SACRO - COMMUNITY MEDIATION

Organisation Aims and Activities

1. Type of organisation

Voluntary Sector - Service provider

2. Client Group

General Public

3. Secondary advice?

Yes

4. Aims

East Lothian Community Mediation is an independent service managed by the national community safety charity SACRO which has dealt with hundreds of neighbour difficulties since it opened in 1999.

5. Activities

Problems range from minor disagreements to serious and long standing disputes. Common causes include noise, parking, children, boundaries, pets and abusive behaviour. Often difficulties affect whole areas or groups of people. Mediation is a voluntary process. If people would like to resolve their differences, trained mediators will arrange to meet everyone involved separately. Mediators are neutral, their role is to hear about the difficulties and help people decide what they would like to see happen in the future. The mediators:
* Listen to their views, feelings, concerns and suggestions of all concerned
* Help those involved find common ground and consider suitable solutions
* Allow people to withdraw at any stage of the process
* Assist in working out a practical agreement that everyone is happy with
But mediators don’t
* Come up with solutions
* Take sides, decide who is to blame or judge people in any way
* Tell people they must be friends
* Make people meet with others involved in the dispute if they don’t want to
* Put anyone in a situation where they may be at risk

6. Information and Advice services

Please see document Information and Advice Services in documents box at RHS of this page

Contacts and delivery methods

7. Contact details

East Lothian Community Mediation Service, 18 Bridge Street, Musselburgh, EH21 6AG  Tel: 0131 653 3421 Fax:  0131 653 3071
e-mail: info@eastlothian.sacro.org.uk

8. Service delivery methods

Telephone Advice: Yes
Appointments: Yes
Outreach: No
Home Visits: Yes
Out of Hours: Yes (for visits - appointments booked in office hours)
Via e-mail: No - confidentiality issues not yet resolved

9. Opening Hours

Monday-Friday 9-5 for contact, however sometimes office is unmanned due to client appointments. Appointments are available all day and in the evening

Staffing, Funding and Training

10. Staffing

1 Full Time;  2 Part Time;  5 volunteers

11. Funding

Local Authority

12. Quality Assurance

Mediation UK standards

Referrals

13. Formal referral policy - receiving?

Yes

14. Formal referral policy - making?

No

15. Informal reciprocal referral arrangements?

Yes

16. Referral procedure

Agencies or individuals can refer. Tenure is unimportant. The agreement of at least one of the parties is required. Information can be faxed, sent by post or telephoned. Data is never emailed (see 8. above)
Agencies should refer using the standard form, a copy of which can be found in the documents box on the RHS of this page. Referral criteria are printed on the form. SACRO can provide referrals training for other agencies if required.

17. Requirements

Agencies should be aware of the referral criteria and assess the suitablity of the referral. Details required include name, address and availability of the client. A summary of the dispute is necessary and should contain information about how long it has been going on, what has been done about it, what other agencies may be involved and whether there are active or pending Court proceedings. Please inform the service of any special requirements that a client may have.