PRIVATELY FUNDED WORK IN FAMILY MEDIATION:
calculating the volume of privately funded family mediation cases

A UK College research report

Summary

The UK College of Family Mediators has completed a research project to estimate the volume of privately funded family mediations being carried out in England and Wales; the results can be used alongside the already-available information about the volume of publicly funded family mediations to calculate the overall volume of family mediation being undertaken by family mediators. 

The project’s principal findings, which relate to the year 2005, are:

• between 3,000 and 4,000 privately funded family mediations were completed, which constituted about 20% of the total of family mediations undertaken;

• between 27,000 and 29,000 assessment meetings were conducted, about 20% of which were privately funded;

• the ‘conversion rate’ for privately funded assessment meetings, at 64%, is slightly better than that for publicly funded family mediation;

• family mediators continue to have very varied work patterns: some work very limited hours, some full time; some work for a number of organisations, others in just one.  This variety has considerable implications for the conduct of research into family mediation.

The project was carried out by researchers Ann Head and Michael Head, assisted by Hugh England.  The project was funded by the Legal Services Commission.

Copies of the full project report are available to download from the UK College of Family Mediators’ website: to download (1MB file), click here.

02/07