The significance of kinship and friendship networks in supporting separated parents and their children, offering informal advice and information, and influencing their engagement with professionals, should not be underestimated.
They can act as a buffer to ameliorate the adverse effects of parental separation on parents and children alike. Similarly, support services (counsellors, 405 mediators, health, welfare and education personnel) and professional services (lawyers, lawyers for children, specialist report writers, judges and the Police) represent the human face of investigation, assessment, therapeutic, conciliation and litigation networks within the community and within the Family Court.