purpose of report - West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner

AgendaItem13Local Policing and Justice Committee26 January 2012RESTORATIVE JUSTICEReport of the Chief ConstablePURPOSE OF REPORT1. To provide a briefing to the Police Authority on the development of Restorative Justice (RJ)within West Midlands Police. This will take the form of two areas; firstly the broader forceapproach to Restorative Justice and, secondly to provide a brief on a specific force initiative– the Turning Point Project.BACKGROUND2. Restorative Justice (RJ), Approaches or Outcomes are the terms used to describe a wayof dealing with situations where one or more parties have been harmed. They can beapplied to victims and offenders, but also more generally to anti-social behaviour,neighbour or community disputes/conflicts.3. RJ focuses on the victim as the core element in the process, whether it is an individual,a group of people or indeed the community as a whole. Victims are not left outside theprocess feeling little control – it places them at the centre. It seeks to heal theresponses and implications of crime and wrong-doing by meeting the needs of victims,offenders and communities.4. RJ can empower communities to deal with offending according to their own values andexpectations. It allows communities to re-integrate offenders back into community life and itenables communities to take some responsibility for delivering their own justice.BENEFITS5. Restorative Justice is consistent with and supportive of the coalition governments’ drive for a‘Big Society’. It is a key strand of the Ministry of Justices’ priority around NeighbourhoodJustice. The Association of Chief Police Officers is encouraging an increase in its use bypolice forces throughout England and Wales. It has advantages in:Giving very high victim satisfaction ratesHaving positive impact on reoffending of offenders who participateBeing a cost effective option for dealing with low harm offendingEngaging and empowering communitiesStrengthening communities own capacity to deal with crime and ASBComplementing the service drive for an increased citizen focusImproving and strengthening multi-agency collaboration for the public good

CURRENT POSITION6. West Midlands Police are aware of the potential benefits from developing restorativeapproaches. We have conducted some initial research and have command teamapproval to investigate the most appropriate and effective manner to incorporate itfurther into our working practices.7. Resources have been shifted with Community Justice and Custody to increase ourcapacity to speed up our work in this area – this will start to have an impact fromDecember this year.8. Community Resolutions are now embedded within our working practices, and thesecan and do include restorative approaches. The Police Authority has previously beenprovided with information on our use of these resolutions. We have identified that thereis scope to increase their restorative impact, and therefore maximize the benefitsgained. The development of Community Resolutions is occurring in concert with thedevelopment of a restorative strategy – both will be mutually compatible andsupportive.9. The force has also given an expression of interest in taking part in a national series ofpilots of one particular style of delivery of restorative conferencing – NeighbourhoodJustice Panels. It is likely that such panels will be most effective if managed andoverseen by organisations outside of the police service, and we are currently workingwith partners to see who else is interested in collaborating with us to develop a localsolution. The Ministry of Justice is considering bids and will determine which willqualify for their independent assessment. There is the opportunity, if we so wish, to goahead with a local pilot even if ours is not to be a part of the national assessment.PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS10. The coalition government has identified a ministerial priority of ‘Neighbourhood Justice’within its strategic plan. It is clear that restorative justice is a key thread of this workstream. Although some drivers for this priority are clear, the police service has littleconcrete direction from the government at this stage. The force will be developingrestorative justice within the Neighbourhood Justice work stream, with leadership fromACC Forsyth, and with Community Justice and Custody as the departmental lead. Theimpact of this work goes beyond ‘justice’ (i.e. limited to crime) issues and we will beworking closely with Local Policing and Local Policing Units, as well as a wide varietyof partners.11. The development of restorative justice therefore is under two, merging streams:In internal review and ‘refresh’ of Community Resolutions. The core of this is a newpolicy, which retains the ethos but updates some of the guidance. We are about toconsult on the draft, both internally and with our CJS partners. This will include a faceto face consultation in the New Year. The new policy incorporates restorativeprinciples.The development of a strategy to develop Neighbourhood Justice. This has coreprinciples of reducing reoffending; engaging and empowering local communities;increased transparency and cost-effectiveness. The development of this strategy willbe done in consultation with partners, the third sector and the public, via a variety ofmediums. The subject is naturally broad and consultation will therefore take longer thanthe more focused work above. The Police Authority may wish to have an active role inthis consultation process

RISKS AND SAFEGUARDS12. The risks faced will become more apparent as we consult, however we can identify someobvious ones even at this early stage. There are risks that these developments could beseen as a cover for ‘cheapest’ delivery of justice, or that what is being delivered is not justiceat all. There are risks that key partners that will be required to cooperate and collaborate willnot have the appetite or resources to do so, especially in this time of shrinking budgets.There is also the risk that some improvements we would wish to make may be unaffordablein the current climate.13. It is too early to list all risks, or our management of them, but this detail will be includedin our final strategy.EVALUATION AND PERFORMANCE14. As part of the refresh of Community Resolutions we have identified a need for betterevaluation data. This mainly lies within the areas of customer satisfaction and reoffendingrates. Both will be essential if we are to maximize the use of police disposals to increasepublic satisfaction and decrease crime. We have also identified that this issue is commonacross all police disposals and therefore will be an important strand of any NeighbourhoodJustice strategy.15. It is worth mentioning that WMP was visited last month by a Joint Criminal Justice InspectionTeam, as part of a thematic review of Restorative Justice across the country. The feedbackwas very positive, especially from a selection of victims and offenders they had contacted.These had all had Community Resolutions and both groups consistently rated theirexperience as very good.16. We are keen to increase transparency by publishing performance data so as independentevaluation can occur and we can be accountable to the public we serve. We also seeopportunities to collaborate with academic institutions to increase the amount and quality ofindependent evaluation conducted on our performance in this area.COMMUNICATION STRATEGY17. Strong and effective communications are seen as vital to the success of CommunityResolutions, restorative justice and Neighbourhood Justice developments. This willfocus on rigorous wide-ranging consultation, and clear and robust explanations ofpolicy, and the rationale behind policy. We are confident that this will be to the liking ofthe public.18. We are also clear that we need to engage CJS and wider community safety partnersfully and consistently. We will only maximize the benefits of Neighbourhood Justicewith their active support.THE TURNING-POINT PROJECT19. This project is collaboration between West Midlands Police and Cambridge University.Essentially it is an experiment developed to investigate the potential cost-effectivenessof diverting a small group of first-time offenders from prosecution. The key question iswhether the police can cause more offenders to desist from crime through better useof pre-court disposals. Can police even rehabilitate offenders by diversion better thanthe processes of prosecution, sentencing and punishment. Restorative Justice is onetactic that staff have been trained in and will be using in suitable cases. Theexperiment will also test the accuracy of a ‘Crime Harm Index’ that aims to forecast thepotential harm an offender is likely to cause in the future with more accuracy thananything currently available.

20. The experiment has the support of the CPS and Youth Offending Service, and will takeplace over the next year, in just one half of Birmingham. We anticipate we will bediverting 3- 4 offenders per week. The results of the project will be analysed andpublished by Cambridge University, as an academic article.21. The project has the potential to have significant impact on both the prosecutiondecision and the use of risk assessments in policing, both across the UK, andinternationally. It also evidences our desire to ensure policy is built on a strong andreliable evidence base. The main risk identified is the misinterpretation of theexperiment and negative press coverage.FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS22. The financial implications are not yet clear. Within the current financial climate thereare unlikely to be additional funds available. We are confident that we can makeimprovements without any additional costs coming from linked savings. This is basedon a number of evaluations that show savings can be obtained from the use ofRestorative Justice that are in the region of £9 saving for every £1 invested. Savingscan be realised not just across the police service and the CJS, but more widely acrosseducation, health and social services too.LEGAL IMPLICATIONS23. The current legal framework will support increased use of restorative andNeighbourhood Justice, to a large degree. With some minor legislative changes, everfurther benefits could be gained – e.g. the proposed move of decision making forconditional cautions from CPS to the Police. Systemic change throughout the CJScould occur with legislation to increase their use through the courts, such as occurs onthe Youth Justice System in Northern Ireland. We will advise the government on thepotential of such changes, and await their decision.EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS24. In October 2008 an evaluation was conducted of the pilot phase of CommunityResolutions. This concluded that ‘overall, community resolutions appear to have beenissued fairly throughout the trial in terms of gender and ethnicity of both victims andoffenders involved in community resolutions’. In March 2009, shortly prior to the forceadoption of this disposal, an EQIA Initial Screening Assessment was carried out. Thisassessment concluded that there was unlikely to be any impact on any of the strandsof diversity, and therefore a full assessment was not conducted. In addition the LCJBIndependent Advisory Group has been asked to consider any disproportionality issuesaround out use of community Resolutions.25. The Turning-Point Project uses randomised control trial methodology. One advantageof this is that cases are selected for involvement randomly, and therefore there is noopportunity for any selection bias by individuals involved. As part of the final evaluationCambridge University will be investigating equality issues rigorously.26. When the force strategy around Neighbourhood Justice becomes clear, there is a clearintention to conduct full equalities impact assessments. Early indications are that theseimprovements are likely to improve service and outcomes under most of the protectedcharacteristics.

RECOMMENDATION27. That the briefing is noted and that updates on the development of the NeighbourhoodJustice strategy (including RJ) are reported back to the committee in due course.Chris SimsChief ConstableCONTACT OFFICERName: Garry ForsythTitle: Assistant Chief Constable (Operations andCriminal Justice)Tel: 0345 113 5000 ext 7800 2006Email: g.forsyth@west-midlands.pnn.police.ukBACKGROUND CONTACT DOCUMENTS