ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the key contemporary assumptions concerning 'best practice' in mediation. It addresses the professionalisation of mediation work, its pursuit of 'neutrality' and the detachment, and how such developments may be perceived by those on the receiving end of practice. The chapter examines the involvement of the child in the mediation. It also focuses on the preparation of parents for their mediation meeting and to the expectations that they bring. Findings from the Essex study suggests that many parents feel unprepared for their mediation meeting – 78 per cent of participants said that they had no expectations about mediation based on previous experience or knowledge. The direct involvement of children in mediation is a relatively recent phenomenon even though conciliation, the forerunner of mediation, had been exclusively concerned with issues of 'custody' and 'access', in which the children hold an obvious and important stake.
