LS

Lesley Saunders

Biography

Lesley Saunders PhD, FMCA is a family mediator, PPC, trainer and competence assessor. From an early background in social policy research and curriculum development, Lesley retrained in the 1990s in counselling, with a focus on children and young people, and also in mediation. Initially working in the community on neighbour disputes, Lesley extended her skills to encompass workplace, small claims and special educational needs mediation, as well as being a mediator and PPC with the Disability Conciliation Service. Lesley trained as a family mediator in 2002 and qualified in 2004. Since then, she has focused almost entirely on family mediation – mediating, qualifying as a PPC in 2010, working with NFM and now independently as a trainer, and with the FMC as an assessor of mediator competence. Alongside this, Lesley has been involved at a national level variously as a board member of the College of Mediators, on the Professional Practice Committee of NFM, with the FMC on Stan Lester’s work on the development of the standards framework and currently on the PPC panel of the FMSB.