This is a challenging time for everyone and the isolation and stress of living in close quarters can cause, or increase, conflict for families, friends, and roommates, and can create challenges for work teams, charities and businesses.

At Scottish Mediation we know that conflict creates a wide mix of emotions including frustration, anger, upset and aggression. These emotions are intensified by the lack of the usual social outlets such as chats with friends, family and colleagues and in isolation can escalate into feelings of desperation which may be heightened by stress and worry about COVID-19 itself.

For people who are still working, issues over social distancing in the workplace or difficulties around home working can quickly create conflict.

Where families with children are in shared housing blocks, noise levels may be increased beyond toleration for possibly elderly neighbours who are confined to their home for most or all of the day.

The COVID-19 measures not only aggravate these situations but make it difficult to cope with as face to face advice or discussion is severely limited.

We know that mediation can help in these situations as mediators are able to help create the space for a conversation in a way which allows the parties to use creative ways of resolving disagreements and in some instances to repair relationships too.

Our mediators would like to do their bit to ease the impact of COVID-19 and so we have launched a new COVID-19 Mediation Service to provide free and reduced cost mediation for issues that have been created or exacerbated by the COVID-19 restrictions.

In terms of what might be a suitable dispute for mediation we will be able to speak to you about your dispute and advise on each instance. However these sorts of dispute are likely to be appropriate -

• Family matters including care of older relatives
• Flat mates/housemates
• Landlord/tenant
• Cooperative or social housing
• Workplace concerns related to working from home or shared workspaces
• Neighbours

It is possible that some issues may have existed before and were being managed successfully but the additional pressures have pushed them into conflict.

Conflicts that would not be within the scope of the service would be:

• Family cases around divorce and separation including those relating to child contact,
• Pre-existing conflicts where a process has already started, even if it is worsened by social distancing or self-isolation
• Conflicts where there is a history of domestic violence.

Where the service is not suitable for your dispute, we will advise you if other mediation options are available and how to access them or suggest other resources that may be of use.

To access our service simply:

• Website: https://www.scottishmediation.org.uk/covid-19-mediation-service/
• Email:  admin@scottishmediation.org.uk
• Scottish Mediation Helpline:   0131 556 8118

We will get back to you to discuss the situation and provide more information and allocate a mediator. The mediation will be conducted by phone or by video-conferencing.

The service is free for individuals and organisations with less than five employees and provided at a heavily discounted flat rate of £300 per day for organisations with more than five staff.

May Millward MBE

Project Officer

Scottish Mediation Network