Professional self-regulation FMA Annual Conference
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Transcript 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