Parenting coordination is a child-focused process in which a mental or legal professional with specialized parenting coordination, arbitration and mediation training. This involves helping them to resolve their disputes in a timely manner; educating parents about children’s needs, and to protect and sustain safe, healthy and meaningful parent-child relationships, all with prior approval of the parties and/or the court, making decisions within the scope of the court order or the agreement that the parenting coordinator has with the parents.
Parenting coordination combines assessment, education, case management, conflict management and sometimes decision-making functions.
The Parenting Coordinator’s role is most frequently reserved for those high conflict parents who have demonstrated their inability, over the long-term or unwillingness to make parenting decisions on their own or to comply with parenting agreements and court orders. The goal is to reduce child-related conflicts and to protect the children from the impact of that conflict. Because the Parenting Coordinator makes recommendations and/or decisions for the parties and possibly reports to the court, the Parenting Coordinator may be appointed by the court.
Paul Henry is a member of the BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society, which is a group of British Columbia family law lawyers and mental health professionals. This group has established a programme to train and organize Parenting Coordinators in the province. As a member of the BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society, together with the other members of the society, Paul has had extensive experience in family law and has received comprehensive training in mediation, arbitration, and parenting co-ordination.