The Business Case for Restorative Justice.

Published by Press Office for Safety Net Associates Limited in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Education, Environment, Health, Local Government

The Business Case for Restorative Justice...
...or in these strident fiscal times go direct to the foot of this article for funding/procurement savings!

If you saw the BBC television programme last night (now available on BBC iPlayer here you will have seen the government wishes and plans to obligate post and pre-conviction Restorative Justice solutions into the Criminal Justice System for cost savings, for victims well being and to reduce re-offending.

This will become much more focused in the world of anti social behaviour and community safety across all agencies.

It is obvious that there is limited, if any, monies available centrally for the whole endeavour as it is seen as a cultural change rather than a systems change and costs are to be found from existing budgets.

So if you are buying in your RJ services...

• Can you afford what you outsource at the moment?  
• Who supplies it and what quality is the service? 
• Can you measure cost benefits?

You will also have seen in the programme that the actual mediation or conferencing, although a skilled activity is based on principals of safety, scripting process and people skills that might occur in all difficult meetings. These are skills you can enhance in practitioner employees by a number of ways from basic training to qualifications, but this is at the delivery end.

Good organisational strategic Restorative Justice management is needed first

The real need at this time is for good strategic managers in all agencies across the civil and criminal spectrum dealing with offenders/perpetrators and victims who can ensure that relevant and improving multi agency RJ services are in place.

More importantly to all of these is where are you now and where do you need to be to provide a benefits based RJ service for victims?

We believe that taught qualified strategic managers in organisations are the way forward;

- How to move from a RJ ‘movement’ approach to professional needs based services
- To be able to demonstrate actual cost savings in cases by adopting appropriately proven best practice.
- How to decide whether to buy in services or to develop existing staff skills.
- How to adopt RJ approaches across the organisation without always opting for expensive conference meetings which is the delivery choice for the majority of RJ professional services.
- How to access all health and safety and staff welfare issues.
- Ensuring safety for all participants.
- How a strategic RJ strategy is written and aligned to real business needs.
- How to transfer this knowledge for other strategic roles in a multi agency setting.
- How to select and assess professional RJ facilitators.
- How to develop in-house RJ training programmes.
- How to become the strategic RJ resource for the organisation.
- Identifying funding opportunities and procurement savings.
- Training needs analysis for RJ.
- Formally evaluating RJ services.

The Community Restorative Justice Academy

Launched in 2010 and hosted within the CSP Academy (www.cspacademy.ac.uk) the CRJA has qualified over 250 strategic managers, for many of these students we have secured bursaries and procurement savings.

The CRJA is the first and only "end to end" UK qualification programme available throughout the British Isles and has been engaged by thousands of individual practitioners and managers.  The academy offering is based on the National Occupational Standards, with an emphasis on teaching, enabling and qualifying people in the field of restorative approaches and practice.

By actually listening to the needs of the vast range of organisations we deal with we identified what that they needed from a formal qualification was not a portfolio evidence gathering based qualification for RJ practitioners which does not have formalised national training. What they needed for their strategic role was a taught methodology for skills acquisition with a formal and professional accreditation.

The Strategic Manager Qualification:  BTEC Professional Award in Restorative Justice Approaches

This strategic course is designed to ensure that senior practitioners, managers or senior case workers are effectively qualified to understand approaches to delivering restorative justice. This qualification will also equip non case working managers to manage investigative and restorative justice teams.  Please click here for a full summary of the learning outcomes and course content or visit: www.cspacademy.ac.uk/BTEC-L4-RJ-Approaches.htm

"The course was excellent and I have learnt immensely from a strategic point of view, consequently, I am inspired to be the Restorative Justice Advocate not just for my team but the whole authority" - Housing Officer, Local Authority, Graduate of the BTEC Professional Award in Restorative Approaches

"I really enjoyed this event and have learned a great deal from attending. The tutor was extremely knowlegable and the learning environment he created was relaxed and friendly. The event also provided an opportunity to network with colleagues from other agencies and this opportunity to consider the subject materials from a multi-agency perspective was of particular use for me".- Probation Officer, studying the BTEC Professional Award in Restorative Approaches

"A really informative and thorough account of RJ. The trainer was extremely knowledgable and approachable, at the same time acknowledged and listened to the wealth of expertise in the room. I was keen to expand my understanding of the strategic approach to implementing RJ into my local authority and this is exactly what I got! Thank you." - Youth Offending Service Practitioner studying the BTEC Professional Award in Restorative Approaches

The BTEC Professional Award In Restorative Approaches has been adopted by many organisations including:

- Housing Providers
- Probation Service
- Prison Service
- Local Authorities
- Schools
- Youth Offending Teams
- Police
- Victim Services

The Community Restorative Justice Academy has negotiated procurement savings for individuals and organisations for the forthcoming winter academic term venues.

London - 19th & 20th March 2012
Birmingham - 22nd & 23rd March 2012
Sunderland - 29th & 30th March 2012
Salford - 16th &17th April 2012
Cardiff - 19th & 20th April 2012

The standard cost to enrol (per student) to this qualification is ordinarily £795.

Procurement saving

A 15% procurement saving can be applied to the £795 cost of this qualification (reducing the cost per student to £675.75 +VAT)

To avail yourself of this procurement saving a student place must be booked before the 22nd of December 2011 using code RJWT12 (case sensitive, all capitals) when making your online booking at www.cspacademy.ac.uk/Book-Online.htm  for the BTEC Professional Award in Restorative Justice Approaches.


We also have a range of Restorative Justice training and qualification services that can be adapted to meet all of your specific learning needs please email us at learning@cspacademy.ac.uk for further details, call 0845 299 7144 or visit www.cspacademy.ac.uk/Community-Restorative-Justice-Academy.htm

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