The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme is a Ministry of Justice programme in England and Wales that contributes up to £500 towards the cost of family mediation for separating parents in a dispute about a child. The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme was launched on 26 March 2021 with an initial fund of £1 million as a time-limited response to the pressure on the Family Court after the pandemic, and has been renewed each year since; funding for the 2026-27 financial year was confirmed in March 2026.[1][2][3] There is no means test. The voucher is available to anyone whose dispute concerns a child, or concerns finances as well as a child, but not to a dispute solely about money or property, and it does not pay for the Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting that precedes mediation.[2][4]
The person using the scheme never handles a voucher. The mediator, who must be authorised by the Family Mediation Council, applies for the funding and is paid directly once the mediation sessions are concluded; one voucher is available per family or case.[4][2] By May 2026 the scheme had supported more than 54,000 parents at a cost of more than £7 million a year.[5] A Ministry of Justice analysis of the first 7,214 families found that 69 per cent reached agreement on some or all issues and either did not go to court or went only for a consent order, at an average voucher claim of £424.[6] Since 1 August 2023 the scheme has been administered on the Ministry’s behalf by Opia Ltd, having previously been run by the Family Mediation Council.[7]
Definition and purpose
GOV.UK describes the scheme as “a voucher scheme which will provide a contribution of up to £500 towards the mediation costs for eligible cases, supporting people in resolving their family law disputes outside of court”.[2] It is a contribution rather than a full payment: the Family Mediation Council notes that £500 may not cover the whole cost, and that the parties may need to pay the balance depending on the mediator’s rates and the number of sessions.[4] GOV.UK’s guidance for separating parents states that the voucher usually covers “a minimum of 2 mediation sessions”.[8]
The stated purpose at launch was to encourage more people to consider mediation as a means of resolving disputes and to relieve pressure on the courts. The Ministry of Justice announced the scheme alongside wider spending on court recovery, saying that mediation “is often quicker, cheaper and less stressful” than court, and expected about 2,000 families to benefit from the first £1 million.[1] It is distinct from legal aid for family mediation, which is means-tested and pays the whole cost for an eligible person, and the two can be used in the same case.[2][9]
Legal and administrative basis
The scheme has no statutory footing of its own. It is a discretionary spending programme of the Ministry of Justice, announced by press release and described in non-statutory guidance on GOV.UK, which was last updated on 7 April 2021 and has not been revised as the funding has been extended.[2] Its operating rules are set out for mediators by the Family Mediation Council, which was the Ministry’s delivery partner from launch and continues to publish the public-facing eligibility criteria.[4][7]
Administration passed from the Family Mediation Council to Opia Ltd with effect from 1 August 2023. The FMC states that vouchers requested “up to and including 31 July 2023” carry an FMC reference beginning MOJ and have all been paid, expired or transferred, and that “vouchers are now issued by Opia Ltd”, through which mediators register, request vouchers and submit case data.[7] Only mediators “authorised by the Family Mediation Council” may take part, that is, mediators on the FMC register; see FMCA accredited family mediator.[4]
Eligibility
A voucher is available where the mediation concerns “a dispute/application regarding a child”, or “a dispute/application regarding family financial matters where you are also involved in a dispute/application relating to a child”.[2][4] Disputes that are solely about finances or property do not qualify.[2] The MIAM must have taken place on or after 26 March 2021, the mediator must decide at the MIAM that the case is suitable for mediation, both people must agree to mediate, and only one voucher is available per family or case; a family that has already had a voucher for the same dispute cannot claim again.[4][2] There is no means test, no requirement to have been to court, and no requirement to be a parent as such, provided the dispute is about a child.[2]
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Subject of the dispute | A child (for example arrangements for where a child lives or time with each parent), or finances together with a child dispute; finance-only cases are excluded[2][4] |
| MIAM | Attended on or after 26 March 2021; the MIAM itself is not funded by the voucher[4] |
| Suitability | The mediator assesses at the MIAM that mediation is suitable and both people agree to take part[4] |
| Mediator | Authorised by the Family Mediation Council and registered with the scheme administrator[4][7] |
| Number of vouchers | One per family or case, for a one-off contribution of up to £500[2] |
| Means | Not tested; income and capital are irrelevant[2] |
| Jurisdiction | England and Wales[2] |
The child-focused limit reflects the scheme’s origin as a measure to divert private law children applications from the Family Court. Applications about money on divorce, which go through financial mediation, qualify only if the same parties are also mediating about a child.[2] The distinction is applied by the mediator when requesting the voucher, and a case that begins as a children case and extends to finances remains eligible.[4]
How the voucher is claimed
The parties do not apply for the voucher and receive no document. GOV.UK states: “Your mediator will apply for the voucher funding and it will be paid directly to them once all mediation sessions are concluded.”[2] In practice the mediator confirms eligibility at the MIAM, registers the case with the scheme administrator, conducts the sessions, and then claims up to £500 against the invoiced cost; the parties pay any balance above £500 and any charges for the MIAM.[4] The mediator must also submit a short questionnaire and case data, including the outcome, which form the basis of the Ministry of Justice’s published analysis.[7][6]
The FMC’s public page explains that “the mediator will apply on your behalf” and that the voucher “will not cover the cost of a MIAM”.[4] Because the voucher is paid on conclusion, some mediators ask the parties to pay for sessions as they go and refund the voucher amount, while others invoice only the balance; the scheme rules do not prescribe which. Where the mediator’s total charge is less than £500, the claim is for the lower amount, which is why the average claim in the Ministry’s first analysis was £424 rather than £500.[6]
Interaction with legal aid and private fees
The voucher and legal aid serve different people. Legal aid for mediation is means-tested and pays the full cost of the MIAM and all sessions for an eligible person, and where one person qualifies it also pays the other person’s MIAM and first joint session.[10][11][9] A person who does not qualify for legal aid, but whose former partner does, therefore pays only from the second session onwards, and in a children case can use the voucher towards those later sessions.[9][2] Where neither qualifies for legal aid, the voucher is the only public contribution and both pay their own MIAM.[8]
The Ministry’s 2023 analysis found that in 29 per cent of voucher cases one party had legal aid.[6] The Family Mediation Council’s 2025 survey found that most privately funded children cases cost under £1,000 in mediation fees: 26 per cent were under £500 and 44 per cent between £500 and £1,000, so a £500 voucher covers all or a substantial part of the mediation in most children cases, though not the MIAM, for which around £150 per person was the most common fee.[12] Typical private rates and how they are structured are on mediation costs.
Statistics and evaluation
The Ministry of Justice published a single formal analysis of the scheme in March 2023, covering the first 7,214 families whose cases had concluded. It found that 69 per cent (4,961 families) reached agreement on some or all issues and “did not go on to court or went only for a consent order”; that the average voucher claim was £424 and total claims £3.1 million; that 88 per cent of mediations were conducted online; that one party had legal aid in 29 per cent of cases; and that mediators judged 51 per cent of families would not have mediated without the voucher.[6] No later analysis has been published; subsequent figures come from ministerial announcements, the FMC and Freedom of Information disclosures.[13][5][14]
| Date | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 26 March 2021 | Scheme launched with £1 million; about 2,000 families expected to benefit | Ministry of Justice[1] |
| 23 March 2023 | More than 15,300 families supported; funding extended by £15 million to a total of £23.6 million to April 2025 | Ministry of Justice[15] |
| March 2023 | First 7,214 families analysed: 69 per cent agreement without court or with a consent order only; average claim £424; 88 per cent online | Ministry of Justice analysis[6] |
| December 2023 | More than 24,000 families; around 44,600 expected by March 2025 | Government consultation response[16] |
| 3 April 2024 | More than 27,000 families; £23.6 million scheme; two-thirds avoided court | Ministry of Justice[13] |
| 2024/25 | 13,675 vouchers issued; £6.15 million spent; 69 per cent full or partial settlement without court or with a consent order only | Family Mediation Council[12] |
| 2025/26 | 15,720 applications and 14,579 vouchers issued | Ministry of Justice data released under FOI, reported by Family Law[14] |
| 15 May 2026 | More than 54,000 parents supported since 2021; more than £7 million a year | Ministry of Justice[5] |
| May 2026 | 57,335 vouchers granted since launch, combined value £28.7 million | Ministry of Justice data released under FOI, reported by Family Law[14] |
The 2023 analysis set out its own limitations. Outcomes were recorded by mediators on a questionnaire, with some inconsistencies; it “was not possible to link the voucher scheme data to family court data”, so whether a family later went to court could not be independently checked; there was no follow-up to detect agreements that broke down; and the estimate of how many families would have mediated without the voucher rested on mediators’ opinion.[6] The 69 per cent figure is therefore a measure of agreement at the end of mediation as reported by the mediator, not of durable settlement. It is also often quoted alongside a higher figure of 77 per cent for families reaching a whole or partial agreement, which counts all 5,574 families whose mediator recorded agreement on all or some issues before those who went on to court were removed.[6] Wider figures on mediation outcomes and their sources are on family mediation statistics; the voucher figures above, together with later announcements, are compiled and kept current on Mediation Guide’s voucher scheme data page, published by Family Legal Ltd, the publisher of this wiki.[17]
For context, 15,534 private law children cases were started in the Family Court in January to March 2026, and in 49 per cent of cases disposed in that quarter neither party was legally represented.[18]
History and funding
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| 26 March 2021 | Launch by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, Courts Minister, with £1 million; delivered through the Family Mediation Council[1] |
| 2021-22 | 7,591 applications and 7,086 vouchers granted in the scheme’s first financial year, according to Ministry of Justice data released under the Freedom of Information Act[14] |
| 23 March 2023 | Alongside a consultation on compulsory mediation, the government announced £15 million more, taking total funding to £23.6 million and extending the scheme to April 2025[15] |
| March 2023 | Ministry of Justice analysis of the first 7,214 families published[6] |
| 1 August 2023 | Administration transferred from the Family Mediation Council to Opia Ltd[7] |
| 12 February 2024 | Government response to the consultation: compulsory mediation not pursued; continued voucher funding of up to £23.6 million to March 2025 confirmed[16] |
| 3 April 2024 | 27,000 families milestone; Spring Budget 2024 package of £55 million for separating parents, including a funded early legal advice pilot[13] |
| 27 March 2026 | Funding confirmed for the 2026-27 financial year[3][19] |
| 15 May 2026 | 54,000 parents milestone announced by Baroness Levitt KC alongside the national expansion of Child Focused Courts[5] |
The scheme has never been given a fixed end date beyond the financial year in which it is funded. GOV.UK describes it as time-limited and the FMC states that vouchers are “limited in number and will be offered to eligible parties until they are no longer available”.[2][4] Each renewal has been announced in the spring, shortly before or after the start of the financial year.[3][15]
Criticism and debate
The most persistent criticism is the year-to-year nature of the funding. When the 2026-27 renewal was announced, the chief executive of National Family Mediation said that “annual renewal, rather than the implementation of a long term scheme, was causing uncertainty” and called for mediation to become “a permanent, reliable part of the support families can depend on”.[19] The Family Mediation Council has made the same point, linking the scheme’s continuation to discussions with the Ministry about “long-term sustainability”.[3]
A second criticism concerns scope. The voucher excludes the MIAM, which every participant must pay for privately unless legally aided, and excludes disputes solely about finances, even though financial remedy applications make up a large part of the Family Court’s private workload: 12,646 financial remedy applications were made in January to March 2026.[2][18] A third concerns the evidence base. The only published evaluation dates from 2023, relies on mediator-reported outcomes and could not be linked to court records, so the scheme’s effect on the number of court applications remains an estimate.[6] Against this, the scheme is widely regarded within the sector as having brought people to mediation who would not otherwise have tried it; the 2023 analysis attributed 51 per cent of participating families to the voucher, and the Family Mediators Association described it in 2024 as allowing “people to try mediation who would never have considered it before”.[6][13]
The scheme was also a central plank of the government’s 2023 proposal to make mediation compulsory in suitable children cases, which would have relied on the voucher to fund it. That proposal was dropped in February 2024 in favour of strengthening the court’s powers under Part 3 of the Family Procedure Rules, and the voucher continued as a voluntary incentive.[15][16] See mediation and the Family Court.
Providers and getting help
Any mediator on the Family Mediation Council register who has registered with the scheme administrator can offer the voucher, and most do; the FMC directs people to its “Find your local mediator” search to locate one.[4][2] The mediator confirms eligibility at the MIAM. National online providers and local not-for-profit services alike take part. Where a person may also qualify for legal aid, a provider holding a Legal Aid Agency contract can assess both forms of funding at the same MIAM.[9]
See also
- Family mediation
- Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting – the meeting the voucher does not cover
- Legal aid for family mediation – the means-tested alternative
- Mediation costs
- Child arrangements mediation – the disputes the voucher funds
- Family mediation statistics
- Mediation and the Family Court
- Form C100 – the court application the scheme aims to avoid
References
- £1 million voucher scheme to help families resolve disputes outside of court. Ministry of Justice. 26 March 2021. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. GOV.UK. last updated 7 April 2021. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- FMC welcomes funding of family mediation voucher scheme for 2026-27 financial year. Family Mediation Council. 27 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. Family Mediation Council. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Families spared time and money during separation thanks to government action. Ministry of Justice. 15 May 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Mediation Voucher Scheme analysis. Ministry of Justice. March 2023. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Mediation Voucher Scheme (mediator area). Family Mediation Council. Vouchers requested up to and including 31 July 2023 were issued by the FMC; vouchers are now issued by Opia Ltd. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Making child arrangements if you divorce or separate: make an agreement through mediation. GOV.UK. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- What does mediation cost?. Family Mediation Council. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Practice Direction 3A: Family Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs). Ministry of Justice. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013, regulation 5. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- The State of Family Mediation 2025. Family Mediation Council. September 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Thousands of families spared from damaging courtroom conflict. Ministry of Justice. 3 April 2024. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family mediation voucher scheme extended amid sharp rise in uptake. Family Law (LexisNexis). Reports Ministry of Justice figures obtained by Russell-Cooke LLP under the Freedom of Information Act. 18 May 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Plans to protect children under new mediation reforms. Ministry of Justice. 23 March 2023. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Supporting earlier resolution of private family law arrangements: government response. Ministry of Justice. 12 February 2024. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Mediation voucher scheme: results and data. Mediation Guide (Family Legal Ltd). last reviewed 9 July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026. Ministry of Justice. 25 June 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Mediation Voucher Scheme extended for one year to March 2027. National Family Mediation. 30 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
External links
This article is part of Family Mediation Wiki, published by Family Legal Ltd. It is general information about the law of England and Wales, not legal advice. Last reviewed 6 September 2026. About this site and editorial policy · Report an error.