When a family separates, it can be a challenging time for everyone, especially since the Covid pandemic. There are difficult conversations to have and sometimes families need support to help find a way through. When support works well, this is better for everyone in the family, especially children, but we do not know enough about what families say themselves. If we can understand the experience of families who have been through separation, we can improve services to support other families in the future.
We are conducting research into the experiences of families who have been through separation. The findings will be used to inform recommendations to improve support for families going through the separation process in the future.
We are looking for people in the Bournemouth and North Wales areas who have been affected by family separation in the past 18 months. We are interested in speaking to mothers, fathers and children, but also anyone else in the family such as grandparents, or uncles and aunties. We are interested in speaking to people who have used the family court system, but also people who used other ways to make their separation arrangements.
If you take part, we will send you a digital camera to record your views on topics over four weeks. We will invite you to tell us about your family and the decisions you made to separate, and your experience of any support you had from friends, family members or professionals. After finishing this, we will ask you to return the camera to us and we will arrange an interview with you to understand your experiences in more detail.
If you would like to ask us questions, you can email us at patches-project@bristol.ac.uk or phone us on 07977 273329
If you would like to take part, you can read the full information and consider a consent form by clicking on one of the following links:
Further information for parents
Further information for young people (aged 16 and over)
Further information for children (aged 5-15)
Easy Read versions of information sheet and consent form
The project is being led by the University of Bristol and is funded by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. It will run from May to December 2021.