Form FM1: Get the MIAM Proof Right Before You File

Form FM1: Proving You Attended a MIAM Before You Apply

By Iblal IqbalPublished 24 September 2026Last reviewed 1 October 202624 mins read14 sections

Part of: Mediation Costs: What Family Mediation Really Costs

Form FM1 is the court form that proves you attended a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting, or sets out why you are exempt from attending one. You file it alongside a Form C1 or Form C2 application. But it is not an application in its own right, and the form says so on its own front page: “This FM1 form is not an application form for a court order” (Form FM1, April 2024 version). Without it, the four types of Children Act 1989 application that need one do not get past the court office. This page covers the law of England and Wales.

What is a form FM1?

An FM1 is a four-section court form that tells the family court one of two things. Either an authorised family mediator has confirmed you attended a MIAM, or you are claiming an exemption from attending one. You complete part of it, and either a mediator or you complete the rest. Then you file it with the application it belongs to.

People search for it as the FM1 form, the MIAM form, and the fm1 mediation form. They all mean the same document. Its full name on GOV.UK is “Confirm if you have attended a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting: Form FM1”. The current version carries the code FM1_0424, which is the April 2024 revision. GOV.UK first put the page up on 1 January 2018 and last touched it on 8 October 2024.

The requirement behind it is statutory. Section 10(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 says that “before making a relevant family application, a person must attend a family mediation information and assessment meeting”. It then leaves the Family Procedure Rules to say which applications count and when the requirement falls away. Those rules are Part 3 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. The Family Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2023 (SI 2023/1324) rewrote them with effect from 29 April 2024. The FM1 is simply how you tell the court you have met the requirement.

Which applications need an FM1 form, and which do not

Four kinds of private law Children Act 1989 application need an FM1. They are the four listed on the form’s own front page. All four are made on a Form C1 or a Form C2 — never on a C100.

Quoting the form directly, you must attend a MIAM before applying on a C1 or C2 for:

• “A parental responsibility order (sections 4(1)(c), 4ZA(1)(c) or 4A(1)(b) of the Children Act 1989) or an order terminating parental responsibility” — which is the route for an unmarried father, a second female parent or a step-parent, and the reason FM1 comes up so often in step-parent parental responsibility cases;
• “An order appointing a child’s guardian (section 5(1) of the Children Act 1989) or an order terminating the appointment (section 6(7) of that Act)” — see our guide to legal guardianship;
• “An order giving permission to change a child’s surname or remove a child from the United Kingdom (sections 13(1) or 14C of the Children Act 1989)”;
• “A special guardianship order or an order varying or discharging such an order (section 14D of the Children Act 1989)” — covered in full in our guide to special guardianship orders.

Orders that do not need a form FM1

The mirror image matters just as much. Form C1 is expressly for orders under the Children Act 1989 “except care and supervision orders, Section 8 orders and orders related to enforcement of a contact order”. So a child arrangements order, a prohibited steps order or a specific issue order does not go on a C1 at all. It does not need an FM1 and does not belong on this page. Instead, that is the C100 route, and the C100 carries its MIAM section inside the application form itself. If you are trying to sort out contact with your child, you are almost certainly on a C100.

There is a stubborn piece of misinformation circulating on this point. Several glossaries state that from 22 April 2014 Forms A, C1 and C100 gained a built-in MIAM section, doing away with the FM1. That is right about Form A and Form C100 and wrong about Form C1. The June 2026 version of the C1 opens by telling applicants to file a separate FM1. The FM1 itself carries an April 2024 date. Both primary documents say the same thing, and a glossary does not outrank them.

When the MIAM requirement falls away

Two situations remove the MIAM requirement outright, without you claiming any exemption. The form sets them out. The first is where the order you are asking for is a consent order. The second is where there is an ongoing case about the same child concerning an emergency protection order, a care order or a supervision order. It also applies where the court has already made one of those orders. In the second case, question 1a of the form tells you to leave the exemption and mediator sections blank.

Is the FM1 form the same as a MIAM certificate?

In practice, yes — for a C1 or C2 application the FM1 is the MIAM certificate for court. There is no separate certificate document. The confirmation is section 3 of the FM1, signed and dated by the mediator who ran your MIAM. The mediator also writes their FMC registration number in the box provided.

The Family Mediation Council puts it plainly: “Only mediators accredited by the Family Mediation Council can sign a court form to say you have been to a MIAM.” The form spells out what that accreditation means. An “authorised family mediator” is someone the FMC identifies as qualified to conduct a MIAM. The FMC interprets that as holding current Family Mediation Council accreditation (FMCA). Each FMCA mediator also receives a unique FMC registration number.

That is the single most common reason a MIAM does not count. A conversation with a mediator who is not FMCA-accredited, however useful, cannot produce a signed section 3. So if a mediator asks you to pay for a MIAM, ask for the mediator’s FMC registration number before the appointment, not after it.

FM1, FM5 and C100: three forms, three different moments

People confuse these three constantly. That confusion is expensive, because each one belongs to a different point in a case. The FM1 comes before you apply. The C100’s MIAM section is inside the application. The FM5 comes after proceedings have started.

The FM1 and the FM5 are not two versions of one thing and they do not share a history. The MIAM regime the FM1 serves dates from section 10 of the Children and Families Act 2014, in force from 22 April 2014. The GOV.UK page for the form itself went up in 2018. The FM5 belongs to the non-court dispute resolution reforms that took effect on 29 April 2024. So if you received one and expected the other, check which stage your case is actually at before filling anything in.

How do I obtain a MIAM certificate?

You book and attend a MIAM with an FMC-accredited family mediator. At the end of it, you ask them to complete and sign section 3 of your FM1. The Family Mediation Council’s directory lists mediators who can do this.

The meeting itself is short. According to the FMC, a MIAM “will last about an hour, and will give you an opportunity to tell the mediator about your situation”. The mediator explains the options for resolving the dispute away from court. Then they consider with you whether mediation or another route would suit you better, and can point you towards other support. It is an assessment, not a negotiation, and you are not agreeing to anything by going.

You do not have to sit in a room with the other person. The mediator has to check with each of you separately whether attending together is your own choice and is safe. You can also attend alone. Where you need to avoid contact altogether, shuttle mediation keeps you in separate rooms. If your child has a view on the arrangements in dispute, child-inclusive mediation is an option the mediator can raise.

Attending a MIAM online

Attending online or by video-link is now squarely within the rules. Three of the exemption grounds are disability or inability, mediator unavailability and distance. Each one begins by requiring that you are not able to attend a MIAM online or by video-link, with an explanation to the court. In short, the rules assume remote attendance is available. You have to explain its absence, not its use.

If mediation is not going to work, the mediator can still sign the form. Section 3 has tick boxes covering the situations where “mediation or other form of NCDR is not proceeding”. For example, you attended alone and do not consider it appropriate to continue. Or the mediator has indicated it is unsuitable, the other person did not attend, or a process started and broke down. A MIAM that ends in “this is not suitable” is still a MIAM you attended. It still gets you into court. That is worth knowing before you decide whether to bother going. It is also why choosing between arbitration and mediation is a conversation worth having early.

Who completes and signs each part of the FM1 form

You complete section 1 in every case. Section 2 is yours if you are claiming an exemption. The mediator fills in section 3. Section 4 is the statement of truth, signed by you or your legal representative.

Section 1 is three questions and they route everything else. Question 1a asks whether there are previous or ongoing emergency protection, care or supervision proceedings for the children. If yes, you give the detail on the C1 or C2 and leave the later sections blank. Question 1b asks whether you attended a MIAM. Question 1c asks whether you are claiming an exemption. If you answer no to both 1b and 1c, the form is blunt about what follows: “you cannot make this application to court”.

Section 3 carries the mediator’s signature block. It holds their name, FMC registration number, mediation service or sole trader name, address and the date. Section 4 is the statement of truth. It carries the warning that “proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth”. Where a legal representative signs it, they sign as defined by FPR 2.3(1).

A warning about the April 2024 FM1 form

One practical warning about the April 2024 version. Its front-page instructions and its actual section headings do not line up. The front page tells applicants to “complete section 1 and sign section 3”. Question 1b also tells you to make sure the mediator “signs section 4”. However, the section headed 3 is the one marked “To be completed and signed by an authorised family mediator”. The section headed 4 is the statement of truth for you or your representative. Go by the section headings, not the cross-references. Follow the cross-references literally and you will hand the mediator the wrong page.

What are the requirements for a valid MIAM exemption?

A MIAM exemption is valid only if it is one of the grounds listed in rule 3.8 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. You must also claim it in the relevant form. Where that ground requires evidence, you must support it with evidence of the kind specified in Practice Direction 3A, filed with the application. Ticking a box is not enough on its own.

Section 2 of the FM1 groups the grounds into five headings, each with its own sub-section. They are domestic abuse (2a), child protection concerns (2b), urgency (2c), previous MIAM attendance or previous MIAM exemption (2d), and other (2e). Our C100 guide sets out the full text of every ground, and the evidence that goes with the domestic abuse ground. The grounds are identical whichever application you are making. So there is no point in reading two versions of the same list.

Three things to check before you claim

Three things about the current version are worth knowing before you claim anything.

The court checks. The form says so: “When processing your application, the court will review the evidence provided to ensure that a MIAM exemption has been validly claimed”. If the court decides a claimed exemption is not valid or is no longer valid, “you will be asked to attend a MIAM before your application is taken any further”. An exemption that does not hold does not fail quietly. Instead, it costs you the time you were trying to save.

If you cannot supply the evidence, say why on the form. Section 2 has a text box for exactly that. If you cannot provide the required evidence with your application, you use it to explain the reasons. Leaving it blank and hoping is the worst of the available options.

The four months belongs to one ground only. Rule 3.8(1)(d) exempts you where, “in the 4 months prior to making the application”, you attended a MIAM or a non-court dispute resolution process relating to the same or substantially the same dispute. Where it was an NCDR process, you also need the evidence of attendance specified in Practice Direction 3A. Nothing in Part 3 puts a general expiry date on a signed FM1. You may see “a MIAM certificate is valid for four months” stated as a rule. That is where the number came from, but someone has detached it from the ground it belongs to.

Before you file: is your FM1 form ready?

Pick the route you are on, then tick what is already true.

What the FM1 form, the MIAM and the application cost

The FM1 itself carries no court fee. It is not an application, so there is nothing to pay for filing it. The fee attaches instead to the C1 or C2 it travels with.

For all four order types that need an FM1, that fee is the same: £270. The full fee list has been in force since July 2026. On it, parental responsibility orders under section 4 or 4A are fee 2.1(a), and parental responsibility under section 4ZA is 2.1(c). Orders about a child’s guardian under sections 5(1) or 6(7) are 2.1(d). Special guardianship orders are 2.1(i), and permission to change a child’s surname or remove a child from the jurisdiction is 2.1(l). Every one of them is £270 (family court fees EX50, last updated 13 July 2026). Court fees change, so check the current figure on the day you file.

The MIAM is paid to the mediator, not the court, and there is no fixed statutory price. The Family Mediation Council’s published guide figure is “about £120 per person for a MIAM”. The FM1 notes confirm that the mediator will agree with you how to meet the cost of MIAM attendance. Ask for the figure when you book, and also ask whether it includes the FM1 signature.

Where FM1 applications go wrong, and what each mistake costs

Almost every FM1 problem we see is one of five. None of them is about the law being hard. They come from someone filling in the form without knowing what it is for.

• Attaching an FM1 to a C100. It costs you nothing directly, but it signals you are on the wrong application form for the order you want, and being on the wrong form costs weeks.
• A signature from a mediator who is not FMCA-accredited. Section 3 is not valid, you have not met the MIAM requirement, and the court will send you back to do it again. Ask for the FMC registration number before you pay.
• Claiming an exemption without the evidence and without explaining why. The court reviews the claim on receipt. An exemption found invalid means attending a MIAM anyway, after the delay rather than instead of it.
• Relying on “no mediator near me”. Since 29 April 2024 the distance and availability grounds require that you cannot attend online or by video-link. They also require the names, addresses and contact dates of the mediators you approached. A bare assertion will not carry it.
• Assuming a MIAM that went nowhere was a waste. It was not. Section 3 has boxes for exactly that outcome. People re-book a second MIAM they never needed.

How our family lawyers help with the FM1 and the MIAM

Most of the value is in the half hour before anyone fills anything in. First, we work out which order you actually need, and whether that puts you on a C1, a C2 or a C100. Then we consider whether an exemption is realistic on your facts, or whether booking the MIAM is the faster route to the same place.

From there we check the completed FM1 against the application before you send it. That way section 1, section 2 and the mediator’s section tell one consistent story, which is the single thing court staff notice first. Where you are claiming an exemption, we deal with the evidence: what Practice Direction 3A accepts, what to do when you do not have it, and how to use the form’s own explanation box properly. If a case is heading into court anyway, we prepare for the first hearing at the same time. That way the mediation stage is not wasted time.

We act for clients across England and Wales. The Family Procedure Rules extend to both, so the form, the grounds and the fees are the same wherever your local family court sits. However, Cafcass Cymru carries out the safeguarding checks on a C1 in Wales, and Cafcass does so in England. The practical timetable can differ too.

Frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.

Expert Tip

Ask the mediator for the FMC registration number when you book, and write it down. It takes ten seconds, and it is the one detail on section 3 that decides whether the whole form counts. It is also the hardest detail to chase once the appointment is over and the mediator has moved on. If they cannot give you one, you are booking the wrong meeting.

Iblal Iqbal, Partner & Family Law Strategist