Specialist Child Care Mediation: Mediation in Public Law Cases

Marian Roberts

Mediator; Visiting Fellow (LSE); Professorial Research Associate (SOAS):

There is a renewal of interest in the application of mediation in the field of public law recently endorsed by the recommendation in the Family Justice Review Final Report 2011 for a new pilot in this use of mediation.  This article examines the theoretical and practical context within which public law has developed in North America as well as its more limited evolution in the UK. Here a four year interdisciplinary pilot has already been conducted - the ADR Joint Project ( 1993- 1997) co-managed by the Child and Family Department of the Tavistock Clinic and National Family Mediation and funded by the Department of Health. The final Report of the findings of the project called Specialist Child Care Mediation (SCCM) was published in 1998.

This article highlights the distinction that needs to be drawn not only between SCCM and Family Group Conferences but also between those cases which have a public law component and which are already being referred to family mediation services.

New initiatives need to take account of the body of knowledge that...

Read the full article here.