To mark the end of Family Mediation Week 2021, FMA board member and former chair Philippa Johnson has written an article ‘What happened to family mediation in 2020’ which not only looks back over the least 12 months but looks to the future of family mediation in 2021.

My mediation service used to offer online media)ons to families, but only in very specific
circumstances, where there really was no way that our clients could meet any other way. Most of
my family mediator colleagues didn’t offer online media)ons at all. In March 2020 all that changed –
probably for ever!
Mediators around the country rose to the challenge presented by lockdown. Everywhere mediators
worked out what they needed to change about their working practice in order to help families
facing the serious challenges they were facing. Some of the families we saw in those early months
were dealing with problems that had been created by lockdown – relationships unexpectedly taken
to breaking point, homeschooling pressures, worries about the safety of existing arrangements for
children to move between two homes and the stress of needing to develop new arrangements.
Other challenges that already existed were made worse by the fact that during the pandemic it
became much harder to access the courts.
Lots of families had to face the fact that the courts really couldn’t help them with their immediate
prac)cal problems, certainly in the short term. Family mediators spend a lot of )me explaining to
families that in fact the courts probably won’t be able to help them resolve their real issues but in
2020 the truth of this was inescapable. Many families understood that they had no option but to try
to sort things out themselves. But this can be. hugely difficult at the best of times and was even
more so at a time of great stress and general isolation. We wanted to make sure that families who
wanted to help could get it.
The family mediation world transformed itself almost overnight. The public was given access to lists
of family mediators able to work online – almost all of us! The special difficulties – and
opportunities – that come with working online were addressed in online meetings and then set out
in new guides to working practice. The regulatory body for family mediators in England and Wales –
the Family Mediation Council – helped by responding quickly and decisively to change its website
and some of the regulations that govern how mediators work. Mediators who provide families with
legal aid mediation liaised with the government to make sure that they could continue to help
people who needed it. The new online ways of working meant that more people could access lowcost family mediation without compromising on quality. You can find out more about what family
mediators do and which of us are working online here: https://www.familymediationcouncil.org.uk/
It was wonderful. Mediators committed themselves to showing the same sort of flexibility and
courage that they regularly see in the families they work with. At every stage we, as family
mediators, asked ourselves the questions that we always ask the families who come to us for help –