Annual Report and Accounts

1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

1 About us
Our aims We work for the public benefit offering mediation, conciliation, dispute resolution or reconciliation between individuals, organisations, and authorities or within families or groups. This includes disputes leading from or towards nuisance, violence, abuse of minority or vulnerable groups, or unlawful activity We work to promote public understanding of mediation, the nature and causes of conflict and ways of managing it to achieve peaceful resolutions We promote the concept of good neighbours

Our work Founded in 1997 under Surrey County Council's Safer Surrey initiative, ESCM is a charity serving the Reigate & Banstead, and Tandridge districts. We offer independent, impartial and confidential mediation to local residents, businesses and organisations. The service is free at the point of need thanks to the funding and service agreements of local housing providers, community safety and the police, and the many hours donated by specially trained volunteers. Mediation is an informal, yet structured, process that brings those in dispute together to explore options for settling matters in a mutually acceptable way. For those who might consider legal action it is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) able to divert them from expensive, intensely stressful and time consuming conflict. Put simply, mediation let's ordinary people deal with a disruptive situation and 'get their lives back'. Those in conflict enter mediation voluntarily in order to resolve issues as quickly, practically and amicably as possible. They retain the power to decide the outcome, including a decision to discontinue talks. Mediators do not evaluate parties' rights, give expert opinion or advice, nor impose a solution. Their role is to clarify issues, create an orderly environment and help discussion flow in a constructive direction. Whatever the problem or history, or the stage at which parties engage with this process, agreements can be successfully reached provided the parties wish to do so. With our mediators' help there is always hope.

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

2 Overview from the Chair

Neighbour disputes are widespread. In fact they are twice as common as housing or crime problems among that 40% of the population who have any significant problem. They are not confined to the less well off but cut across all social, educational and demographic boundaries. Neighbour disputes have a directly adverse impact on those in involved: 30% experience stress-related illness, 15% a loss of confidence and 10% personal violence. With 64% spending 'most' or 'all' of their time thinking about the problem it is clear why resolving a dispute often means 'getting your life back'. We do our best to help people with these problems, and more. We are not perfect: but we are improving constantly. East Surrey Community Mediation continues to be the largest service in Surrey with an average of 17 mediators and 80 referrals a year. In addition to core support from Reigate & Banstead, Tandridge DC, and the Surrey Police, this year we were awarded a one-off grant by the Community Foundation for Surrey. This important grant enabled us to invest in office efficiency and service promotion. It is fair to say that management by committee has created challenges in coordination and ability to handle detail in limited meetings. The Management Committee has therefore reflected on the needs of operational management day to day and concluded that a more nimble arrangement is needed. To exacerbate the issue, our constitution lacks clarity in roles and processes. We are committed to changing both the way we manage and the clarity of organisational roles. My thanks go to everyone who has supported the service in funding, referrals, mediation delivery and administration. You are the organisation and make it possible to deliver on our promises. We look forward to meeting our stated objectives in the challenging climate. We have confidence that we will continue to provide an important contribution to the well being of our neighbourhoods. Keith Stribblehill Chair

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

3 Mediation
Mediators encounter many challenges: from entrenched and long running arguments; multi party and intergenerational disputes, to difficult personalities and occasional walkouts. But if it were easy, there would not be a worthwhile job to do. Handling conflict well is a complex skill which can be developed and widely applied. That is satisfying for our volunteers and makes a big difference to those stuck in disagreement. Mediation provides a safe forum. For a family whose relationship with their teenage children was breaking down, mediation supported their commitment to work through the issues and over several meetings they reached the point where cooperation was restored. Their sense of achievement built a more cohesive family unit and the experience better equipped them to handle future differences. Mediators create both a communication channel and at times a useful buffer between neighbours. An elderly man was unable to get a response from his neighbour over two years about tenants' discarded furniture in the garden. Our mediators established contact through the letting agent and the owner quickly offered to clear the accumulation. In another case where trust had been eroded and each neighbour was worried about being taken advantage of, there had to be point by point negotiation taking months. The mediators' patience kept the ball in play and impartiality ensured the parties worked through the ups and downs to finally agree boundary measurements and repairs. Mediators must strike the right balance with confidence in the process and tenacity. They must encourage the hesitant and withstand the scepticism the disenchanted, yet maintain a light touch in guiding discussions that necessarily belong to the parties. Feedback from satisfied clients, praising the mediators and making donations, tells us we are getting it right. The spring of 2010 welcomed in five new mediators who were trained on the Surrey Community Training course; two more trained in the spring of 2011. All achieved the OCN accreditation. Our unique Standards Programme is monitored and fine-tuned continually. Included in this programme is mentoring new mediators on their first cases, peer debriefing and feedback on cases, ensuring mediators adhere to the principles of mediation and observation of mediators at Joint Meetings. We also hold Annual Reviews to identify development and training needs. Next year, we will be reviewing our recruitment and retention of volunteers. The cost of training means we must get a return of at least two years' service from our recruits. We are refining our intake procedures to screen applicants carefully not only for their capabilities but also their ongoing availability. Working with volunteer centres helps us find people
Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

with the necessary qualities to mediate. Thorough interviews are followed with a take up of references and we will shortly be introducing an Induction evening prior to training in order to test candidates commitment. To our mediators who volunteer their time, their patience, understanding and commitment - well done and thank you there are happier people around because of you.

4 Our Clients
Over the fiscal year 2010-2011, more than half of our cases came from a direct contact by one of the parties involved in a dispute. Some of these made contact as a result of a recommendation by their housing manager or the police, others on recommendation by the CAB, the Samaritans or another agency.

Eighteen mediators held more than 182 meetings either with individual parties or in joint meetings with two or more parties involved. Mediators work in pairs and each meeting takes on average two hours, including debrief but not including travel time. The time required to arrange a meeting ranged from 45 minutes to several hours. The average case took approximately three months from beginning to end. The time it takes to achieve any of our meetings varies significantly. The factors are generally out of our control: difficulty in making contact with parties, unwilling parties, holidays, identifying convenient times and dates across the diaries of four or more participants for two or more meetings.

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

Where we can speed up the process we refine our procedures and have increase staff hours. We continue to seek improvement and are considering further IT systems and the role of our marketing messages to the parties involved. Our service administration has gone through an overhaul and we will continue to build upon the positive changes made. In pursuit of enhanced customer service, we also examined a comprehensive and integrated case management system, purpose designed for mediation providers. This would leverage existing staff time and support service growth by streamlining data capture and richer analysis of work in progress and outcomes achieved. We will be seeking funds to enable us to invest in this software and maintain the ongoing licensing.

5 Marketing
Delivering an effective service is the reason ESCM exists, but it can only be useful if those in need know about us. Our research tells us the need is there. Our challenge is to let people know help is available and how to reach us. ESCM recognises the importance of marketing for a small organisation whose resources are properly absorbed in delivering mediation. Our goal is to build awareness of our service to all those who need help to resolve a conflict in East Surrey. This year's work began reviewing past efforts, examining the current environment and opportunities, and identifying practical methods for building a realistic campaign in the medium term. The relationship building and publicity needed to achieve this awareness demand considerable volunteer time and skills, but relatively modest cost. We plan to work more closely with referring agencies to get coverage in their own publications and internal liaison with departments such as Housing, Planning and Environmental Health likely to be approached by disputants. To expand our awareness, we need to recruit appropriate voluntary help, establish a programme of regular activity that will raise and maintain ESCM's visibility over time and approach sponsors. The question of branding and consistency across all communications was considered and will be linked to our next business plan. Grant funding allowed us to acquire some basic promotional equipment as well as to print new leaflets. The new exhibition boards, a portable display counter and tabards will enable ESCM to increase its visibility and public recognition. A regular tour of public venues by the new un-staffed displays is in the pipeline. Whilst paid for advertising is beyond our means, articles and public displays are achievable. Good media coverage was achieved in both borough magazines, which reach
Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

all local households, and in the Surrey Mirror and the voluntary sector newsletter. We also engaged with a TV documentary-maker and explored the potential for responsibly broadcasting an insight into the normally private process of mediation. Dependent as it was upon parties' consent to be filmed we were unable to go ahead in the timeframe; but programmes were later shown on Sky1 which demonstrated the challenges and positive results regularly achieved by community mediators. We acquired published research and tested an online service to do our own surveys cost effectively. We have confirmed our website will be a key tool to further public knowledge, promote responsible self-help, and facilitate enquiries and feedback. Quality sources of IT assistance to develop the potential of up-to-date functionality have been explored and we expect to engage them in projects in the near future. We believe there is considerable scope to extend our core work with neighbours (whether individuals, groups, organisations or businesses) in the next three to five years. If resources are forthcoming, we are confident of meeting their need for lasting resolutions to conflict.

6 Treasury
The Reserve and Cash positions both increased over the period so that ESCM starts the new financial year in a relatively strong position although funding for the coming and subsequent years looks particularly bleak. Finances are getting tighter so with a smaller cake we must make every effort to secure the required core funding going forward and ensure that it is spent in the most efficient manner to maintain the desired quality of delivered service. As in previous years we must thank Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge Councils, Raven Housing Trust and Surrey Police for their continued funding of our service. In addition, this year we received funding from CFS which enabled us to invest in IT equipment, extended mediator training and publicity. Nearly all areas of expense increased over the previous year largely due to the investments mentioned above in IT, training and publicity. Staff costs reduced due to the departure of a staff member who was not replaced. Future funding is an issue and we will need to develop new sources to continue to provide the high quality of service our clients deserve. Matthew Carpenter Treasurer

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

Financial Report for the Year Ended 31st March 2011

Income and Expenditure Income Core Operating Grants Donations Bank Interest Other Income Total Income Expenditure Staff Costs Operational Costs Awareness Training and Meetings Mediation Costs Total Expenditure Surplus Balance Sheet Current Assets Cash at Bank Payments in Advance Current Liabilities Creditors Total Net Assets Represented by:Reserves Balance Brought Forward Surplus for the Year Balance Carried Forward

2010/11

2009/10

28,000 630 7 55 28,692

23,000 130 8 125 23,263

11262 6630 1404 2862 2043 24,200 4,492

15,229 4,646 124 2,165 555 22,719 544

24031

20,126 359

1439 22,592

2,385 18,100

18,100 4,492 22,592

17,556 544 18,100

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

7 ESCM Personnel
1 April 2010 through 15 Sept 2010 Trustees David Brown Janet Cole-Brooman Cllr Glynis Whittle Management Committee David Brown Ruth Downing Matt Carpenter Julie Haslett Tim Howe Jacqui Marsden John Parkes David Simmonds Keith Stribblehill Debbie Weller John Whetsel Mediators (all volunteers) Aileen Debbie Jacqui Janet JohnW JohnP Toni Staff (all part time) Ruth Downing Pauline Edwards Chair Treasurer Mediator Rep Secretary 15 Sept 2010 through 31 March 2011

Treasurer Mediator Rep Chair

Eveline Julie Pauline

David Kevin Roberta Tim Sarah Tibble

Helga Lydia Ruth

Julie Haslett

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

Acknowledgement
The Trustees and Management Committee gratefully acknowledge the support and funding provided by the following organisations this year

And the private donations received from parties using mediation

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559

Registered Charity No 1089436 PO Box 187 Reigate RH2 0FT 01737 248 559