Mediation – how does it work?
Our Support Services Manager Mark Perez gives us an overview of his role helping to resolve issues between tenants.
“I am part of a small team that covers mediation.
“In a nutshell, we try to calm the waters and help resolve issues between neighbours and individuals. We come across all types of disputes – everything ranging from noise complaints to boundary issues. Some of the issues we come across may seem trivial to some people, but for the individuals involved it feels like the biggest thing in the world – it can become all encompassing. Some of the disputes we have been involved with have built up over 15-20 years.
“Our approach is to sit down and listen to everyone involved. We usually have one of two sessions with each person and then we try to bring people together to find that common ground. The important thing to remember is even though we work for Wrekin, we always remain neutral – we’ll never favour one side over the other. We’re not there to build a case against people – we are there to purely to listen and reach a positive conclusion for everyone involved.
“It is often a case of getting people to take a step back. Someone may not realise that their behaviour is having a detrimental effect on another person. Some people just want to vent and don’t want to take things further. Sometimes an issue can be resolved simply by helping someone to change their perspective, whilst other issues can take longer to iron out.
“When things get so bad between the individuals who are in dispute, we’ll often run a shuttle service. This literally involves a mediator going back and forth between both properties, ferrying information back and forth!
“I think the pandemic, and particular lockdown, has heightened a lot of these issues. It’s also made things more challenging for us. In the pre-pandemic days, we would have done all of our mediation face-to-face. Like all teams across Wrekin, we’ve had to adapt – we do a lot of our work via teams.
“It’s satisfying when the penny drops and we make a breakthrough, but sometimes people will not engage with us full stop. Members of the team are trained as ‘conflict coaches’ – which helps to address this. Conflict coaching is a one-on-one process where we work with an individual and support them through a particularly difficult or complex conflict. We help build their skills at constructively resolving conflict.
“It can be a challenging job, but I absolutely love it.”
14th July 2021