Improving the Practice of Family Mediation in England and Wales

Over the past forty years, the approach to legal disputes in England and Wales hasexperienced some important changes.In many instances, mediation, with itsobjective of resolving disputes, is favoured over the traditional and adversarialprocedure of litigation.However, mediation as a concept is not startlingly new. It traces its origins back toancient times as a process used in many countries to settle a dispute by theconsensus of the parties. Therefore, a dispute is resolved by the parties reachingagreement to the terms of settlement. This is an advantage over court litigationwhere the parties do not determine the outcome of their dispute. Compared to otherforms of dispute resolution, this advantage stands out in mediation.Intriguingly, the perspectives of mediators on the practice of family mediation arerelatively unexplored territory. This gap in mediation research contrasts with a wellstocked cross-disciplinary body of literature, mostly from North America which has researched and studied the development and the nature of dispute resolution andmediation. Such literature includes a range of viewpoints and conclusions on power,neutrality, coercion, styles and regulation in mediation.Accordingly, this thesis with its focus on family mediation, seeks to reduce this gapby supplementing the existing literature. There is now an abundance of knowledgeand practice experience in family mediation. This thesis will put forward the familymediators’ opinions and my recommendations on how family mediation can beimproved. The family mediators’ views are based on their knowledge and years ofexperience as qualified family mediators in England and Wales. This thesis aims tocontribute, through the practitioners’ lens, to some of the important theoreticalissues, discussions and difficulties surrounding family mediation. The further aim ofthis thesis is to set out the understanding of family mediators and draw on this toexplore important themes such as: mediation models, child-inclusive mediation,family mediation training, family mediation regulation, its principles and the natureof the task. The analysis of these themes will reveal many things, from thedifficulties and demanding tasks in family mediation, through to the satisfaction andreward that can be felt by family mediators who achieve the parties’ objective ofamicably resolving a family dispute