as the money, the house, the cat or the Cadillac. It appears from the American experience that mediation does not work terribly well unless there has been a parent education meeting before. I am not entirely sure that that is built into the noble Baroness’s proposal. But there ought to be a definition of the purpose of the meeting. It is quite limited—it is to get the parents to realise that it will be better for them and for the child if they can agree a solution and not go to court.