Professional self-regulation FMA Annual Conference

Professional self-regulation FMA Annual Conference London 24th September 2014

Dr Stan Lester

Stan Lester Developments education and training systems

The beginnings  1969 Divorce Reform Act  1974 Finer Report

 1977 Bristol Courts Family Conciliation Service  1981/2 National conference and NFCC (later NFM)  1985 Solicitors in Mediation project  1988 FMA

Professional oversight  1996 Family Law Act  Legal Aid Board competence requirements  1996/7 UK College of Family Mediators

 2002 UK College responsible for APC  Mediation Quality Mark for services  2007 UK College disbanded, Family Mediation Council formed as umbrella organisation

Competing systems and voices  Six membership organisations for less than 2000 people  FMC a co-ordinating or debating body?  No clear qualified status that can be communicated to the public (or means of revoking it):  APC and Law Society assessments for LA work  FMA and Resolution accreditation  MIAMs-approved status  Qualified after completing training?  Unsatisfactory, but not an unusual position for emerging professions.

Family Justice Review (Norgrove) 2011  Supportive of family mediation  Needs to have a minimum qualified standard and appropriate means of oversight  Possibility of an independent regulator?

Family Justice Review (Norgrove) 2011  Supportive of family mediation  Needs to have a minimum qualified standard and appropriate means of oversight  Possibility of an independent regulator? Professional regulation in the UK • Archetypal model: self-regulating professional institute • Legal professions: paired membership/regulatory bodies overseen by LSB • Health/social care: independent single- and multiple-profession regulators in areas where there is a ‘significant and proven public risk’

McEldowney review of the FMC 2012  Appropriate body to self-regulate  Constitutional reforms  Single qualified status and practitioner register

 Central course approval  Ability to strike off defaulting mediators  Consistency of standards and processes across MOs

McEldowney review of the FMC 2012  FMC appropriate body to self-regulate  Constitutional reforms  Single qualified status and practitioner register

 Central course approval  Ability to strike off defaulting mediators  Consistency of standards and processes across MOs  2013 scoping study also identified issues with CPD, professional/competence standards, PPC responsibilities

2014-15 reform process  Professional Standards and Accreditation Board – PSAB  Single, revokable qualified status – FMCA  Register of practitioners

 Central course approval to a common standard  FMC oversight of PPC standards, complaints and disciplinary procedures  Reaccreditation and updated CPD requirements  Sensible limits to PPC responsibilities.

Questions  Compulsion only for MIAMs and legal-aided work – how achieve fully accredited profession?  Transitional arrangements for Resolution and FMA accredited mediators without legal aid approval  Limited observed assessment  Public protection between training and accreditation  Endorsements e.g. DCC, abduction?

 Separate Law Society route.

What kind of profession?  ‘Secondary profession’ – entered after training and practising in another profession dealing with families  ‘Professional function’ – an activity performed by members of another profession?  Knowledge-base? Presence in universities, research, practitioner engagement in academic work, journals, conferences?

What kind of profession?  ‘Secondary profession’ – entered after training and practising in another profession dealing with families  ‘Professional function’ – an activity performed by members of another profession?  Knowledge-base? Presence in universities, research, practitioner engagement in academic work, journals, conferences? ‘Professions’ All that can be said about a profession is that it requires ‘a formal commitment both to acquiring the relevant knowledge and skills and to the ethos and way of working of the profession, in a way that simply working in an occupation does not’. (Lester S, in RPCE 19(3), 2014)

Future organisation of family mediation  Status quo?  Current structure but more functions delegated to FMC/PSAB?  Single self-regulating institute?  FMC as regulator with direct registration?  External regulator?  Who provides professional leadership?

PSAB

FMC

Membership organisations

Mediator