Family solicitors encouraged to share Children's Commissioner letter with all separating parents

12 March 2026

The Times share the Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza's 'Dear Parents' letter which she urges is shown to all separating parents by family law professionals, to encourage dialogue about lower conflict routes to resolving their differences. 

The article references the forthcoming Family Solutions Group report, Putting Children First: The evolving role of the family law professional, which is co-authored by Edward Cooke, Founder and Managing Director of Edward Cooke Family Law, and includes some of the initial findings of the research behind the report. 

With around 280,000 children experiencing the separation of their parents each year, the Family Solutions Group are urging family law practitioners to put children's welfare at the heart of the process, by reducing conflict and encouraging child-inclusive mediation. The forthcoming report will also call for mandatory training for all family law practitioners in what the authors hope will be a "reframing of the traditional adversarial approach to family separation".