News & Updates

In the past decade, the international restorative justice community has been discussing with some degree of intensity issues related to the use of restorative justice approaches with sensitive and complex cases, including cases of harmful sexual behaviour, sexual violence and domestic violence. In Europe, there have been many collaborative initiatives that have looked for research evidence and providing practitioners with specialist training, some of which can be accessed on the website of the European Forum for Restorative Justice Forum. In the UK, after a series of public events and debates on the topic, the Restorative Justice Council has set up a working group that is currently focusing on developing particular guidance for Intermediate and Advanced Registered Practitioners managing sensitive and complex cases; as a network of restorative justice practitioners, we welcome and look forward to the RJC guidance on this topic. So we believe it is very timely for our East Midlands Restorative Justice Forum members and friends to meet and discuss the challenges that we are facing when dealing with sensitive and complex cases, and what constitutes best restorative justice practice in this area.

Our meeting on 20th April 2021 will gather a vast range of professionals from across the East Midlands, including restorative justice services, victim services, youth justice services, police, and specialist sexual and domestic violence services. It is by far the largest number of guests that our EMRJ Forum meetings have hosted, and we are delighted to see such great interest in the topic. We also have the pleasure of welcoming as key speakers our colleagues from Restorative Gloucestershire, Sarah Cairns, Paul Mukasa and Jude Perez, as well as Charlotte Calkin, Director of the Restorative Engagement Forum. We hope that the discussions will provide our members and guests with an opportunity to network and learn from one another, and create an open dialogue on how best to improve and add value to our existing restorative justice delivery in sensitive and complex cases.

If you are interested in joining our discussions, please contact Pinky Rajput from Victim First, and keep an eye on our Knowledge Hub for updates on this topic.

Members of the East Midlands Restorative Justice Forum are happy to announce the release of Issue 1 of the EMRJ Briefing Series, which focused on a brief overview of restorative justice across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, including a description of practices delivered by some of the local services, and a concise analysis of the issues and challenges that professionals are facing in their day-to-day practice.

The East Midlands Restorative Justice Briefing Series aims to become a space where members of the Forum look at specific issues that concern the provision of restorative justice services in the East Midlands region and make recommendations that can contribute to the development of good practice.

Everyone with an interest in restorative justice in the East Midlands is welcomed to get in touch with us and share their thoughts and ideas about potential next issues by emailing us to info@emrjdirectory.uk.

The East Midlands Restorative Justice Forum has been established in March 2020 as a professional network without legal entity, welcoming professionals, academics, students, and members of the community who are interested in the delivery of restorative justice services within and outside of the criminal justice system.

The Forum adopts a collaborative and open approach to enable the development of high-quality restorative justice services for people affected by crime or conflict and provides a platform where members and guests can exchange knowledge and develop new ideas that improve practice. The Forum’s objectives are to:

• Provide an opportunity for restorative providers and practitioners to network.
• Facilitate the mapping of current restorative justice delivery across East Midlands, and periodically identify potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to restorative justice provision in the region.
• Raise awareness relating to the management of data protection and privacy compliance across the membership of the Forum.
• Facilitate the promotion and sharing of best practice in RJ delivery, the generation of new ideas, and to provide access to experts for serious and complex cases.
• Identify opportunities for greater sharing of training and development opportunities.
• Ensure the efficient and effective use and development of referral pathways, using the Forum as a central point of access.
• Seek to remove obstacles to successful service delivery through collaborative working.
• Create an open dialogue on how best to improve and add value to existing restorative justice delivery.
• Identify ways to improve the quality and quantity of restorative justice services available to victims, offenders and other people affected by crime.
• Provide a platform to receive and share feedback from providers and partners about the operation of Forum members.

Membership of the Forum is open to all existing restorative justice providers across the East Midlands, whether or not they focus on victim or offender led interventions, or other categories of people affected by crime. We also issue invitations to representatives from the criminal justice system across East Midlands, and to community and faith groups and other services such as social care, education, health etc.

If you would like to actively engage in the work of our Forum, please get in touch by emailing us to info@emrjdirectory.uk.