ABSTRACT
The place of children in the mediation process has generated much debate ever since family mediation was first introduced in the UK in the late 1970s. Family mediation has long been identified with a greater concentration on the needs of children. Discussion on children's direct participation issue in the 1980s was characterized by two features: a polarization of positions lined up for and against the direct 'involvement' of children in mediation, and the importation into family mediation of the child-saving and paternalist aspects of social work and family therapy practice. The Adoption and Children Act 2002, implemented in 2005, has now made provision for the representation of children in private law cases. Several pressures influenced the development in the UK of a pioneering project piloting mediation in the context of public law child protection cases. Many local authorities have introduced mediation schemes to address the linked problems of broken family relationships and homelessness for young people.
