SUBSCRIBE:
LETTERS

Mediation needs regulation and codes of practice

18 February 2008 10:00This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine. Subscribe online and save 20%.

Mediation needs regulation and codes of practice

I read with interest the editorial comment in last week's Personnel Today (12 February) about workplace mediation, and the impending increase in demand with the forthcoming legislative changes.

I'm glad the topic of regulation of mediators has come to the fore. As one of the many unregulated industries in the UK, along with psychotherapy and counselling, plastic surgery and estate agents, mediation needs policing. Too many people are just jumping on the bandwagon since the Gibbons report, and there is little monitoring of what mediators are doing.

We register mediators for non-profit purposes and provide a set of standards, codes of practice, and complaints procedures for any suitable person who wishes to practise as a mediator.

Most credible organisations are now accredited by the Civil Mediation Council and most of these provide mediation through the courts, on the National Mediation Helpline.

Rather than duplicate these organisations' efforts, or provide yet another accrediting body, our aim is to set training standards and to help regulate this wide-open field.

Mike Talbot
Director,
UK Mediation

COMMENTS

 
Quality Assurance of Mediation

The Scottish Mediation Network (SMN), supported by the Scottish Government is working to embed mediation into the way that disputes of all forms are handled.    We contend that people need to know about mediation so that can choose to use and when they choose it, they need to be reassured about the quality of the mediator.


The Scottish Mediation Register has been set up after an extensive consultation as one of the building blocks of reassurance.   www.scottishmediationregister.org.uk is overseen by an independent board consisting of a majority of non-mediators.  The self certifying register requires mediators to demonstrate that they have, at least, minimum levels of training, CPD, shadowing as well as working to a recognised code of conduct, have insurance and a complaints handling process.


The Civil Mediation Council's scheme was set up to accredit services rather than individual mediators for work in the Courts of England and Wales.  The National Mediation Helpline is focussed on the needs of England and Wales rather than the whole of the United Kingdom.   The Gibbons Review will impact Great Briton (there are different arrangements for Northern Ireland) so the SMN look forward to continuing dialogue with colleagues across the UK about developing our quality assurance solutions for mediation.


 


Ewan Malcolm, Director, Scottish Mediation Network, www.scottishmediationregister.org.uk
19 Feb 2008
CommentComment on this Article in HR Space (Sign-in required)

ALERTS

Alert me when new articles are added on:
Mediation
Employee relations

RELATED RESOURCES

XpertHR - Online HR Intelligence

XpertHR, part of the XpertHR Group, brings together the expertise of IRS, LexisNexis Butterworths, CELRE, Personnel Today and a dedicated team of experts to meet the information needs of the busy HR professional.

 
© Reed Business Information 2008