Mediation Co-ordinator's Report 2006

I am really pleased to be writing my third report as Mediation Co-ordinator and am delighted to be able to report on progress and development throughout the year.

With the Homelessness Mediation Project Pilot extended to December, the start of the 2005-6 financial year found us extremely busy. As an additional challenge, we had found ourselves new accommodation and had the logistics of that to factor into our busy schedule. And having applied for and secured a grant from Bridge House Trust for new office equipment, we had to purchase and commission the equipment. Throughout, we continued to mediate in neighbourhood disputes in Kingston and Richmond and conducted 15 cases during the year, with 11 reaching full agreement.

From the Homelessness Mediation perspective we conducted many successful mediations: 43 from our perspective (where we work towards agreement among the parties as the prime reason for mediating) and 28 from the Government’s perspective (where prevention of homelessness only is measured as a “success” outcome).

Peer Mediation continued with a second course at Guildford High Junior School and a further course at Kennet Comprehensive School in Berkshire.

We delivered less Mediation Training (accredited by Mediation UK) than in previous years with some 20 mediators being trained in two courses which were delivered at Alone in London and the BPP Law School, to law students in Holborn. This fall compared with 2004-05 is not an unusual trend as the training cycles tend to peak over a two to three year period rather than annually. We suspended our work on the LSC Quality Mark and London Open College Network (LOCN) Accreditation for our training to enable us to fulfil the pressing issues noted above.