Children and Families Act 2014

56 Mediation: supplementary

(1) Regulations may make provision for the purposes of sections 52 to 55, in particular—

(a) about giving notice;

(b) imposing time limits;

(c) enabling a local authority or commissioning body to take prescribed steps following the conclusion of mediation;

(d) about who may attend mediation;

(e) where a child’s parent is a party to mediation, requiring the mediator to take reasonable steps to ascertain the views of the child;

(f) about the provision of advocacy and other support services for the parent or young person;

(g) requiring a local authority or commissioning body to pay reasonable travel expenses and other expenses of a prescribed description, up to any prescribed limit;

(h) about exceptions to the requirement in section 55(3);

(i) about the training, qualifications and experience of mediators and mediation advisers;

(j) conferring powers or imposing requirements on local authorities, commissioning bodies, mediators and mediation advisers.

(2) In section 55 and this section “mediation adviser” means an independent person who can provide information and advice about pursuing mediation.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), a person is not independent if he or she is employed by any of the following—

(a) a local authority in England;

(b) a clinical commissioning group;

(c) the National Health Service Commissioning Board.

(4) In this section “commissioning body” means a body that is under a duty to arrange health care provision of any kind.