The 7-Stage Mediation Model: Closure and Follow-up

With the newly-formed written agreement in-hand, the parties need to decide how to share the agreement, as well as who with. This will typically be shared with the referrer (whoever organised the mediation), but can also be shared with others who may be able to support the parties going forward. This could be a line manager in a workplace, a particular housing officer in a neighbourhood scenario, or even another family member not directly involved in the dispute.

Alternatively, parties may decide that they don’t want to share the agreement with anyone else. They may just want to feed back that the mediation went ahead and was successful, and that’s it. Of course, mediation is confidential, and it is entirely up to the parties on how they consent for their agreement shared.

Another key aspect of stage seven is deciding on the length of time before following up. The standard period is six weeks post-case, but can be altered to factor in leave, upcoming projects, or other timescales.

The follow-up is carried out via email, and is designed to find out how the agreement is holding up and whether parties need any further support. Again, we ask for parties’ consent on feeding back to the referrer the content of the follow-up.

All that’s left to do after that is to close the session and thank the parties for their hard work during the day. Mediation can be an emotionally tiring and draining process, particularly when carried out in a full day, and it is important to recognise the investment that parties have made in trying to resolve the dispute.