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.