Agreement to Mediate

Oak Community Services provides relationship mediation for people seeking to resolve conflict, issues and concerns without the need for legal interventions.

If you require family mediation for Divorce and Seperation please revisit our website for futher information

 

Mediation is provided on the proviso that parties understand that:

• It is a voluntary process and either person may withdraw from the process at any point.
• The mediator is impartial and unbiased and as such will not tell the participants what to do, steer the outcome of the mediation or take sides.
• The participants retain ownership of the outcome of the mediation. The role of the mediator is to facilitate a constructive discussion between them in order to support them to reach their own resolutions regarding some, or all, of the issues in dispute.
• Where an agreement is reached the mediator may write this in a mediation agreement, if required. The contents of the mediation agreement are decided by the participants.
• Discussions and negotiations in mediation are confidential and must not to be referred to in any external discussions or in any legal or other formal proceedings, except to state that mediation has previously taken place.
• The mediator cannot be required to give evidence or produce any notes or recordings made in the course of the mediation.
• If the participants wish to share any mediation agreement with a 3rd party this must be agreed by them all.
• The mediation will take place in a neutral venue which the mediator will identify.
• The mediation will be carried out by either one or two mediators, as decided by Oak Community Services.
• The participants understand that if at any point the mediation process is causing undue distress, it may be decided to end the meeting.
• The participants understand that the Mediator is completely independent and does not have any personal or professional interest in what the outcome of the mediation should be.
• Where a mediator suspects that a person is in danger of significant harm, or if there is disclosure of a safeguarding issue relating to a vulnerable adult or child, the mediation will end and the appropriate authorities will be notified.
• Where a mediator becomes aware of any criminal activity, the knowledge of which would be classified as collusion in a crime, the mediator will terminate the mediation and the relevant authorities may need to be notified.
• Oak Community Services follows the Code of Conduct as outlined by the College of Mediators, and as such our Code of Conduct and accompanying complaints procedure are available in writing upon request.

Oak will keep your details on file for the purpose of carrying out the mediation process.

• If the mediation does not proceed to a joint meeting all personal data will be deleted from Oak’s records. The only data that will be kept on record will be the date of the referral and ‘Did not proceed to joint meeting’.
• If the mediation does include a joint meeting all personal data and the mediation agreement will be kept on file in Oak’s records for 3 months from the date of the joint meeting. After this time the personal data and the mediation agreement will be deleted from the records. The only remaining information on Oak’s files will be the name of the mediator, the date of the referral and the date of the joint meeting.
• If you have previously used this service this agreement supersedes all previous consents in relation to the use of your data as outlined above.

 

• 1 x Individual meeting of up to 1 hour with each Participant
• 1 x Joint meeting of up to 3 hours (Zoom/In person)
• Mediation administration – 1 hour
• Review by arrangement at addtional fee

Depending on location the joint meeting may take place in person or on Zoom and the allocated mediator will be in touch to make arrangements.

NOTE:

FULL MEDIATION:

• If, once the individual meetings have taken place, the joint meeting does not take place the sum of £150/£225 (based on the number of participants) will be returned by bank transfer [by arrangement].
• At the end of the joint meeting further joint meetings or a review can be agreed upon, if required.

If any arranged meeting is cancelled without 48 hours notice the fee for that meeting will be non-refundable and any newly arranged meeting will involve an additional charge of £60 per hour.

JOINT MEETING ONLY

• All fees non-refundable

All participants must sign a copy of this agreement and payment must be made in full before mediation commences.