TAMESIDE NEIGHBOURHOOD RESOLUTION PANELS

THE JOURNEY SO FAR

What is it?

• An extended version of Restorative Justice Resolves conflict and repairs harm Opportunity to voice their feelings Structured questions asked Formulate an agreement No criminal record • Uses volunteers from within the community (46)

• New Charter Housing – enforcement officers – level 2 (30) & housing officers – level 1 (50) • New Charter Academy – Year 11 pupils – in house conferences • Audenshaw Boys School – Year 10/11 pupils – in house conferences • Denton Community College – Year 10/11 pupils – in house conferences

JULY 2012 - ARTICLE IN LOCAL NEWSPAPER ASKING FOR TAMESIDE COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS TO BE PART OF NEIGHBOURHOOD RESOLUTION PROJECT. AUGUST 2012 – AWARENESS EVENING HELD AT THE NEW CHARTER OFFICE + SELECTION PROCESS. SEPTEMBER 2012 - STAKEHOLDER DAY HELD AT NEW CHARTER ACADEMY SEPTEMBER 2012 ONWARDS - LEVEL 1 + 2 RJ TRAINING STARTED FOR COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS AND NEW CHARTER HOUSING OFFICERS. 1 OCTOBER 2012 - TAMESIDE NEIGHBOURHOOD RESOLUTION PANELS GO LIVE.

THE TAMESIDE NRP TEAM:

COORDINATOR - Vickie Yardley

COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS: 46

NEW CHARTER HOUSING OFFICERS: 65

TAMESIDE RJ PROCESS: • Referrals from Police/New Charter and other partner agencies to

Coordinator • Risk assessments conducted by Coordinator • Case then allocated to Case Workers • Case Workers in pairs visit all interested parties and conduct pre

panel interviews • Coordinator books venue for RJ meeting • Case Workers facilitate RJ meeting ending in agreement • Coordinator sends out copy of agreement to all interested

parties with a covering letter • Coordinator monitors compliance with agreement

REFERRALS TO DATE: 318 COMPLETED PANELS: 166 REFERRALS BEING WORKED ON: 19 REFERRALS RETURNED TO AGENCY: 133

How satisfied were you with how the Tameside Neighbourhood Resolution

panel handled this case?

How satisfied were you with how the Tameside Neighbourhood Resolution

panel handled this case?

Victim Satisfaction Rate • 55% of people harmed have been satisfied and 45%

were very satisfied • 100% believe they had enough opportunity to express

their opinions and feelings • 96% of the people harmed would recommend an NRP to

others • 85% of people harmed found meeting the harmer at the

panel very helpful and only 4% did not find it helpful • 52% were very satisfied with the agreement made, 45%

were satisfied and 3% were dissatisfied

Benefits • 66% of outcomes are via a verbal apology • 10% are written apology • Others are financial compensation etc.

• Of the 108 completed cases, the RJ process is estimated to have

saved £213,000

• Only 2 of the perpetrators have re-entered the criminal justice system since taking part in an RJ meeting, therefore the re-offending rate for the RJ process is 6% (June 2015)

NRPs & Housing

• Since October 2012 New Charter has NRPs as part of our ASB

Toolkit

• Now used as a main intervention in neighbourhood disputes/low level ASB

• Process is flexible and can fit variety of circumstances

NRPs & Housing

• Neighbourhood disputes

• ‘Tit for tat’ disputes

• Anything!

Example

• Race hate/abuse/noise/damage/theft • Single mother with two teenage daughters/drink

issue/unruly boyfriends/noisy parties. • Late night returning home shouting banging

doors /music put on. • Theft of drink from local shop drinking in street

abuse to passers by normally in evening. • Daughters and boyfriends being racist toward

polish neighbour. • Police and landlord intervention minimal brief

respite. • RJ impact meeting held, feelings aired, children

present, victims from two households with support explained the impact on them.

• Agreement reached, 5months on no complaints.

Example

• Vulnerable female (mental health issues) • Male produces hand gun and makes threats to

victim whilst standing at a bus stop • RJ was decided to avoid AP having to go through

court process • Some reluctance at first due to not wanting to be

face to face with the perpetrator • The conference went well until it came to making

an agreement • After some good work by the facilitator an

apology was given and counselling sessions were advised for anger management issues