Section A: The organisations and groups within the partnership Lead applicant Name of Organisation: Mediation Type of Organisation: Registered Society under the Co-operative and Community Benefits Act 2014 No: 28695R Contact details: Contact - Victoria Harris Email - [email protected]

Phone - 01442 026 8044 Address - 3 Halsey Drive, Gadebridge, , Hertfordshire, HP1 3SE

Summary of Mediation Hertfordshire provides independent, confidential and impartial services to organisation: resolve conflict in the community, within families, in schools and in the workplace. We also provide training in conflict coaching/ diffusing escalating situations. Our partnerships are extensive, working with local authorities, housing associations, schools, police and community organisations; providing mediation to their clients, often experiencing multiple issues that complicate their lives eg. Illness, mental health, relationships, unemployment, drug & alcohol abuse. Partner 1 Name of Organisation: Relate (, & Three Rivers)

Type of Organisation: Charity

Contact details: Contact - April Trawicki Email - [email protected]

Phone - 01442 026 2618

Address - The Gables, 3 St Mary’s Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 5HL Summary of Mediation Hertfordshire and RELATE work as a consortium to deliver the ‘Promoting organisation: Healthy Relationships’ service for Dacorum Council. We provide Dacorum residents with access to mediation support services relating to neighbour, families and in some cases workplace disputes, whilst RELATE provide counselling services. Often the clients need to access both services to support their issues and we cross refer clients as appropriate and support each other with administrative issues. Partner 2 Name of Organisation: (DBC)

Type of Organisation: Local Authority

Contact details: Contact - Alex Care Email - [email protected]

Phone - 01442 228 436 (x2436) Address - Community Partnerships, The Forum, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1AN Summary of Our strategic alliance with DBC is 18 years old, supporting residents with dispute organisation: resolution. We now work within a consortium (see above) but also have key input into DBCs community partnerships project, working alongside community providers including DENS, CAB, Drug Link to ensure we share best practise, referrals and learning. We are founding members/ trustees of ‘Dacortium’ (formally Dacorum Civil Society Partnership), identifying opportunities for joint working with DBC.

Partner 3 Name of Organisation: Hertfordshire County Council (HCC), Intensive Family Support Teams (IFST formally known as Thriving Families) Type of Organisation: County Council

Contact details: Contact - Jackie Clementson Email - [email protected]

Phone - 014380 844 366

Address - IFST, HCC, County Hall, Pegs Lane, , Herts, SG13 8DQ Summary of Our work with IFST supports families with complex needs, where children (under 18) organisation: are suffering distress and/ or behavioural issues in school due to conflict at home. We help parents/ carers to look at triggering issues in a factual way eg. Separation, access arrangements, inter-generational conflict and bring all parties together with our mediators to discuss positive ways forward, empowering parents/ carers to achieve positive outcomes and healthier family relationships. Partner 4

Name of Organisation: Hertfordshire Youth Connexions

Type of Organisation: Services for Young People

Contact details: Contact - Heather Wallace Email - [email protected]

Phone - 01442 045 4091 Address - Apsley Two, Brudley Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP3 9BF Summary of We are working with Hertfordshire Youth Connexions to support their work with young organisation: carers and people leaving the care system who are particularly vulnerable in society. Through DBC public health funding, we are providing conflict resolution training to these young people, to help them foster resilience and to give them confidence to deal with issues relating to relationships and liaising with officialdom eg. housing, employers, families etc. positively. Partner 5 Name of Organisation: Age UK (Dacorum)

Type of Organisation: Registered Charity

Contact details: Contact - David Pearce Email - [email protected]

Phone - 01442 259 049 Address - Half Moon Yard, High Street, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 3AE Summary of Age UK Dacorum improves the quality of life for older people in the Dacorum area. We organisation: have been working with them to deliver a series of talks at their Active Living Clubs, looking at how to avoid and/ or resolve family conflict, particularly relating to wills and powers of attorney. Again this is funded through DBC Public Health funding and is designed to help foster resilience for vulnerable local residents. Partner 6 Name of Organisation: Affinity Sutton

Type of Organisation: Housing Association (not for profit)

Contact details: Contact - Kirsten Wildman Email - [email protected]

Phone - 0300 100 0303 Address - Level 4, Imperial Place, Maxwell Road, , Herts, WD6 1JN Summary of Affinity Sutton is a key Hertfordshire housing association, accommodating some of the organisation: most vulnerable Hertfordshire residents. Mediation Hertfordshire’s HQ is a former Affinity Sutton rent collection office and in return for a peppercorn rent, we provide Affinity Sutton with mediation services to any of their Hertfordshire tenants in neighbourhood disputes. Partner 7 Name of Organisation: Hemel Hempstead Business Ambassadors (HHBA)

Type of Organisation: Business Support consortium

Contact details: Contact - Gary Stringer Email - [email protected]

Phone - 01442 228 808 Address - Maylands Business Centre, 10 Rd, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP2 7BA Summary of This is a new organisation which is seeking to support DBCs initiative to encourage new organisation: business and third sector organisations to the area. As well as being members, Mediation Hertfordshire are working with HHBA to give talks to consortium members about workplace conflict, encouraging innovative approaches to conflict resolution, rather than recourse through employment tribunals etc.

Section B: Partnerships & Stories What the partnership is achieving and learning

1. Your partnership’s project or initiative.

Mediation Hertfordshire is now in its 20th year, initially supporting community mediation to vulnerable tenants/ householders in dispute from District Councils and Housing Associations. Today we operate with more than 40 voluntary, professionally trained mediators who come from a wide range of backgrounds. Unfortunately, dispute can come from all walks of life, (often coming our way as a last resort), so in more recent years we have worked collaboratively with the County Council, local schools, other third sector community groups and most recently Relate to provide more integrated Hertfordshire wide mediation services to vulnerable clients, including young carers, young people leaving care, young people affected by parental disputes, ‘hard to reach’ adults, adults with complex needs and older people. We also work with both employers and employees Hertfordshire wide and throughout every sector (commercial and non-commercial) providing mediation in the workplace to enable constructive discussion to take place.

2. How did your partnership come about and develop?

Key to our success has been our community mediation service, which is (usually) free to the participants involved in a dispute. These have been funded by local district councils and housing associations and continues to be the keystone of our work today. We realised however that in order to survive as a non-profit making society, we needed to diversify into project based work and this is really how many of our key partnerships have developed. With funding from The Big Lottery, The Blandford Trust, The Office for the Police and Crime Commissioners and Local Authority support, we have been able to offer much needed mediation to parents in dispute, victims of crime and many vulnerable groups as well as provide training to more than 40 Hertfordshire based charities and community groups on conflict resolution training. Partnership working has also allowed us to cross refer/ signpost clients, support one another through joint funding opportunities, best working practices and profile raising. We have also been able to pool knowledge about the needs of Hertfordshire service users to enable our individual offering to be tailored to the needs of the local community

3. Impact. Please describe what outcomes you are achieving, your impact or how you are making a difference.

Every year, we mediate in approximately 100 neighbour disputes, covering issues including noise, anti-social behaviour, pets, boundaries and parking. In 2016 we also carried out 10 family mediations, four peer mediation training programmes in Hertfordshire schools (training young people to mediate in their peer disputes), raised awareness of Restorative Justice approaches to Hertfordshire businesses and begun training to seniors, care leavers and young carers in the Dacorum area. 1. Much of our success in community mediations is attributed to our persistence in engaging the residents in a dispute and getting them round a table to discuss their concerns. We have often liaised with client support/ social workers and housing officers to help with client engagement. Whilst not all disputes reach mediation, we do have upward of an 80% success rate in reaching signed agreements. 2. Most of our school’s work has involved families who have separated, many having children with ADHD/ autism spectrum issues, which has exacerbated difficulties in family life. Our mediation interventions have allowed the adults to openly address their issues and acknowledge that their children have been affected by home life. Results have included more effective family communication, happier children and in one case, a family staying together. 3. To date we have delivered our Dacorum Age Concern talks on how to avoid and/ or resolve family conflict, particularly relating to wills and powers of attorney to 40 Dacorum seniors. There are more talks planned in the next couple of months and feedback has been very positive.

4. How partnership working is helping you to achieve more.

Partnership working makes us more effective and allows us to extend the range of services we can provide to Hertfordshire residents, thereby reaching more people. We are also more able to effectively cross refer/ signpost clients; support ourselves and other partners by applying for joint funding opportunities; and share best working practices and raise our profile and that of the mediation process to numerous third sector, community and commercial organisations working in Hertfordshire.

We have also been able to pool knowledge about the needs of Hertfordshire service users, particularly in our membership of the Strategic Partner Programme, Dacortium, Synergy Dacorum (a Dacorum Citizens Advice initiative), Community Action Dacorum (supporting local voluntary groups to raise their profiles with potential target audiences) and the local

5. How you are making sure that the partnership is working effectively.

Key to our partnership working is our ability to deliver effective, professional programmes which meet the needs of partner clients. We ensure effective partner engagement through regular meetings, e-mails, assessments and reporting of our delivery so we can, if necessary adapt our offering and take on board any feedback. 1. We actively engage with service users to give feedback on our offering. This enables us to constantly review our service delivery, outcomes and help identify any gaps in our service. This takes the form of surveys, focus groups and evaluation forms. As a result, we developed a new ‘Conflict Coaching’ service, to help service users manage the conflict they were experiencing when the other parties to a dispute would not engage. 2. Our work with Thriving Families (now IFST), supporting children with conflict at home has now resulted in us working alongside Herts Young Homeless to deliver this initiative Hertfordshire wide (it originally started in Dacorum). 3. We hold the PQASSO Level 1 Quality Mark which demonstrates our commitment to working to a high standard in all aspects of our organisation, from policies and processes, through to trustees, staff and volunteers. This gives our partners an indicator of our professionalism and working practices, which in turn helps build trust and understanding between our partners. This has been particularly highlighted recently in our joint partnership bid with Relate, which resulted in being selected by Dacorum Borough Council to be a strategic partner in delivering their key priority of ‘Promoting Healthy Relationships’.

6. What you are learning from each other.

Partnership working has enabled us to raise the profile and benefits of mediation to our partners, demonstrating how it can be used to support vulnerable clients in a wide variety of circumstances. It has also helped us to develop our own systems to continue to be PQASSO compliant and deliver a guaranteed level of service to our partners. For example:- 1. Relate – we have developed informative partnership working which has helped us both to increase our knowledge of drafting tenders and seeking funding. 2. AGE UK Dacorum – our work with their client base, has identified needs we can support and given us an insight into adapting our evaluation techniques to service this user group i.e. Large type face, clear text etc. 3. Youth Connexions – Again this partners support has enabled us to adapt our training delivery to young carers and those coming out of care as well as looking at making our training available on a wider scale to young Hertfordshire people using the Channel MOGO medium.