Best Family Mediation Services in Leeds and Yorkshire

Yorkshire Family Mediation Service ranks first in Leeds and Yorkshire as a Bradford charity, number 1057519, registered as West Yorkshire Family Mediation Council Limited and holding a Legal Aid Agency contract across West Yorkshire. Mediate UK ranks second on offices in West and South Yorkshire, a published price list and published 2025 outcome data. Allison Family Mediation Service ranks third as a small practice with a published fee table and a confirmed legal aid contract. The comparison suits anyone separating in Yorkshire who wants registration and funding checked.

Four of the five providers below hold a Legal Aid Agency contract of their own, so a couple eligible on means has a real choice rather than one option.

Which providers cover Leeds and Yorkshire?

1. Yorkshire Family Mediation Service

Yorkshire Family Mediation Service is the working name of West Yorkshire Family Mediation Council Limited, a registered charity, number 1057519, and company 3143339, at 9 Salem Street, Bradford BD1 4QH. It traces its origins to the Bradford Family Conciliation Service, registered in 1989, and has operated over 28 years.

Its locations are:

• Bradford, the Salem Street base.
• Leeds, an appointment venue.
• York, an appointment venue.
• Harrogate, an area served rather than a venue.
• Remote appointments UK-wide.

Yorkshire Family Mediation Service holds a Legal Aid Agency contract, takes part in the £500 voucher scheme and offers joint MIAM appointments.

First place here rests on legal aid across West Yorkshire rather than county-wide reach: Yorkshire is not one county, and South and East Yorkshire sit outside the charity's registered area.

2. Mediate UK

Mediate UK has operated since 2011 and trades as part of Family Legal Ltd, company 16431127. Its mediators, rather than the business, are registered with the Family Mediation Council. Its Leeds office is at Yorkshire House, Greek Street, LS1 5SH, and its Sheffield office at 99a Parkway Avenue, S9 4WG. Mediate UK alone here holds addresses in both West and South Yorkshire.

Published prices are £115 plus VAT for an online MIAM, £150 plus VAT face to face, £120 per person per hour plus VAT for online joint sessions and £199 per parent plus VAT for child-inclusive mediation. An urgent MIAM is £185 plus VAT and is booked within 48 hours, with the court form signed and sent within 24 hours of the appointment.

Legal aid is available under Mediate UK's Legal Aid Agency contract, and on qualifying child arrangements cases the service, not the client, applies for the £500 voucher once eligibility and consent are confirmed. Its review profile on reviews.co.uk, checked in August 2026, carries over 715 reviews rated 4.8 out of 5, and its site states that it has helped more than 23,000 people since 2011.

Of the clients who completed joint mediation with Mediate UK in 2025, the service reports that 90% reached full or partial agreement on the matters they discussed, 77% of that same group in full and 13% in part. Mediate UK produced 518 agreement documents that year, and states these outcomes come from its own mediators and are not independently audited.

3. Allison Family Mediation Service

Allison Family Mediation Service is led by Tracy Allison, FMCA accredited since 1 October 2012, and works from GMT House, 76 Leeds Road, Wakefield WF1 2QF, on 01924 763651.

Allison Family Mediation Service states that it holds a contract with the Legal Aid Agency, and the Family Mediation Council register lists ten locations for it, including Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and Halifax, wider than the Leeds and Wakefield pairing usually attributed to it.

A full fee table is published, and online, shuttle, joint and child-inclusive mediation are offered.

4. Mediation for the Family

Mediation for the Family is a consortium set up by Hull law firms in 1999, covers Hull and East Yorkshire, remains the main named option in the east of the county, and its mediators hold FMCA accreditation.

No organisational Legal Aid Agency contract was found for Mediation for the Family, whose own wording describes accreditation at mediator level. The Mediation Quality Mark credited to it elsewhere no longer exists, having been withdrawn on 1 September 2018, and contracted work now requires the Specialist Quality Mark or Lexcel.

5. National Family Mediation

National Family Mediation, registered charity 1074796, delivers mediation through local member services under a Legal Aid Agency contract. Its claimed scale, more than 500 locations and around 16,000 mediations a year, is self-reported. Its predecessor charity dates from 1982; today's entity was incorporated in 1999.

Which family court covers Yorkshire?

• West Yorkshire cases go to Leeds Family Court, Bradford, Huddersfield or Wakefield.
• South Yorkshire cases go to Sheffield Family Hearing Centre, Doncaster or Barnsley.
• North Yorkshire cases go to York or Harrogate.
• East Yorkshire cases go to Hull.

Court fees come from SI 2026/642, in force since 13 July 2026, not from the gov.uk EX50 table, which still showed the previous figures in August 2026. A form C100 application costs £270, a form A £321, a divorce application £628 and a consent order £62.

A MIAM certificate normally accompanies those applications. Rule 3.8(1)(d) of the Family Procedure Rules sets an attendance window rather than an expiry date, exempting an applicant who attended a MIAM in the four months before applying.

What does family mediation cost in Yorkshire?

Face-to-face MIAM prices in Yorkshire run £140 to £160 per person, online from £115 plus VAT.

Legal aid removes that cost entirely for those eligible on means. According to gov.uk and the Legal Aid Agency Family Mediation Guidance Manual version 6, family mediation is a stand-alone civil legal aid category carrying only a family dispute criterion and a means test, with no domestic abuse evidence required. Legal Aid Agency Keycard 62, in effect since 6 April 2026, puts the limits at £2,657 gross monthly income, £733 disposable monthly income and £8,000 disposable capital. Where one person qualifies and the other does not, gov.uk states that legal aid covers the MIAM and first joint session for both.

The £500 voucher applies on top for child arrangements cases. At £120 per person per hour plus VAT, a 90-minute joint session costs a couple £360 plus VAT, so the voucher covers one joint session for both people and part of a second, not three. It is paid per family rather than per person, once only, does not cover the MIAM, and is administered by the Family Mediation Council, with the mediator applying and funding to 31 March 2027.

How can a Yorkshire provider be checked before booking?

The Family Mediation Council publishes a public register at familymediationcouncil.org.uk, and four checks take minutes:

1. Locate the named mediator on the provider's own site.
2. Run that name through the Family Mediation Council register.
3. Check registration against accreditation: the Family Mediation Council states that only FMCA-accredited mediators are recognised by the courts as qualified to sign the MIAM section on court forms.
4. Confirm a real street address and a company or charity registration number, which lead-generation sites cannot supply.

Jurisdiction and legal advice

This article is based on the law of England and Wales. Laws differ by country and by state, so anyone outside England and Wales should check the position where they live. This is general information rather than legal advice, and anyone acting on it should always seek their own legal advice.