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.
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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
