Senior Appointment for Jan Coulton

Earlier this year, Jan Coulton joined the team at Direct Mediation Services as part of our Senior Management Team. Jan supervises the firm with regards to its Family Mediation Legal Aid contract, which starts in September this year. She has also been instrumental in further strengthening our quality systems in preparation for the contract and reviewing how we deliver client focused MIAM sessions and mediation.

Jan is one of the UK’s most experienced family mediators and this has been recognised by her being appointed to the Family Mediation Council’s standards review panel. We interviewed her this week about her new role, starting with the question about how she felt. Jan replied, “It is a great honour to be appointed to this panel and to be part of the review of the family mediation standards.” Jan went on to explain that she actually took part in the original review of the FMC by John McEldowney, Professor of Law at the University of Warwick in 2010/11. This review was the start point for standards being applied to private mediation, as well as publicly funded mediation and the present accreditation system that is upheld by the Family Mediation Council.

Jan’s future plans

We then went onto ask Jan about what she would be looking at first in her new role. She said, “At the centre of my considerations is the priority that must be given to the creation of an effective and efficient system of mediation through systems that monitor how mediation is delivered, supervised and effectively managed. This is essential and must take the highest priority for the future. Mediators should be regarded as belonging to an important profession with all that entails, including the protection of the public interest and appropriate accreditation and supervision of educational and training standards.”

In addition to the new role, Jan continues with her work with the Family Mediation Standards Board (FMSB). For those who are not aware, the FMSB has delegated authority to advise upon and oversee the implementation of, and adherence to, the FMC’s professional standards. The specific piece of work Jan is working on with her colleagues is drafting the new PPC code of practice.