Delegates will gain up to 11 hours CPD from a variety of sessions covering civil, commercial, workplace, SEND, community, academic and peer mediation, as well as taking a look at legal updates post Churchill, mediation advocacy, mediation in clinical disputes and much more.
Keynote Speaker: Lord Neuberger
We are delighted to announce that Lord Neuberger will be giving the keynote speech at the CMC Conference this year.
During this important time for mediation, Lord Neuberger will be speaking on ‘Trying to Get it Right: The General and the Specific’.
Conference Programme
Trying to Get it Right: The General and the Specific – Lord Neuberger
Lord Neuberger, former Master of the Rolls and President of the UK Supreme Court, opens the conference with a keynote that explores how we navigate complexity in the pursuit of resolution. Drawing on deep legal and public experience, his address will offer a wide-ranging and thought-provoking start to the event.
12 November, 1 – 1.45pm • Keynote
Launching a Digital Map to Support Access to Community Mediation and to Create a Bedrock for our Communities – Alice Matthews, Victoria Harris
Access to mediation services is key to supporting individuals in conflict, fostering community cohesion and to benefiting the public sector services that support us all. In 2025 the CMC Community Mediation Working Group have worked to create a digital map of community mediation services enabling individuals to locate services and the public sector to commission them. Come and hear about our insights from the project, how the map will embed a new culture of conflict resolution, making mediation the foundation of how we resolve disputes.
12 November, 3.15 – 4pm
Why Managing Conflict Between Families and Health Professionals Really Matters: Reflections from The Medical Mediation Foundation – Sarah Barclay
Conflict in healthcare can have damaging consequences for everyone involved as well as increasing the potential for clinical error. In this session, Sarah Barclay, the founder of The Medical Mediation Foundation discusses her experience of embedding conflict management and mediation skills into clinical teams and mediating communication breakdown between parents and health professionals in clinical territory where there are no easy answers.
12 November, 4 – 4.30pm
Peer Mediation: Launch of National Evaluation Report – Ben Harper
During the Academic Year 2024-2025, members of the CMC Peer Mediation Working Group tracked the outcome of peer mediation in schools, charting the experience of pupils, year groups and overall school impact. At this Conference session we will be launching the report. Come and hear the findings of this first ever national evaluation project and add your voice to a discussion about the importance of embedding a better understanding of conflict management and resolution within education.
13 November, 2.45 – 3.30pm
Cutting Workplace Conflict: Finding a Fix – Panel with Kevin Rowan, Marie Coombes, Rachel Suff, and Richard Saundry
Join CMC’s Chair of the Workplace & Employment group, Dionne Dury, for an insightful panel discussion, exploring the cost of conflict (financial and human) and what needs to happen to engender a culture shift in UK businesses to move away from adversarial processes to alternative ways of resolving workplace disputes and what organisational and legislative changes are needed to drive that change. Dionne will be joined by an expert speaker panel including Kevin Rowan, Director of Dispute Resolution at Acas, Rachel Suff, Policy and Research professional and lead on CIPD’s public policy work on employment relations, Professor Richard Saundry, University of Westminster, involved in leading research in this sphere and Marie Coombes, Winner Diversity and Inclusion, 2024 National Mediation Awards and specialist conflict resolution expert.
13 November, 2.45 – 3.30pm
Alice Matthews
Alice has been CEO of Mediation Plus since 2018, leading its growth through the merger of three organisations. The charity delivers a wide range of mediation services, including community, intergenerational, family, and bespoke mediation, alongside accredited training across East and West Sussex, supported by a strong team of staff and volunteer mediators. A trained mediator and experienced trainer, Alice is passionate about increasing awareness of mediation and ensuring it is accessible to all, working with statutory partners, housing providers and third sector. She regularly works in partnership with other conflict resolution charities and is the current Chair of the CMC Community Mediation Working Group.
Ben Harper
Ben Harper is the Peer Mediation National Co-ordinator for Quakers in Britain. Ben has worked in and around education for over 25 years and in various roles including primary teacher, youth worker and in leadership roles within alternative and therapeutic provision. Ben is based in Manchester but works all of the UK supporting people to deliver high quality Peer Mediation training to children and young people. Ben is also the current chair of the CMC Peer Mediation Working Group.
Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho
Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho is a CEDR-accredited mediator and barrister and Chair of the CMC. Kelly was counsel, led by Edwin Glasgow KC, to the CMC, CEDR and Ciarb in the recent landmark case Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil. Prior to her tenancy at 39 Essex Chambers, Kelly was a solicitor in a US headquartered law firm in London where she was involved in litigation at every level. She was a blue-book stagiare at the European Commission, a judicial assistant to the Court of Appeal, and taught on the LLM course at King’s College London and the LLB at Birkbeck, together for over 10 years. She is ranked in the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.
Kevin Rowan
Kevin Rowan joined Acas as Director of Dispute Resolution in March 2025. Prior to this, he was Head of Organisation and Services at the Trade Union Congress, responsible for trade union renewal, public services and transport policy, regional policy, workplace learning and the TUC’s extensive programme of workplace representative training. Kevin has had many non-executive director roles over his career, including being a member of Acas Council, representing the interests of workers, collaborating with other board members to tackle issues such as HSE effectiveness, inclusion, L&D and equality and diversity.
Lord Neuberger
Lord Neuberger graduated from Oxford and was called to the English Bar in 1974. He specialised in property law, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1987 and became a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 1993. From 1996 to 2004, he served as a Judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2004 and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2007. He became Master of the Rolls in 2009, and in 2012 he was appointed President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He retired from that post in September 2017. He has since been practising as an arbitrator, mediator and legal expert from One Essex Court. He became a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal in 2009 and a Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court in 2018, and continues to sit in both courts.
Marie Coombes
With 25 years of HR expertise at Royal Mail and as a freelance consultant, Marie Coombes specialises in conflict transformation and psychological safety. She has successfully led over 300 workplace mediations and is deeply passionate about mental health. Marie applies her trauma-informed training to empower individuals and foster resilience within the workplace. Her achievements include multiple Mediation Team of the Year awards at Royal Mail and the prestigious 2020 Civil Mediation Council Workplace Mediator of the Year Award, earned during her first year as CEO of We Restore Calm.
Paul Adams
Paul has been the CMC’s CEO since 2018 and has overseen the development and professionalisation of the organisation during his tenure. A strong advocate for sector unity and strategic direction, he argues passionately for the need for mediation to speak with one voice, in order to get its message heard. In recent years, he has sought to widen the remit of the CMC to encompass all specialisms of mediation outside of the family context.
Rachel Suff
Rachel is a policy and research professional with over 25 years’ experience in the employment and HR arena and leads the CIPD’s public policy work on employment relations. She coordinates a range of research studies on the topic, serves on external advisory groups, is the author of a range of reports, has responded to numerous Government consultations and has given evidence at a number of parliamentary groups and committees. Rachel is a qualified HR practitioner and researcher. Before joining the CIPD in 2014, Rachel worked as a senior policy adviser at Acas.
Sarah Barclay
Sarah is an accredited mediator and the founder of The Medical Mediation Foundation. She was the co-director of the pioneering Evelina Resolution project. The project won Mediation Programme Initiative of the Year in the 2018 National Mediation Awards. Following a high profile conflict case at an NHS Children’s Hospital, MMF was invited to develop a practical framework to support managing conflict in clinical teams. In 2022, MMF was invited to create the first e-learning course in recognising and managing conflict for the NHS. Sarah has a Masters degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College London and is a former award winning journalist, author and BBC social affairs presenter.
Victoria Harris
Victoria Harris is Deputy Chief Executive at the CMC and Trustee of Mediation Hertfordshire, a community mediation organisation. Victoria gained an LLM at Kings College London before working as a solicitor specialising in employment law for 15 years and qualifying as a mediator. Victoria is an advocate for community mediation and the benefit it brings to individuals and public services. A member of the 2022 judging panel for the National Mediation Awards, Victoria now supports communications at CMC, where she also runs its Academic Forum and working groups for Peer Mediation in schools and Community Mediation.
Your Conference Hosts Mia Forbes Pirie
Mia Forbes Pirie helps people to have the difficult conversations that divide us. A commercial and workplace mediator, she also volunteers as a community mediator. Since leaving her career as a City solicitor in 2007, Mia has mediated and facilitated for clients including the Church of England, the Government of Mongolia, G7 France, the European Commission, NGOs and large corporations. The subjects she has dealt with include space, chemicals, oil and gas, sustainability, refugees, gay marriage, religion, competition law and property law. She was UK Independent Mediator of the Year 2021 (Corporate International).
and Audrey Dorival
Audrey Dorival helps education, health and social care professionals develop listening relationships with families to resolve conflicts. She is a CEDR and SEND accredited mediator. Audrey trained as a solicitor with City firm Eversheds and worked as a commercial litigator for several years before embarking on a new career. For two decades, Audrey managed the award-winning KIDS SEND Mediation Service. In addition to her mediation expertise, Audrey is a public speaker and freelance facilitator working regularly with the National Children’s Bureau and the Medical Mediation Foundation. Audrey sits on Mediation Panels with KIDS SEND Mediation Service and the Medical Mediation Foundation. She is a member of the CMC and College of Mediators SEND Assessor’s Panel, monitoring and reviewing mediation standards nationally.
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Drinks & Networking for Conference Attendees!
All conference attendees are invited to attend a networking and drinks reception on the evening of 12 November. The event will start at 6.30pm after the conference day programme has ended.
This in-person event offers the opportunity to meet fellow attendees, engage with members of the CMC Board and executive team, and connect directly with some of the speakers. It’s a chance to continue the day’s discussions in a more relaxed setting—ideal for building relationships and expanding your professional network.
