Restorative Justice Consortium National Conference - Becoming a Restorative Justice County

Safety Net Associates were pleased to part sponsor the July national conference for the Restorative Justice Consortium.

The attached notes from one of the workshops deserves a wider readership particularly with regard to the recommendations section concerning training.
Durham’s Journey In Establishing Restorative Justice /Practice Across The County Workshop Notes
Presenters:

Selwyn Morgans
County Durham Children and Young Peoples Services
Assistant Chief Constable Mike Barton
Durham Constabulary

A Vision of a Restorative Local Authority

 

Brief History / What Does Becoming a Restorative County Mean in Practice?
Young people in the looked after system were 3.2 times more likely to receive a warning or conviction, there
were concerns that young people in residential care may be receiving police attention because of their
behaviour within the care home which wouldn’t have occurred if the same issue occurred at the family home.
We wanted to seek a supportive way of working with staff and young people to improve the situation. We were concerned that too often staff are told to improve without the support to change. After reading an article from an
RJ conference about the successful use of RJ in Children’s Homes in Hertfordshire, contact was made and
visits occurred. An RJ training organisation came in to provide a taster to all the residential home and team managers, they liked the model and a role out programme was developed and implemented throughout Residential Services. All 160 staff trained and 20 trainers in RJ have been produced to keep the momentum.
Having established within the practices of residential care, we are moving steadily into Fostering and across the looked after social work teams. We have undertaken training with the community police officers and this has rapidly accelerated with arrival of Assistant Chief Constable Mike Barton who is leading the RJ throughout the force. ACC Barton is also engaging with all RJ practitioners in partner agencies and due to his position this is helping to push further the boundaries and value of RJ in the county.

Restorative approaches are about to be delivered in two pilot schools in County Durham as direct result of the success of the RJ work undertaken within Residential Services and the grant bid for work in schools was made
by Residential Services and the lead remains with Residential Service Manager. This has been very positive in engaging schools and establishing so much increased understanding of each other.

The success of RJ in Residential Services has led to joint work with teenage foster carers local Youth Offending Teams and community police officers. They have come together in a pilot to look at difficult situations through a restorative approach could assist, only recently residential services has been approached by a school to help in a particular racists incident.
Residential services have adopted a restorative approach to stage one of the staff complaints procedures and
HR has been engaged in monitoring the outcomes with a view to wider departmental use.

Challenges and opportunities that have moved the initiative forward
Work with residential staff and young people and utilizing the model in staff complaints.
Demonstrating success and the timescales for showing improvement.

Funding has always been a consideration. Methods used to overcome include the creative use of funding opportunities, show via budgets how the improvements can help to reach targets.

Some public perception that RJ can be a soft option can be a challenge. In the early days reporting on the
success of other areas such as Hertfordshire provided an opportunity to support explanations of why we are choosing to use Restorative Justice.

Engagement of participants of Restorative Justice in telling their stories.

Recommendations
Establish were you are now.
Engagement of staff – engage staff from the very start, back it up with good training and support for implementation. Don’t be afraid to trust the model and allow for the need for staff to explore the concept.
Plan the direction of travel for your organisation, don’t, run before you can walk.
Engage at the start a training organisation that has a proven and supportive track record, and that is
prepared to give advice and consultation.
Be clear that this is a change of culture it’s not something that’s added on, therefore time and support is essential.
Promote your success stories very quickly and review areas where issues remain.

Questions and Answers
Can a restorative County / Local Authority be led from the top, or does it need to grow from grass roots? We have done both, sometimes you have to start were you are and build on the success in order to engage more senior leaders.
Do you think the initiative in your area is being led by local or national politics – or neither? Ultimately what will work best? Neither in the early days but as the political message comes through from the national picture and local politicians pick up on it the earlier information and presentations they have received will assist in the process gathering momentum.
Who, in your view, are the key players to take the lead on restorative working? Who needs to be won over? To achieve a whole County change then ultimately senior exec and politicians. However, sometimes a small service area can demonstrate success, which then becomes attractive to others.