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Professional organisation and self-regulation in family mediation in England and Wales: Part I: Background (£)
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STAN LESTER Stan Lester Developments Taunton UKWhile the first family mediation associations were formed in the 1980s only following the Family Law Act 1996 – with its provisions for legal-aided mediation – did the need for co-ordinated professional oversight begin to emerge. In the same year an attempt was made to set up a self-regulating professional body the UK College of Family Mediators.
The UK College had limited success and in 2007 it was replaced by the current structure with the newly-formed Family Mediation Council (FMC) acting as an umbrella body for six associations with family mediator members.
By the beginning of the present decade the family mediation community had put a number of self-regulatory measures in place though these were variable in their quality and breadth of coverage and no clear notion of a ‘qualified mediator’ had emerged. The
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