ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the early beginnings of mediation in the UK in the early 1980s, especially the early community mediation services. Two philosophies of community mediation emerge – the ‘grass-roots’ community-based and the more agency-led outcome-focused practice – and these continue to inform later developments. The national organisation MEDIATION UK was formed, acting as a catalyst for a rapid expansion of community mediation. Other factors leading to this expansion are also explored. There is a brief account of the parallel developments of other kinds of mediation in the UK – industrial, family, schools, victim/offender, commercial, medical, environmental, elder and organisational mediation.
