The Ministry of Justice has developed a mediation voucher scheme, whereby a contribution of up to £500 per case/family to the mediation costs of a child arrangements case will be offered, encouraging people to seek to resolve their disputes outside of court where appropriate to do so.
The purpose of the scheme is to promote the benefits of mediation and divert matters where appropriate away from the family courts. The scheme will offer mediation participants a financial contribution of up to £500 per family towards the total costs of their mediation.
| Vouchers are now issued by Opia Ltd. Please visit its voucher site here to register and submit voucher requests. Opia can also be contacted on 0330 818 2983. |
The FMC issued vouchers on behalf of the Ministry of Justice where vouchers were received up to and including 31 July 2023. All vouchers issued by the FMC have now been paid, expired or transferred to Opia. The FMC cannot make any further payments under the scheme.
Please do continue to submit data for those cases that were paid when £500 of mediation costs had been reached, and were therefore paid before data had been submitted.
You may find the following documents helpful:
- Participant Questionnaire in PDF or Word
- Case data to be submitted by the mediator. (You will be required to enter this data online rather than submit this as a completed form – it is being supplied in this format so you can ensure you have all the details required).
The FMC’s Privacy Notice for the Mediation Voucher Scheme can be found here.
