We work side-by-side with social housing providers, local authorities, and the police to:
Those referring cases to us have huge demands on their time, and are rarely considered to be impartial due to their enforcement role. Often the cases don’t have clear perpetrators and victims, and the circumstances are difficult to evidence making it very difficult for them to take action. Having access to a skilled and independent mediation service allows them to offer the people they serve the support to find a way out of their situation, saving them time and resources.
We also aim to help neighbours to communicate safely and facilitate the best possible conversation between them and their neighbours, be that directly or indirectly. We try to find ways they can manage conflicts differently in the future and, where possible, help those whose neighbours can’t or won’t mediate – always aiming to be accessible, practical and person-centred in our practice.
Impact and challenges
Impact for service users
In the current economic climate, stress on families is building which can feed into neighbourhood conflict and levels of tension and tolerance.
Mediation and, importantly, the process that leads to it, can give people an appropriate outlet for their frustration, and allow them to access safe and effective ways to communicate with their neighbours.
It is vital for them to be able to access our service (which is free at the point of use) to avoid tension spilling over into altercations that end up needing enforcement action, intervention by the police or, less visibly, deteriorating mental health.
While not always straightforward, the outcomes of community mediation can be life-changing. Home should be a sanctuary from the outside world. Neighbours in dispute can feel unsafe in their homes, nervous to go in their gardens or leave their flat. Mediation can allow everyone to be heard and understood and helps people to make practical plans to avoid conflict in the future, reducing stress and allowing people to move on from situations that have, in some cases, dominated their lives for years.
When asked about their experience with the service, our service uses said:
- 83% of respondents felt that their issue had been resolved as a result of working with Catch22,
- 96% of respondents said that their issue had been improved as a result of working with Catch22,
- 98% of those who felt it relevant to them felt that their mental health had improved,
- 99% of those who felt it relevant to them felt less stressed when their case closed,
- 98% of those who felt it relevant to them felt safer when their case closed,
- 95% of those who felt it relevant to them felt more confident to cope with future conflict when their case closed, and
- 99% of those who felt it relevant to them felt more able to enjoy life after their case closed.
Based on our best knowledge of case outcomes, the chart overleaf showcases the outcomes from closed cases over the last year. This information is based on service user or referrer feedback or information from the last follow-up conversations we were able to have with the service user. Cases can have many complex features and we rarely turn cases away, so results are mixed, however we aim to give a clear representation of the range of outcomes and the reasons for them.
Impact for referrers
Neighbour disputes can prove extremely time consuming and expensive for referring agencies. They often result in multiple phone calls, complaints and visits taking up scarce time and resources. This year, when asked for feedback on the service:
- 100% said that our intervention stopped the situation from escalating,
- 91% said that they no longer needed to take enforcement action,
- 100% said that they number of calls they received about the case stopped (70%) or reduced (30%), and
- 100% would recommend the service to others.
Challenges
In the last year, it has become increasingly evident that there are fewer and fewer resources available to local authorities, especially for lower-level support that can empower people to access what they need and prevent crises from occurring.
This is particularly true in the area of mental health. Almost 30% of our cases involve someone that has declared mental health as a disability, and we are aware that the prevalence of mental
health concerns is far higher than this amongst our service users.
As always, we strive to make the service as accessible as possible, with the aim that someone’s mental health does not prove a barrier to using the service.
We work flexibly, face- to-face where people feel comfortable, or over the phone, offering both face-to-face or shuttle mediation and individual support over the longer term to help people navigate conflict.
We have the freedom and autonomy to build supportive relationships and to continue working with people until they feel confident to manage the situation themselves.
Wherever we can, we continue to support our service users with mental health struggles in communicating with their neighbours, helping them to understand each other better and find ways to manage the issues between them more constructively.
Working in partnership
After many years of working with Norwich City Council, our innovative self-referral Community Conflict service, co-designed with the City’s Community Safety team, is now well established as part of the toolkit Norwich residents can access to address neighbourhood conflict issues. They can refer themselves directly via the council website, which presents a diverse set of problems that we work with the service user to find solutions to. This could lead to a face-to-face or shuttle mediation, just exchanging information, working with only one party to manage the situation, or connecting them to other agencies that can help them. Alongside this, we continue to provide a traditional mediation service to the Antisocial Behaviour team.
We have a longstanding relationship with Clarion Housing, who have been referring neighbour dispute cases to us for over 11 years, to give their tenants access to a constructive way to tackle antisocial behaviour and neighbourhood conflict.
We are also into our third year of working with Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils, and have been working constructively together on cases ranging from complex multi-party issues to single-party support and conflict coaching, with very positive results.
We are entering our sixth year of working with Ipswich Borough Council following a successful tendering process beginning a further two years of working together. This
means that Ipswich Housing Officers can refer mediation and individual support cases when tenants are having issues with their neighbours. Mediation forms part of the council’s early intervention strategy to tackle antisocial behaviour.
We also work with other local authorities and housing associations on a spot purchase basis, providing mediation work and conflict resolution training.
We work together with each commissioner in a way that best suits the needs of their organisation, in order to make the service easy to use and supplying commissioners with the information they need. We have attended multi-agency meetings, Housing Officer team meetings and provided training sessions to raise and maintain awareness of the service and help people to use it as effectively as possible.
This year our referring officers providing feedback gave us an average rating of 4.96/5.
Voice of the service user
We are passionate about the importance of shaping our service based on the feedback that we receive from our service users.
Some of the feedback that we have received this year includes:
- “[Catch22’s Mediation Service] have been superb from the beginning to the end. It always felt that there was someone out there who believed you.”
- “I absolutely do [feel the mediator cared about me]. I felt I was heard, understood, and I was valued.”
- “The noise has reduced and I am sleeping peacefully now. Thank you very much for your effort in getting this sorted in a short period of time.”
- “It was good to have someone who could communicate with my neighbour for me because I couldn’t talk to her because of the problems she has.”
- “I live on my own and being able to talk to someone has been invaluable and helped me to cope with a very difficult situation.”
- “We were both able to let a lot go within the meeting, and seeing things from the other side helped us.”
- “I have been able to sleep again, and I feel much better knowing my neighbour has no issues with me and they have reduced the noise.”
- “The mediation was a complete success. It was hard for me to meet with my neighbour, but I am pleased we sat and talked.”
- “Despite our neighbours never engaging, the issues and complaints stopped.”
- “They worked so quickly and the issues stopped straight away. It was such a relief!”
- “The mediation was difficult, but I felt vey supported and it worked as the noise has totally stopped now.”
- “My neighbours’ plumbing has been fixed. Their late-night parties, frequently going on past midnight and for consecutive nights, has lessened extensively. Ultimately, they still make a lot of noise, but far, far less than they did when they first moved in.”
