Family Mediation Accreditation was established in 2000 to add extra confidence to the process of finding a mediator, by assessing the competence of practitioners in offering a high-quality service.
Membership is open to all family mediators who are suitably qualified and accredited, and the scheme aims to promote its members as the natural first choice for members of the public.
The Family Mediation Council is a dedicated organisation with this aim in mind, both in terms of encouraging best practice within the industry, and ensuring public access to those high-quality services.
Members of the FMC’s accreditation scheme are bound by a Code of Practice, which again helps to give the public a clearer expectation of the level of service they can expect.
Accreditation allows mediators to display the scheme’s quality mark and to conduct mediation in cases funded through legal aid.
For the involved members of the public, it proves that the mediator has been assessed and found to be highly competent at providing a high quality of service.
It makes it easier to identify accredited mediators and to recognise their competencies in all of the various issues that might arise in a case, including complex family cases involving young children.
It builds a level of trust, even if it is your first time using a particular mediator, or your first time accessing mediation at all.
And it also shows that the mediator meets the related standards of expertise and competency in their profession when it comes to time for re-accreditation.
Remember, it is now mandatory to consider mediation in family law cases, before the dispute can progress to a court hearing.
Accreditation helps to find a suitable mediator for the initial MIAM, or Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting, improving the chances of resolving the case overall through mediation, saving on time and money, and relieving the burden on the courts system too.
If you have any questions, call us on 0161 425 3940 or fill out this form
