Complaints Procedure
Our commitment
We will be receptive to any complaint and will consider it in detail and with the seriousness it merits. We will respond to any complaint promptly, and will always offer an opportunity as part of our complaints procedure for any complaint to be investigated by a mediator other than the mediator who is the subject of the complaint.
Any complaint will be treated confidentially.
We will take all criticism into account to improve our service in the future.
Who to contact
In the first instance, please raise any complaint or concern in writing with the mediator who handled your case.
It would be helpful if you could include your name, the name of the party / parties on the other side of any mediation and the date of any mediation that has taken place or is booked. It would also be helpful if you could provide a telephone number and email address (even if you have already provided these) to make sure that we have a record of it should we need to contact you urgently for any reason.
If you remain unhappy after receiving the mediator's response, or if the complaint does not relate to a particular mediator but is about an aspect of our administration, you should write to our Senior Mediator, Martin Plowman, at the following address:
Martin Plowman, Mediation1st, The Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJEmail: martin@mediation1st.co.uk
Alternatively, if your complaint is about Martin Plowman, and you are unhappy with his response, you should contact Richard O'Sullivan, at the following address:
Richard O'Sullivan, Mediation1st, The Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJEmail: richard@mediation1st.co.uk
If you feel that your complaint needs to be addressed by a woman, please contact Belinda Ellington at the following address:
Belinda Ellington, Mediation1st, The Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJEmail: belinda@mediation1st.co.uk
If writing is not an appropriate form of communicating for you, please let us know and we'll let you have a telephone number on which you can contact Martin or Richard. They would be happy to listen to you.
What we will do
Upon receiving any complaint in writing, either the individual mediator, or Martin, Richard or Belinda (as the case may be) will acknowledge your complaint in writing within five working days. The complaint will then be investigated fully and in detail. We may need to contact you for further information.
Thereafter a written response will be provided within twenty one days, unless a short extension of that time period is requried, in which case we will discuss that with you.
If you are not satisfied with our response, it may be possible for you to appeal to the Registrar at the Civil Mediation Council. All complaints to the CMC must be in writing and sent to secretariat@civilmediation.org.