Norfolk Family Mediation Service AGM and Annual Report
Norfolk Annual Report
In our latest AGM we reflected on The Norfolk Family Mediation Services’ success from the year 2019 and assessed the agreement between the NFMS and CFMS to form The Family Mediation Trust.
The Norfolk Family Mediation Service set out ambitious targets in 2019 and managed to succeed in delivering the best performance results in 10 years. During the AGM, former Chair of trustees Stephen Burke acknowledged everyone involved in supporting the service and was optimistic the new Chair Jo Preston will assist in creating a stronger organisation to serve many more families and children.
The AGM saw all trustees agreeing to the merge of the NFMS and CFMS to form the Family Mediation Trust with treasurer Charles McKie stating the service to be financially robust with the ability to invest in more opportunities during 2020. Despite impacts of COVID 19, Charles McKie declared The Family Mediation Trust to be in a good position.
2019 has seen the service focus on its core activities, which has resulted in a record year in regard to the number of families supported through mediation. This has meant that the number of people supported has increased by 28% since last year, with the number of mediation sessions cohesively increasing by 38%.
This rise may be an outcome of the substantial increase in the number of legal aid cases being supported, which has risen from 23% to 76% of cases since the year ending December 2018. This has been a result of t6 NFMS 2019 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2020.06.03 NFMS.pdfhe service working to build relationships with a number of key referral partners with harder-to-reach communities and those that need financial support.
Another significant progression to the service was the introduction of a new mediation delivery location in Great Yarmouth during March 2019. This was initially in the Priory Centre and has subsequently moved to the Kings Side Centre. Over the year the service has proceeded to see 41 clients in Great Yarmouth.