Adult Care Mediation
Charlotte May

What is Mediation

Mediation is a means of alternative dispute resolution. It is a process in which an impartial third party, a mediator, facilitates the resolution of a dispute by promoting voluntary agreement by the parties to the dispute. A mediator facilitates communication, promotes understanding, focuses the parties on their interests, and uses creative problem-solving to enable the parties to reach their own agreement.

Mediation agreements allow the parties to have more flexibility and control over the outcomes and avoid a court order being imposed by a court.

Mediators keep information that is told to them by one party confidential until they are given permission to disclose it to the other party. The mediator and the parties also sign an agreement requiring them to keep information disclosed during the course of mediation confidential.

The Process

Once the mediator has been appointed and the venue arranged, an Agreement to Mediate will be signed and the mediator will read a short summary of issues sent by each party.

How the mediation takes places is very flexible and can be arranged to suit the nature of the dispute and the needs of the parties.

It may consist of pre-mediation meetings, joint meetings between the parties and the mediator, or individual meetings in which the mediator will go between the parties in separate rooms.

During the mediation different possible solutions are discussed. However, nothing is binding until everyone has come to an agreement. Once an agreement has been reached it is put in writing and signed by all the parties.

"Finding Positive Solutions"