Further to the Ministry of Justice having released its third restorative justice (RJ) action plan, a new Restorative Forum has been set up which aims to set the benchmark of competence for Restorative Practitioners and Strategic Managers, improve the service to individuals harmed by crime or conflict and provide practitioners with a route to an accredited BTEC qualification.
Through support and guidance from qualified case supervisors, the restorative forum is a central point where organisations can find accredited practitioners and feel confident that the person acting as their restorative practitioner is a qualified professional.
It also helps to tackle the historic lack of consistency in how a practitioner may become qualified and how a person or organisation may find and make contact with qualified practitioner with the goal of improving the service to individuals harmed by crime or conflict.
The forum is a joint venture by Restorative Solutions cic and Red Snapper Learning. Both organisations have extensive experience within the sector and have collaborated their knowledge of Restorative approaches and training expertise to develop a new accreditation scheme for practitioners wanting to gain qualified accredited practitioner or strategic manager status. To find out more about the CSP Academy’s BTEC qualifications in Restorative Justice and obtaining accredited practitioner or strategic manager status please click the following links;
BTEC Advanced Award in Practitioner Training for Restorative Approaches
BTEC Professional Award in Restorative Justice Approaches
Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, the national lead for Restorative and Community Justice said:
“Restorative Justice is now consistently being used to deal with crime and disputes here in the UK as the evidence demonstrates that it is welcomed by victims seeking to understand why a crime happened to them.
As more and more people have access to Restorative Justice it is important that we secure victim confidence by ensuring that the RJ they experience is facilitated by quality practitioners.
This forum will give a platform for those practitioners to share their experiences and help to further develop their skills. I think that it is very important that those who facilitate
Restorative Justice should be able to demonstrate that they can be trusted to help victims and offenders to gain maximum benefit from the process.
Along with others I am pleased to see that Restorative Solutions are encouraging and helping practitioners to achieve accreditation for their expertise.”
Sir Charles Pollard, Restorative Solutions CIC chairman said:
“Practitioners have not always been able previously to gain the recognition they deserved. Our new accreditation scheme will make sure that practitioners are supported in achieving accreditation. We are setting in place a benchmark of quality for restorative practice”
This accreditation scheme will provide the judiciary, Police and Crime Commissioners and those who commission or provide restorative services with confidence in the practitioners they work with. Most importantly, achieving accreditation will enable practitioners to achieve the best possible outcomes for victims in a safe and professional way.
The accreditation scheme will enable practitioners to work confidently in achieving even better results and embed the use of restorative approaches across the public, voluntary and private sector.
To find out more about the Restorative Forum or to register as a practitioner, please visit www.restorativeforum.org call 0203 119 3306 or email learning@cspacademy.ac.uk
