ABSTRACT
Ensuring quality is unquestionably good, and for mediation services, as for other public services, it is essential. However, without explicit, commonly held standards, evaluation may be facile and subjective, resulting in little useful information to help improvement. The opposite danger is of very high and unrealistic expectations which are impossible to maintain and may lead to discouragement. Clearly, without standards, there is unlikely to be consistency of quality in service delivery across the country. Defining standards for practice, covering processes and procedures as well as end results, provides a sound basis for evaluation and external accreditation. Thus, accreditation means that clients, users, contracting agencies and mediators can be confident they are dealing with a quality service.
