purpose of report - West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner

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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.
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Page 5: RECOMMENDATION27. That the briefing

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