It was a consultee of mine who first alerted me to the news in September 2016. The Law Society had started notifying their accredited mediators that the reaccreditation process was up and running. The FMC standards require all accredited mediators  to reaccredit every three years in order to maintain their accredited status. Mediators hadn’t previously been required to reaccredit before the standards were updated in Septembet 2014. It has taken two years for the Law Society to develop its reaccreditation scheme. The FMC has yet to introduce theirs.

Reaccreditation deadline

I was alarmed to say the least. For some reason the Law Society had not included me in its mass emailing of accredited mediators. Worse still, my deadline for reaccreditation was 30 September – a couple of weks away at the time.

So I contacted the Law Society accreditation unit. They were apologetic and confirmed I should have been on the mailing list. They said I was on the list now, and granted me an extenstion to the end of November.

Now I’ve been busy the last month or so with work, and with a rebranding and redesigning my website.  I had left the reaccrediattion papers until the last minute and then reaslised that quite a lot of work would be involved. Panic set in. I could see no way I was going to be able to complete my application by the end of the month.

Reaccreditation on hold

And then I heard some good news – again through someone else. The reaccreditation process was on hold. Apparently an email had been sent out to all accredited mediators. All except me, of course.

Once again I phoned the accreditation unit. Once again they apologised.

What I learned is that the reaccreditation scheme implementation has been deferred until 30 April 2017. Why? It seems that the other reaccreditation scheme run by the FMC has not yet been published. I guess the FMC wants to ensure that the Law Society scheme fits in with the FMC reaccrediattion framework.

Reaccreditation choice

What difference does it make? None really. I’m still accredited. One benefit is that I can choose at a later date whether to stick to the Law Society or reaccredit with the FMC.

The same may apply to you.

Better call the Law Society

And if you are a Law Society accredited mediator but knew nothing about reaccreditation or the suspension of reaccreditation, you may want to ring the accreditation unit and let them know that you are not on the mailing list either.

I am Stephen G Anderson. I am a professional mediator. I am  a Law Society accredited family mediator.

Stephen G Anderson, family mediator

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