Family mediation services are in decline & in need of urgent reform, says Graham Lyons
When I was in full-time practice at the Bar, my head of chambers refused to pay any membership fees to the Bar Council saying they did nothing that would help or change his legal practice. Many members of my present family mediation profession feel that the current family mediation organisations—including the ADR Group, the College of Mediators, the Family Mediators Association (FMA), National Family Mediation (NFM) and Resolution—and the umbrella Family Mediation Council (FMC) also do little to merit financial support. This is because much of the day-to-day work by most of those organisations focuses on providing expensive courses run mainly by a few family professional practice consultants (PPCs) who do little current family mediation work.
Pay gap
Since the late 1990s, top quality family mediators, ie those trained under the demanding Legal Services Commission (LSC) requirements, continue to be paid an amount negotiated in that decade which has barely changed. They and privately paid mediators can practise after completing a six-day course costing about £2,000.
