News

The Value of Mediation

Yesterday saw the first meeting for 2025 of the Scottish Community Mediation Network. Held online, this Network provides mediators and mediation service managers with an opportunity to discuss best practice, new initiatives and look towards future service development. It has now been running for 24 years and in its time has seen dozens of mediators and managers share their learning and challenges, their skills and hopes. For me, being a part of it, in providing the support to its members and participating at these meetings, is always an uplifting experience. Today, there are 22 community mediation services around Scotland, some larger, some small, but they all serve one purpose – to help people who are having problems with their neighbour to find a positive way forward through meeting their neighbour. That these services manage to continue to do this, in the face of year-on-year budget cuts and increasing pressures on caseloads, is a real testament to those mediators.

Mediators have a good range of skills, however one of the things that we are not so good at is promoting the work that we do, particularly as workload pressures have increased over the years. Recently, the Scottish Government published the report from the Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour. Within this report, it talks about mediation as an effective form of dealing with antisocial behaviour, particularly at an early stage. One of their recommendations is that:

• Investment is made in funding to ensure communities have access to specialist, free and independent Mediation and Restorative Justice Services locally.

International Women’s Day 2025

This Saturday, 8th March, marks International Women’s Day. During my time working with the Scottish Community Mediation Centre, I have met many women who have gone on to become mediators. One of the discussions in our training courses is the importance of showing empathy with a client in distress. Demonstrating empathy, along with the personal skills that enable a mediator to break down barriers between themselves and their clients, is something I have seen many women in our training demonstrate exceptionally well.

Whenever I meet a group of mediators or work with a new intake of learners, it is clear that this type of work attracts women. Often, they form the majority in the room. Clearly, there are skills, qualities, and values that contribute to becoming a good mediator, and these can make mediation an appealing career for women. However, this does not mean that all female mediators share the same approach. I recall one close colleague who loved nothing more than a good argument. For her, debating a point helped clarify her thinking, refine her reasoning, and shape the best way to present her perspective. For this particular mediator, engaging in debate was not about conflict, but about achieving greater understanding.

Accreditation: Two years on

Accreditation: Two years on

It is now almost two years since we gained Accreditation by Scottish mediation for our Mediation Skills course. Reflecting back on that time, there was both a sense of celebration and completion. Celebration of achieving this standard, and a sense of completing the whole process, from initial introduction to application, to observations, interview and final assessment. As anyone who has been through an accreditation process knows, there was much paperwork to put together. However within that process there was also a lot of reflection of why we do things a particular way. This opportunity - to refresh our thinking of how and why we do things - proved to be helpful.

I regularly talk about the evolution of our training as being divided up into time into two time periods - before COVID and after COVID. However, the truth is much more complex. Living in an ever-changing world, how we provide a good and useful set of training courses constantly evolves. Our experience of gaining accreditation two years ago provided us with the opportunity to challenge ourselves and to reflect on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’.

Spotlight on our Service

This month, the spotlight is on the East Ayrshire Council’s Vibrant Communities service.

East Ayrshire is characterised by strong and active local communities, spread across a diverse urban and rural landscape. 120,300 people live in East Ayrshire in 55,400 households. 47% of the population (56,418 people) live in East Ayrshire’s largest town, Kilmarnock. 17% of the population are 0-15 years old; 62% of the population are 16-64 years old; 12% of the population are 65-74; and, 9% of the population are 75+. The population projection between 2018 and 2028 in East Ayrshire is set to decrease by 1.7%, in contrast to 1.8% increase across Scotland. Within East Ayrshire, we are expecting to see a 16% decrease of people living in the rural south of our authority and a 13% increase of those living in the urban north of our authority. This will see a projection in 2028 of 0-15 years old down 7.5 %; 16-64 years old down 0.8%; Age 65-74 up 0.3%; and, age 75+ up 25.3%. 10.9% of people live in the least deprived SIMD quantile [1], whilst 30.6% live in the most deprived quantile.

Vibrant Communities was born in 2013 and has evolved greatly since, throughout the evolution it has always kept true to working ‘with and for’ our local communities rather than ‘doing to’ them. Vibrant Communities is made up of Community Learning & Development, Housing Support, Early Intervention and Home Link Services. Our Communities Team, which is responsible for capacity building, community development and engagement across the Council has a full staff team of dual trained community workers and qualified mediators. When new staff come into the team they are put through extensive mediation training via Scottish Community Mediation Centre and Sacro.