Overview

Restorative Solutions is a community interest company specialising in the delivery of practical and effective Restorative Justice. Our mission is to promote the use of restorative conferencing and other restorative approaches as ‘practical tool kits’ for organisations dealing with crime, anti-social behaviour and other conflicts. Our team of experienced associate trainers delivers training to police services, social housing providers, anti-social behaviour units, young offender institutions, prisons and schools across England and Wales and advice on implementing restorative approaches in mainstream work.

We are currently working with police services across the country to introduce restorative approaches to the work of neighbourhood policing teams and their partner agencies. We are also working with schools in the Bristol area to develop Restorative Approaches in tackling pupil conflicts and behavioural problems. Across these projects we actively encourage the use of community volunteers in helping organise and deliver restorative conferences. Our work is supported by a number of charitable foundations as well as by Reliance Secure Task

Management, a security company providing support services to the police and other agencies within the Criminal Justice System. We have three major projects which bring restorative approaches into the practical settings of schools, neighbourhoods and the management of prolific offenders. Across each project we offer the following services;

  • Training
  • Project Management
  • Implementation Support and Consultancy

Our aims

  • Encourage professionals and volunteers to use restorative approaches with a range of mainstream conflicts and disputes
  • Deliver bespoke training enabling organisations to gain the necessary skills to use restorative practice confidently and effectively to provide high levels of victim satisfaction and reduce risks of further offending in the future
  • Actively involve community volunteers to help deliver restorative approaches
  • Reduce demands on professional resources and create added value
  • Give communities a better service

What are the benefits of using Restorative Justice?

Restorative Solutions is passionately committed to introducing restorative approaches into the work of agencies dealing with crime, anti-social behaviour and other community conflicts because independent evaluations consistently show high levels of victim satisfaction with restorative processes and significant reductions in the frequency of offending and re-offending. Aside from the statistics, restorative practice is an innovative and inspiring method of tackling problems which can completely change the mindsets of all those involved.

Benefits for crime victims

Research shows that over 85% of victims of crime are satisfied or very satisfied with Restorative Justice, contrasting strongly with the low numbers satisfied with their treatment in the traditional Criminal Justice System. Those who are not satisfied are dissatisfied not with the process of the conference itself but with a particular aspect of the conference discussions.

Reduced re-offending and value for money

In 2007 an independent report commissioned by the Smith Institute to review all the evidence on Restorative Justice, reported as follows: A review of research on restorative justice in the UK and abroad shows that across 36 direct comparisons to conventional criminal justice, Restorative Justice has, in at least two tests each:

  • Substantially reduced repeat offending for some offenders, but not all
  • Doubled (or more) the offences brought to justice as diversion from Criminal Justice
  • Reduced crime victims’ post-traumatic stress symptoms and related costs
  • Provided both victims and offenders more satisfaction with justice than Criminal Justice
  • Reduced desire amongst crime victims for violent revenge against their offenders
  • Reduced the costs of criminal justice, when used as diversion from Criminal Justice
  • Reduced recidivism more than prison (adults) and as well as prison (youths)

There is far more evidence on Restorative Justice, with more positive results, than there has been for most innovations in criminal justice that have ever been rolled out across the country. The evidence now seems more than adequate to support such a rollout for Restorative Justice. In June 2008 the fourth Government Report by independent evaluators on the Home Office’s own Restorative Justice trials between 2001-2004 mostly involving cases with adult criminals committing serious crime like assault, robbery & burglary, attending conferences between guilty plea in court and sentence - reported that:

  • Restorative conferencing had reduced the frequency of reconviction by an average of 27%
  • For every £1 spent on delivering these conferences, more than £1 was saved in direct Criminal Justice costs and £9 was saved in fighting the cost of crime (including victim and societal costs)
  • There was 33% less repeat offending among offenders coming out of prison after restorative justice than without it, and 55% less offending among violent offenders supervised in the community.

RAiN - Restorative Approaches in Neighbourhoods

Restorative Solutions are working with police services in different parts of the country to introduce restorative approaches into neighbourhood policing; our ambition is to see restorative approaches used by the police in every community. RAiN seeks to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour through the use of restorative approaches by neighbourhood policing teams and their community partners. Restorative techniques are used to tackle problems ranging from low-level nuisance to long standing disputes between neighbours and with persistent offenders. Experience within the project shows that using restorative approaches leads to cost effective problem solving, high victim and community satisfaction, reduced bureaucracy and better equipped front line staff. The long term objective is to recruit community volunteers to work alongside the police and workers from partner agencies to deliver restorative approaches.

RAiS - Restorative Approaches in Schools

RAiS is a three year project set up in partnership with Safer Bristol and the Bristol Children and Young Peoples’ Service to use restorative approaches to reduce the risks of exclusions and improve attainment in schools in the city. The project is funded by grants from the Paul Hamlyn and Esmee Fairbairn Foundations.

The project responds directly to the statistic that young people excluded from school and who do not complete their education are eight times more likely to become persistent offenders.

RAiS provides training for school staff in using restorative conferences and support in dealing with serious cases. Some 900 teachers and support staff have now been trained and over 400 conferences delivered. 40% of conferences contributed to the pupils involved being able to continue their education in school, representing huge savings to both school and the city’s education budgets.

In addition to providing teachers and support staff with training, RAiS has also provides training in restorative approaches with pupils to use for dispute resolution themselves, a move that complements peer mentoring programmes.

A ‘Training the Trainers’ course has also been developed with the aim of building the capacity of schools to sustain their commitment to restorative approaches.

RAPPO - Restorative Approaches with Persistent and Prolific Offenders (PPO’s)

RAPPO, working in partnership with Safer Bristol, the Avon & Somerset Police and Probation Services, is introducing restorative approaches to work with 1,000 PPO’s and Priority Offenders; this group is responsible for over half of the criminal cases dealt with by the police in the area.

RAPPO is part of a major Integrated Offender Management Project designed to reduce crime in by around a quarter. The first person referred to RAPPO had over 300 domestic burglaries taken into consideration at his court appearance. The objective is to offer restorative conferences to the victims of the crimes committed by the offending group and to as many offenders as possible. The take up rate by victims is around 50% and improving, the take up by offenders is surprisingly high at 95%. RAPPO is recruiting community volunteers to help deliver restorative approaches.

Gary Stephenson

Chief Executive Restorative Solutions cic

gary.stephenson@blueyonder.co.uk

07505128568