Mediation fails to make impact
POLICYMAKERS NOW FAVOUR mediation as a ‘proportionate’ method for resolving citizen-versus-state disagreements. Yet while mediation may have a role to play in dispute resolution, new research suggests that it has not yet had the significant impact anticipated by policymakers. In the field of special and additional support needs for children, parents have a right to select either mediation or an appeal, or both processes, to resolve their dispute. In a new study, researchers investigated the use of mediation and tribunals in 49 cases in England and Scotland.
Researcher Professor Sheila Riddell explains: “Mediation is depicted in recent policy documents as less stressful for participants, quicker and more cost- effective than courts or tribunals.” However, findings indicate that local authorities resented having to fund mediation services and they were not well publicised, and parents were often sceptical about the value of mediation, questioning its independence and the extent to which agreements would be honoured. As a result, particularly in England, parents were more likely to appeal, believing that although the process might be stressful, it offered a better chance of achieving their desired outcome. “Overall, independent mediation in this field has not been as successful as the Government hoped,” Professor Riddell points out. “But these findings have increased our understanding of the problems which underlie the use of alternative dispute resolution such as mediation.” Co-researcher Professor Neville Harris
adds: “The evidence also reinforced rather than dispelled the belief that even where there is a mediated agreement it will not always be fair to the parent: some local authorities and parent partnership services, albeit a minority, thought that that was the case.” n
i
Contact Professor Sheila Riddell, University of Edinburgh Email
sheila.riddell@ed.ac.uk Telephone 0131 6516597 ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-0803
8 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2011
More feminine outlook for Conservative Party
A clear process of feminisation that has taken place within the Conservative Party since 2005 is identified in a new study from the University of Bristol. But, say researchers, gender challenges still remain for the Conservatives. For example, any significant increase in the number of female Conservative MPs at the next general election will almost certainly require further reforms to the Conservative parliamentary selection process. “It’s clear that the party has more women MPs in 2010, rising from nine per cent in 2005 to 16 per cent (49 women) in 2010. The party’s women’s organisations appear healthier too, having played a role in policy development and attracting new kinds of women. And the party’s policies ‘for’ women are more competitive relative to the other two main parties and previous manifestos,” suggests researcher Professor Sarah Childs. “But, clichéd as it is, only time
will tell whether the feminisation of the Conservative party between 2005- 2010 contributes to a feminisation of government over the 2010 Parliament and whether it gives rise to a further feminisation of the Conservative party –
voluntary, professional and parliamentary – before and after the next election.” Certainly, as it stands, the figures for Conservative women MPs leave the Conservative party falling below the European average for women’s legislative presence, which stands at 22 per cent. It also continues to compare unfavourably to the Labour party which managed to return a parliamentary party that is one third female. The Conservative party also fare badly compared with many of its European ‘sister’ parties: it trails in 19th position. “The evidence from comparative studies and the British Labour party, especially in 2001, suggests that women’s descriptive representation at higher levels is unlikely to happen naturally,” argues Professor Childs.
“Whether the party will finally accept the logic of equality guarantees remains a critical and as yet unanswered question. Such a move requires political will that party leader David Cameron has not hitherto demonstrated.” n
i Contact Professor Sarah Childs,
University of Bristol Email
s.childs@
bristol.ac.uk Telephone 079 509 33371 ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-0647
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32