Mediation guidance as an intervention to resolve Scottish Government staff disputes: FOI release

Information requested

A copy of the guidance the core Scottish Government gives to its staff about mediation as an intervention to resolve internal disputes; how to access it, what to do when the mediation process is underway and a copy of any template forms it provides to staff to fill in before, during or after the mediation.

Response

For Scottish Government staff, mediation is provided by our trained mediators within the Scottish Government or in partnership with trained mediators from the Civil Service Mediation Service (CSMS).

Attached is the information from the SG internal staff intranet, which sets out the Scottish Government mediation process, along with the forms which are provided to mediation participants to fill in before, during or after the mediation. The Civil Service Mediation Service provides template products that can be used by departments that work in partnership with them. These products include:

• The mediation referral form
• The short guide to mediation
• The pre-mediation self-assessment
• The follow-up survey questions

To arrange mediation, the People Advice team will ask that the Mediation Referral Form be completed by the Referral Manager and emailed to the departmental Single Point of Contact (SPoC), who will then arrange for a mediator to be allocated. The Referral Manager must be a neutral third party, who confirms that all parties involved have voluntarily agreed to participate in the mediation and supports them throughout the process.

You will wish to note that the information provided above relates to the arrangements that apply in the HR team responsible for the core Director-General areas within the Scottish Government (see Annex A for details). HR teams covering other areas may operate different arrangements.

ANNEX A

Core Directorates of the Scottish Government:

Director-General Communities
Director-General Corporate
Director-General Economy
Director-General Education and Justice
Director-General Health and Social Care
Director-General Net Zero
Director-General Scottish Exchequer
Director-General Strategy and External Affairs

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500464457 - Information released - Annex

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