Training and development of our volunteers is important to us. New volunteers complete an in-house training course which is approved by the College of Mediators. This provides basic knowledge and understanding of mediation and is a grounding to enable volunteers to start mediating, paired with an experienced mediator.
We provide on-going support and training for our volunteers in the form of regular meetings in which we offer further training in key areas of the process.
We also encourage our volunteers to take advantage of training offered by external providers that is relevant to mediation.
Our service supports volunteers in working towards a recognised qualification as a Competent Mediator, which is externally assessed through the College of Mediators. This is achieved through the building of a portfolio of evidence.
Mediation is now widely recognised in many organisations as a way to help resolve conflict, whether the conflict is within your workforce or in the work that you do. Our service can offer a bespoke training programme to suit your needs. If you would like further information please contact our trainer, Gilly Wood
We have produced a comprehensive guide to the compilation of a portfolio to demonstrate mediator competence. This is based on the experience of a number of members of the service who have been accredited by this means and is published with the encouragement of those responsible for assessment.
The introductory section gives guidance on the formation of a portfolio. The final section of the booklet explains how to write a Case Study and includes an example. There is help in writing up an assessment/observation of a round table meeting, guidance on Peer Assessment and other suggestions to help you to maximise the appearance and usefulness of your portfolio. The guide includes the pages that are needed in the portfolio for the evidence to be cross refenced with the required outcomes.
We believe that any service adopting this system will find that the Hastings method provides an efficient short-cut to the preparation and assembly of the necessary material. The publication was successfully launched at the Mediation UK conference in 2004, when a number of services purchased the manual with a view to using it within their own service. The copyright for the scheme is owned by Hastings and Rother Mediation Service. Purchase of the manual includes permission for the material to be photocopied for as many mediators as necessary within your service. The one-off payment for this facility is £99.
For more information or to order this publication, please contact us
Hastings and Rother Mediation Service was the first service in the country to obtain the Community Legal Service’s Community Mediation Quality Mark. Mindful of the amount of work involved in getting this qualification, we have produced a comprehensive guide to the necessary procedures. The Legal Services Commission has published the Quality Mark Standards for Mediation which is the authoritative guide. We have found that the standards set out need a good deal of unpacking and interpreting if they are to be made accessible to services wanting to move forward to the Quality Mark; our guide has that aim.
The Guide contains amongst other things:
It is all there in the guide saving you months of work devising your own material The guide covers most or all of the procedures necessary to the setting up and running of a service, so it could provide a step-by-step plan for a new service. The guide protects against the temptation of trying to re-invent the wheel and saves many working hours developing documents and procedures which can easily be adapted from Hastings and Rother for other community mediation services.
For more information or to order this publication, please contact us