Family Mediators Association AGM

It was clear from the Family Mediators Association AGM, which was held in London at the High Courts of Justice on 27th September, that this really is a very exciting time for family mediation but that there are a lot of potential pitfalls to be avoided.

Whilst there was consensus that the number of mediation enquiries and cases is starting to increase, with much greater increases still to come, there was also consensus that this increased demand will attract many more potential mediators to the profession with the risk that some of these may not be adequately trained or supervised.

When you add in the possible expansion in the areas within which family mediators might start to operate, ranging from the use of mediation by skype or telephone to the use of mediation in pre-marital situations, then it is clear that the professional as a whole needs to consider whether it is possible to maintain quality whilst essentially being a self-regulating profession.

Then when the proposed changes to government-funded legal aid are considered, as discussed in my last post, then it really does look there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that mediators do not compromise the quality of their service or become tempted to fill the void left by these legal aid changes in an irresponsible way that is not in the clients' best interests.

With there being a number of mediation bodies, of which the FMA is only one, there is also a real danger that power struggles between these various organisations might limit the ability of family mediation to effectively grow and flourish in the coming years and months. It would be very ironic if the highly trained and experienced mediators who run these organisations were unable to use these skills to find a way to work with each other and with the government in a constructive way.

The conference provided the opportunuty to discuss many of these issues and I really enjoyed the chance to ask the government minister responsible for legal aid, Jonathan Djanogly, about some of these issues even though he did very adroitly sidestep the question, and I look forward to attending again next year and seeing how these and other issues have unfolded over the course of the year.

Euan Davidson
www.godalmingfamilymediation.co.uk