How mediation resolves family conflict

Project
Amber Mediation

Purpose
To prevent youth homelessness

Funding
The service costs roughly £100,000 a year. Funders have included Edinburgh City Council, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Big Lottery Fund, plus other grants and trusts

Background
Relationship breakdown and family conflict account for about 40 per cent of homelessness applications to local authorities in Scotland, and is a major cause of youth homelessness. In 2006, the charity Cyrenians set up its Amber Mediation service to help families resolve conflict that could lead to young people ending up homeless. “There were a significant number of young people presenting as homeless as a result of being asked to leave by their family,” explains service manager Viki Phillipps. “There wasn’t enough housing for these young homeless people but we knew that with support, many could remain safely in the family home.” The scheme was initially funded by Edinburgh City Council as part of its homelessness prevention strategy, and went on to gain further funding to run workshops in schools.

Action
The key to the service, which is entirely voluntary, is the combination of mediation and support on offer, according to Phillipps. Referrals come from schools and education settings, housing, social services, other voluntary organisations and families themselves. A personal adviser helps to co-ordinate a range of support, allowing the service’s trained mediators to focus on the conflict within a family and ways of dealing with it, explains Phillips. Even where mediation is not appropriate, the personal adviser can still help co-ordinate support.

Available across Edinburgh and East Lothian, the service sets out to work with families for about three months.

The schools workshops programme lasts for six weeks. Sessions include discussion of the nature of conflict and role-play exercises.

Outcome
Amber Mediation handled 172 cases between April 2012 to March 2013. An external evaluation – by Sue Irving Associates – concluded the service achieved the goals of both commissioners and users.

Data on closed cases, from October 2011 to October 2012, shows that 73 per cent of young people who used the mediation service remained at home, 15 per cent moved out with support, nine per cent returned home and three per cent regained family contact.

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