Making mediation mainstream

That question is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid. The trajectory is unmistakable: mediation and other forms of dispute resolution are moving from the periphery towards the centre of civil justice, employment practice and public life. The more interesting question now is not whether mediation has a place in the mainstream, but what that place should be. 

It is the premise of this year's Civil Mediation Council Conference, Making Mediation Mainstream, on 7 and 8 October. Held online, with in-person networking at the International Dispute Resolution Centre at St Paul's, the conference brings together perspectives from across the increasingly broad field of dispute resolution.

For the legal profession, several discussions will be particularly pertinent. Members of the Civil Justice Council will consider the future direction of dispute resolution, while HMCTS will address the development of the small claims mediation pilot. The continuing implications of Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil will also be examined, including the evolving relationship between mediation, judicial process and the court's role in encouraging or requiring parties to engage in ADR.

For employment practitioners, ACAS will discuss its consultation on revisions to its Code of Practice and the place of mediation in early dispute resolution. Sir Julian Smith MP will bring a rather different perspective, considering mediation within the political landscape at a time when the capacity to conduct constructive dialogue across profound disagreement is itself under scrutiny.

Perhaps the more fundamental challenge, however, is not simply how much mediation we undertake, but how well we design it.

A mainstream dispute-resolution system must be capable of accommodating difference: neurodiversity, cultural difference, different levels of power and confidence, and the very different ways in which people experience and communicate conflict. Sessions on designing mediation processes for all and on intercultural fluency therefore raise questions that extend well beyond mediation practice itself.

The programme also looks beyond the conventional boundaries of legal dispute resolution, bringing together community mediation, SEND mediation, academia and those teaching conflict-resolution skills in schools. The inclusion of Concordis, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated organisation, is a reminder that the principles underpinning mediation have applications far beyond the courtroom.

This broader perspective matters. If mediation is becoming part of the architecture of justice, it cannot simply replicate the assumptions and structures of the system it sits alongside. Mainstreaming mediation presents an opportunity to think differently about what constitutes effective dispute resolution: not merely the efficient disposal of cases, but the quality of the process, the participation of those involved and the possibility of preserving relationships where that matters.

The conference's title therefore poses a more searching question than it might initially suggest. If mediation is no longer simply an 'alternative' to litigation, what should a mainstream mediation culture to look like?

That is a conversation the legal profession has good reason to be part of.

Discounted tickets are available for those working in community mediation, SEND mediation, academia and education, including those teaching conflict-resolution skills in schools.

Victoria Harris is chief executive of the CMC and a trustee of Mediation Hertfordshire, a community mediation organisation. She spent over a decade in the community mediation sector and has authored three reports on the benefits of mediation for individuals and public services