Agenda item

PRESENTATION FROM RESTORE LONDON

A presentation will be given by Anika Cosgrove from Restore London.  

Minutes:

Anika Cosgrove and Michael Fajobi attended to give the ‘Restore London’ presentation.

 

Restore London was defined as a pan-London victim focussed restorative justice service. The aim of the service was to bring victims and offenders into communication so that ways could be found to repair harm, and to find positive ways forward for both parties. It was not designed to apportion blame.

 

Historically, victims and offenders had met face to face in a safe environment, but more recently Skype and other meeting formats had also been used. One of the benefits of going through the process for victims was that they felt empowered, and it was felt that the process also aided the recovery process for PTSD. The process helped to provide closure for victims. It also provided a forum for the victim to be heard, and gave them a voice.

 

For the offender it gave them the opportunity to accept responsibility for the harm that they had done. It also provided a way that offenders could reflect on what had gone wrong in their lives and what they would need to do to change to re-integrate into the community. 

 

It was believed that victim awareness and understanding of the process of restorative justice was limited. Existing provision was patchy but good practice did exist at local level, which the new restorative justice service was seeking to work with. Police use of restorative justice varied across police services. It was felt that specialist restorative justice services needed to be more accessible. The Group heard that Restore London had access to the Police database and they were working to get all existing RJ providers to work together. 

 

The Group were briefed on the six core aims of Restore London which were:

 

(1) One voice-collaboratively working with the sector

 

(2) To set up a Pan London service that could be accessed at any stage of the criminal justice system

 

(3) Not to duplicate existing provision

 

(4) To provide a service for all victims of adult offenders who lived or who worked in London

 

(5) To provide the service for any victim that asked for restorative justice

 

(6) To help with the health and wellbeing of clients and aid in the recovery process

 

It was pointed out that Restore London were not currently working on cases that related to domestic abuse, as these would be allocated to the VAWG groups

 

Betty Macdonald (LBB Head of YOS) stated that in her experience with young people there was normally a problem with young people engaging. She asked how this could be rectified and how would restorative justice align with the Youth Offending Service.

 

It was noted that in the case of young people the first point of contact for the young person was the police. Mr Fajobi asked if the police received RJ training. The Borough Commander answered that they did. The Borough Commander asked if Restore London could deliver training sessions to police officers. Mr Fajobi responded that Restore London could deliver briefings to front line officers or that police officers could attend courses that were run over 1 or 3 days. The Borough Commander explained that what he required was for a large number of officers to be trained at the same time to achieve economies of scale.

 

It was clarified that the restorative justice process could start at any stage and that there was not a set time in the process to access services. Mr Fajobi highlighted that the referral pathway for the police was simple, it was just an email or phone call. It was noted that there was no cost for the service. 

 

The Borough Commander asked if Restore London was hampered by capacity issues. Ms Cosgrove responded that if this became apparent, they would seek extra funding from MOPAC. Currently, funding had been allocated for two years.

 

The Borough Commander stated that he would be in contact with Restore London to take things forward. 

 

 

 

 

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