practice standards - note to members

8/6/2019 Practice Standards - Note to Members

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Enabling Conflict ResolutionScottish Charity Number SC034921 Company Registered in Scotland SC258173

Registered Office: 18 York Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EP

New Practice StandardsAdvice note for mediation practitioners

Following a review and consultation on practice standards for the Scottish

Mediation Register, a comprehensive report and new Practice Standards havebeen produced, these will replace the old Benchmark Standards. Bothdocuments were approved by the Standards Board on 25 th May 2011. The newPractice Standards came into effect on 1 st June 2011.

There will be implications for mediators in Scotland both in the short and thelong term. The Scottish Mediation Network will support all members andpractitioners in ensuring they understand these changes and in achieving thenew Practice Standards.

TimescaleSome changes found in the Practice Standards will take effect immediately,while some changes will take affect over the next 12 months. In addition thereare changes that will take time to develop and implement. We aim to ensurethat practitioners stay informed on these changes.

There are immediate changes in the areas of: Initial training requirement Sufficient experience Systems for addressing concerns Family and community mediators

Ongoing changes in the areas of: Maintaining a portfolio New category of mediator

There are also some longer term changes, which include: Learning and development plans Competency framework

What are the immediate changes?The following changes will have immediate effect for all new applicants to theScottish Mediation Register. However, all current members of the register whohave paid before 1 st June 2011 will be deemed as meeting this requirement forthe 2011-2012 membership year.

Initial training requirementThe mediation training will include not less than 40 hours of tuition and role -

play, (with a minimum of 20 of these training hours spent in role play or practical exercise) including a formal assessment. The assessment should include direct observation of practice as a mediator in role play.

The initial training requirement for admission to the register has been raisedfrom 30 to 40 hours of training, maintaining the previous requirement that 50%of this time be spent in role play or practical exercise.


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Sufficient experienceAdmission to register now requires the completion of 2 mediations in the past 12 months and/or not less than 6 hours conducting mediations as a principlemediator in the past 12 months. Previously, admission to the register requiredthe same number of mediations and hours, but gave the options of assistant,

observer or co- mediator as eligible hours for satisfying this criteria. Thes e willno longer be acceptable as forms of experience for satisfying entry to theRegister.

Systems for addressing concernsAll Scottish Mediation Network Registered mediators are required to have anappropriate system for addressing concerns. In addition to the PracticeStandards now required mediators to inform clients that when their owncomplaints handling process has been exhausted, the clients can, if they wish.Take a complaint to the Standards Board.

Family and Community MediatorsFollowing the establishment of partnership agreements with RelationshipsScotland and the Scottish Community Mediation Network, responsibility forsetting practice standards (including initial training) for community and familymediators are deferred to the respective organisations:

Family and Community Mediators must comply with the practice standards set by Relationship Scotland for Family Mediators and the Scottish Community Mediation Network for Community Mediators.

Only those mediators who were approved by Re lationships Scotland or the

Scottish Community Mediation Network, or who could evidence that their qualifications and practice standards were equivalent to those set by Relationships Scotland in respect of Family Mediators or the Scottish Community Mediation Network in respect of community mediators would be able to list themselves as family or community mediators on the Register.

This change will not affect mediators who do not work in the fields of family orcommunity and neighbourhood mediation.

What are the ongoing changes?

Maintaining a portfolioThe new Practice Standards take a step away from self certification and requireall mediators to maintain a portfolio containing the following:

Initial Training Certification Log of Mediations/Mediation hours undertaken Log of CPD hours and CPD certificates Certificate of Insurance Annual Training and Development Plan

These portfolios will be subject to random checks to ensure that the

requirements for the register are being met. It is anticipated that approximately10-15% of portfolios will be requested for verification.


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Members of the register will be given 12 months from 1 st June to begin gatheringand maintaining their portfolios. As a consequence, registered mediators shouldexpect requests for portfolios to begin 1 st June 2012.

New category of mediatorA new category of mediator has been introduced: Advanced Mediator. Therequirements for this category are higher than general admission onto theregister and are as follows:

Advanced Mediator requir es completion of initial training and 15 and/or not lessthan 60 hours conducting mediations in the past 12 months as principal mediator or co- mediator in the past 12 months.

The Scottish Mediation Network will not actively identify mediators who meet thestandards for Advanced Mediator. Applications to be listed as an Advanced

Mediator should be addressed via email to [email protected] . Youmay be asked for evidence to support this application.

What are the changes in the long term?

Learning and Development Plans and a Competency FrameworkEach mediator should be required to produce an annual Learning and Development Plan which is tagged to the Mediators Competency Framework;and CPD hours must be linked explicitly to the learning and development outcomes in the Learning and Development Plan and to Competencies within theMediators Competency Framework.

The Standards Board have authorised the establishment of a short life workinggroup to develop a Mediator Competency Framework. Following developmentand approval by the Standards Board, the Competency Framework will be usedto link to an Annual Learning and Development Plans, which will seek and coverthe individual needs of each mediator. The number of required CPD hoursremains at a minimum of 12 hours, although the Standards Board reserves theright to review this at a later date.

In order to support practitioners with these changes, the Scottish Mediation

Network will continue to offer the following support:

SMN will provide two types of CPD opportunities for Register Members: -

Share and Learn CPD opportunities where register members offer free CPDtraining to other register members on a share and learn basis. In theseinstances, SMN will only seek to recover the cost of organising the training event (teas/coffees/ lunches/venue costs/ and a minimal cost for staff time).

CPD Events where SMN is paying a specialist mediator trainer to provide CPDon a cost recovery basis. In these instances SMN will only seek to recover the

cost of organising the event (costs as above plus trainer fees and travel expenses).
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There are also some practical changes that whilst not reflected in the newPractice Standards, will affect members of the Register. The Find A Mediatorsection of the newly created website no longer displays mediators who are noton the Register. Members of the public will only be able to find the details of

mediators who are paid members of the Register and who meet the PracticeStandards. This is due to the availability of basic membership being removed.We still offer free membership to those in full time education or on means testedbenefits.

Member log-in to the website no longer permits members to access individualmember information once an application for registration has been submitted.However should any changes be required, we can do so at the office. Changescan be made by emailing [email protected] detailing the request.Please allow time for these changes to take place, administrative support in theoffice is on a part-time basis and membership services is only one small aspect

of this role.

The review and new Practice Standards also has implications for mediationtraining providers; a separate advice note has been produced to accompany thisdocument. Training providers are advised to read the briefing note for trainingproviders to ensure that they are fully informed on the developments takingplace.
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