Press Room

Paddy O’Connell

Paddy O’Connell is the award-winning host of Sunday’s biggest news programme, Broadcasting House. The Radio Four favourite sets the tone for millions on Sunday with a mix of political and cultural news and interviews. Paddy has worked around the dial and around the world from Wall Street to the Eurovision Song Contest. He was brought up by his mum Betty, who was a Bletchley Park veteran, and he has worked for military charities in honour of the wartime generation, including his late father Guy, a D-Day Royal Marine Commando. Paddy has a Border Terrier, Bob, and he has recently been running a pub with friends. His fee for his work with us today is going to The Royal Marines Charity. We are very grateful for his support.

Sir Andrew McFarlane

Sir Andrew McFarlane is President of the Family Division and Head of Justice, and Chair of the Family Justice Council.

Sir Andrew was called to the Bar in 1977 and practiced in chambers in Birmingham until 1993 when he moved to specialist family law chambers in London. He appeared at all levels of court including the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. He was appointed as a QC in 1998.

In April 2005 Sir Andrew was appointed to the High Court, Family Division and was, for five years, the Family Division Liaison Judge for the Midland Circuit. He was the legal member of the Government ‘Family Justice Review’ Panel. In July 2011 he was appointed to be a Lord Justice of Appeal sitting full time in the Court of Appeal in London. In 2018 Sir Andrew succeeded Sir James Munby as President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice.

Sir Andrew has been a trustee of YoungMinds (the national young person’s mental health charity) and is Patron of HOPE Family Centre (Bromyard).

Siobhan Baillie

Siobhan Baillie is the MP for Stroud, having won the key swing seat from Labour in 2019. Born in West Sussex and educated in Yorkshire, Siobhan left school at 17 to work as a legal secretary, studying law in her spare time to qualify as a solicitor. Following on from a career in law, Siobhan stood as a local councillor in Camden and worked as Head of Policy and Communications for OnePlusOne before standing down in 2018 to dedicate her career to parliamentary politics.

Since her election in 2019, Siobhan has been appointed to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, she has served as Co-Chair of the APPG for Relationships as well as Chair for the APPG for Weddings and the APPG for Wetlands. Siobhan has done key work in campaigning for greater environmental protections, and she remains a key campaigner for further education.

Dr Jan Ewing

Dr Jan Ewing is a Research Fellow in the Law School at the University of Exeter. Jan is currently working on the Wellcome Centre-funded Healthy Relationship Transitions (HeaRT) project, looking at the role of child-inclusive mediation in the mental health and wellbeing outcomes for children whose parents separate. Her research has focused on children’s rights, particularly in the exercise of those rights when parents settle out of court following separation. Jan is a former family law solicitor.

Helen Adam

Helen Adam has worked with separating couples for over 30 years, initially as a family solicitor and, for the last 15 years, exclusively as a family mediator. She is a regular speaker and trainer on the transition to cooperative parenting following separation. She is a foundation trainer for the Family Mediators’ Association and a founding member of the Mediation and Domestic Abuse network. She has spoken at the Judicial College and the Family Justice Council and is a regular contributor to Family Law, with recent articles focussing on the use of language in the Family Justice system, and the growing body of brain science evidence into the harmful impact of toxic stress upon children.

Helen is the mediator representative on the Private Law Working Group and was invited to set up a multi-disciplinary ‘Family Solutions Group’, to make recommendations as to the needs of families, particularly the child, following family separation. Their report ‘What about me? Reframing Support for Families following Parental Separation’ was published in November 2020. It highlighted the vulnerability of children in systems which largely operate for adults. Helen will address the Family Justice Council in April 2022 calling for change: “Time for Climate Change in the Family Justice System?”

Angie Moxham

Angie Moxham is one of the most successful women in PR over the last 30 years. Despite her business acumen and financial means, Angie’s experience of the “system” following separation was overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. Thanks to counselling and three wonderful children, Angie is back on her feet and leaving behind those dark days. However, the brutality of the system and the way issues were resolved have left a lasting damage in the family.

Nav Mirza and Adam Colthorpe

Nav Mirza and Adam Colthorpe are from the charity Dads Unlimited. They have pioneered a holistic approach to supporting parents which includes, amongst other services, early-intervention workshops, one-to-one mentoring and mental health support. Suicide prevention has become a key feature of the work of Dads Unlimited, with around 40% of clients having experienced suicidal ideation, rising to 55% of clients if they have been a victim of domestic abuse.

Their ‘whole-needs’ approach, combined with a commitment to ensuring a positive difference to co-parenting, results in improved outcomes for thousands of children.

Dads Unlimited have just won a prestigious GSK Impact Award in recognition of the outstanding impact the charity has made on the UK’s health and wellbeing.