Mediation Complaints Procedure

A. Palmer & Associates is committed to providing a high standard of service. If you are unhappy with any aspect of the mediation you have received, we want to know, and we will take your concerns seriously.

We operate an internal mediation complaints procedure as follows:

1. All complaints will in the first instance be dealt with by Ashley Palmer, the FMC Registered Mediator and sole director of A. Palmer & Associates.
2. Please confirm your complaint in writing. The timetable for addressing complaints will start on the date the written complaint is received.
3. Ashley will acknowledge safe receipt of the written complaint within ten working days.
4. The other person or persons in attendance at the mediation will be notified that a complaint has been received and that the complaints procedure has been invoked.
5. Ashley will respond to the written complaint, having taken guidance from her Professional Practice Consultant, within thirty working days of the date of receipt. The complainant will be notified in writing if further time is required.
6. Mediation of the complaint can take place if requested by both the complainant and the mediator.
7. If Ashley’s response is not accepted, the complainant can ask the Family Mediation Standards Board (FMSB) to consider the complaint. Details can be found here: https://www.familymediationcouncil.org.uk/complaints-about-mediators/

The FMSB will consider complaints that concern breaches of the Family Mediation Council’s Code of Practice or Standards Framework. A complaint may be made to the FMSB once the mediator’s own complaints process has been exhausted within the last three months, or where a complaint has been made to the mediator and they are not responding to it. Complaints relating to the way the mediation was conducted as a whole must be made within three months of the last mediation session.

The FMSB can only consider complaints made about FMC Registered Mediators. It cannot consider complaints about firms or unregistered mediators. The registered mediator at A. Palmer & Associates is Ashley Palmer.

The following qualify as third parties who can make a complaint against a mediator following the mediation complaints procedure: a prospective client who has been directly affected by a mediator’s professional behaviour; and a person who has been invited to participate in a mediation process, for example another professional who attends a mediation.

Ashley will be free to share information held on the mediation file with the Family Mediation Standards Board in accordance with A. Palmer & Associates’ personal data policy.

8. Complaints that appear to be vexatious or of a purely personal nature do not have to be investigated by mediators and will not be considered by the FMSB.