A Child’s Right to Matter - The Divorce Podcast

In this episode, Kate is joined by clinical psychologist, Angharad Rudkin, and solicitor, mediator, and campaigner Helen Adam.

Episode #106: A Child’s Right to Matter with Helen Adam and Dr Angharad Rudkin

You can listen to the full episode below, or on your favourite listening platform such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Explore different episodes here.

Meet our guests

Helen Adam started her work with separating families as a solicitor in London. Following a career break, she retrained as a mediator and founded Wells Family Mediation. Helen is also chair of the Family Solutions Group (FSG). The FSG presses for coordinated political oversight and funding for separated families. We’ve previously recorded an episode on language with Helen, so make sure to have a listen.

Dr Angharad Rudkin is a clinical psychologist with over 20 years experience of working with children and families to discuss divorce and separation from the perspective of children.

Angharad is also an expert for the Metro's relationship column, offers training and consultation for family lawyers and worked as a lecturer on the Clinical Psychology doctorate at the University of Southampton for 12 years.

Angharad was a consulting editor for ‘101 Questions Answered about Separating with Children’ and has recently published a book for children on how to cope with their parent’s divorce, The Split Survival Kit, written with children’s author Ruth Fitzgerald.

We’ve also recorded an episode with Angharad in the past which is episode 57 if you would like to have a listen.

About the episode

Kate and Helen begin the episode by discussing the Family Solutions Group (FSG) and explaining the Right to Matter report.

They move on to discuss who in Government currently takes responsibility for children when parents separate. Helen explores some of the consultations' findings as well as the common questions that emerged from the UK Youth Parliament.

Later on in the episode, Kate and Angharad discuss how children and families are impacted during parental separation, whether divorce or separation impacts children’s mental health and to what extent. Also, they explore what this can look like day-to-day and what the key factors are that lead to significant impact.

Finally, Helen and Adam give their recommendations for further help and advice and the next steps for future reports and actions on the level of government.