Currently, there is increasing interest in mediation with young people and their families. New government guidelines recommend that this approach should be explored by local authorities, and it is mentioned in many of the recent homelessness-prevention strategies. In practice, mediation services may find themselves working most frequently with 16/17 year olds and their families, but the good practice guidelines set out in this document will also be relevant to older young people. However, there are few mediation schemes with a history of working with this specialist group, and the distinction between mediation proper and related interventions such as negotiation, advocacy and arbitration, is often blurred. Little has been published relating to the development and evaluation of this kind of mediation and consequently there is not much help available to any council or other organisation seeking to set up, or improve, such a scheme.