Restorative Approaches: a national overview Graham Robb YJB Board member. DCSF consultant

RA : where ? Restorative approaches Children’s services Youth justice Policing

What drivers for Restorative Approaches? Youth Crime Action Plan (July 08) - Safer School Partnerships Local leadership – Hull, Bristol, Swindon - Childrens Trusts ●Schools Every Child Matters Duties : wellbeing, community cohesion, participation ●LAA National Indicator set including Anti Bullying, First time entrants, emotional and behavioural health (LAC) ●Police practice - Safer school partnership Police Performance Framework Youth Restorative Disposal

Readiness for Restorative Approaches in Schools (RAiS)  Leadership and management : RA and ●the values of Governors and SLT ●School Improvement Plan and Self Evaluation Form indicators ●Every Child Matters and duties for wellbeing and community cohesion ●Resources –  External facilitator (RAiS)  School Champion,  staff training,  Behaviour monitoring systems ●the Curriculum link - SEAL, PSHE, Citizenship

Evidence 1 ●RJ in Schools Youth Justice Board 625 conferences  92% success  96% agreements holding after 3 months  93% fairness ●Reducing Exclusions – a NW Local Authority  Permanent Exclusions 55% reduction  Fixed Term Exclusions 38% reduction  Fixed term total days 57% reduction

Evidence : process ands outcomes ●RAiS Bristol (Restorative Solutions)  608 staff trained inc 86 to facilitator level  300+ Conferences  40% involved pupils who would have been excluded previously  96% of the conferences produced agreements  93% of those agreements have resulted in no repeat of the incident with the pupil harmed

Why Not ? ●“ It costs a lot in money and time”  Permanent Exclusion RA takes 14 hours less and saves £152 direct process costs RAiS Modelling 2008 ●“ But I want to show disapproval of behaviour by punishing the pupil who has done wrong.”  RA changes the behaviour  93% think the process is fair  The community knows the wrong is being put right

Safer School Partnerships ●Partnership – School, LA, Police other partners ● DCSF, Home Office, ACPO and YJB  six conferences  new guidance to partners in 2009 ●Benefits (York University evaluation 2006) ●Restorative approaches promotion.

Restorative processes in the Youth Justice system Variety of restorative processes with face to face or indirect options  Panels -Referral Order youth offending panels  Restorative Conferencing  Victim Offender Mediation  Family Group Conferencing

YJB Draft revised National Standards YOTs processes to ensure victims are involved, as appropriate, in a range of restorative processes to put right the harm they have experienced. ●Victim involvement to be maximised through an RJ justice strategy, to include, at minimum: ●YOT-wide commitment to improving outcomes for victims through the use of restorative justice ●RJ processes across all YOT interventions to ensure that young people and parents/carers known to YOT take responsibility and make amends for criminal/anti- social behaviour

Developing RJ in the Secure Estate ●Two aspects- to improve behaviour management in custody and to address victim issues and reduce offending risk in respect of original offence ●RJ developments in Ashfield ●YJB pilots in YOI Brinsford and New Hall

Neighbourhood policing, youth restorative disposal ●Aim to pilot for pre- reprimand low-level behaviour incidents ●Suitable for immediate restorative, problem solving approach ●Emphasis on involving victim ●Diverting young people from formal youth justice system ●If episode admitted, young person cooperative, minor offence suitably addressed in an informal way in situ

Research evidence : Sherman / Shapland report July 08 – Cambridge and Sheffield universities ●restorative justice reduces the frequency of reconviction by an average of 27%. ●For every £1 spent on delivering these conferences, £9 were saved ●10 out of 12 tests of restorative justice have reduced the frequency of repeat offending in the UK, US and Australia.”