News

Restorative Justice programme awarded TPQM

The Thames Valley Restorative Justice Service (TVRJS) has recently achieved the  Training Provider Quality Mark (TPQM),  a quality mark awarded by the Restorative Justice Council to  restorative training providers who meet the RJC’s rigorous and exacting criteria.

“Through achieving the TPQM, Thames Valley Restorative Justice Service has shown its commitment to providing high quality restorative practice training. I would like to congratulate all the team members for their accomplishment.”

Chris Straker, the RJC’s interim Chief Executive

Find out more about TPQM or visit the TVRJS website

WELL DONE TVRJS!

Published earlier this week, a report by HMI Inspectorate of Probation on the thematic inspection of Probation Supply Chains commends the Partnership’s restorative justice service (TVRJS) on the ‘high standard’ of its work. The full 75 page, which was highly critical and where the probation supply chain is described as ‘bleak and exasperating’, contained only a couple of other examples of good practice. Read the full report here and in particular see page 30 …

”  There were few unusual or niche services identified that were addressing more-specialist needs or delivering innovative practice. The strongest example was Thames Valley Partnership’s ‘facilitating restorative justice conferencing’ service. This provider was a well-regarded and established organisation, undertaking difficult and delicate work in complex cases. It had a history of working with probation services over many years. Its delivery model and the extent of its provision had been altered, not necessarily for the better, because of its contractual terms with the CRC, and these were set to change further. Within the cases we inspected, its management oversight, commitment to staff training and delivery of restorative justice were of a high standard”. 

SEE PAGE 30

Good practice example: Restorative justice conferencing in Thames Valley
Jim received an 18-month custodial sentence for a bomb hoax at his local hospital, having been taken to the accident and emergency department because of concerns about his level of alcohol intake. On release from prison, he was referred to a restorative justice worker, who made extensive enquiries to identify the staff involved in the incident who would be willing to participate in a conference. An initial meeting took place and Jim was supported through this challenging process. The restorative justice worker kept the responsible officer up to speed with progress and updated the records appropriately. Alongside this work, the responsible officer ensured that the other elements of Jim’s supervision plan were completed, including attendance at a local substance misuse agency, referrals to an ETE intervention and a home visit.

HRH Duchess of Cornwall thinks TecSOS is “pure magic”.

TecSOS Mgr John Liversidge with Met Commissioner Cressida Dick and HRH Duchess of Cornwall

The hard work, enthusiasm and leadership of the Partnership’s TecSOS team was highlighted last week  during a visit of HRH Duchess of Cornwall to the Metropolitan Police. The Duchess was welcomed by Met. Police Commissioner Cressida Dick at the force’s headquarters and received a briefing on the TecSOS project from John Liversidge, the Partnership’s TecSOS Project Manager. The Duchess learned at first hand how the TecSOS programme is changing the lives of those affected by domestic abuse and described the technology behind this, which was developed by the Vodafone Foundation, as “pure magic”.

The visit, which was later tweeted from Clarence House Twitter account, was featured on Channel 5 news and in national media. If you would like to learn more on this visit please follow the media links below:

Channel 5 News 
Telegraph – Duchess of Cornwall hails ‘magic’ of secret panic alarms for domestic abuse victims
Daily Mail
The Sun
Vodafone’s technology blog

The Partnership team ….making a splash!

Partnership staff enjoyed a day of team building activity out of the office on the 14th September.  Braving gathering storm clouds at Milton Keynes the team spent the  morning cycling and sampling a variety of water sports at Willen Lake.  The afternoon was spent problem solving at the Escape Room – quite a challenge!  As the staff team is broadly situated across the Thames Valley and does not have the opportunity to  get together very often this was a great chance to share news and ideas.

Our RJ Ambassadors

Our Restorative Justice  Ambassadors have been through RJ themselves and support us by telling their own stories to key audiences to spread the word about restorative justice. We are very grateful to them for their time and commitment to our work; their stories are so powerful and have much more impact than anything we can say on their behalf. They also take part in media interviews for us from time to time.

View one of our  Ambassador video clips

Celebrity Visit for OOTBox!

Clients and volunteers at Alana House in Reading received an unexpected boost recently – in the form of a visit by Patrick Grant who attended one of the craft sessions to learn more about the social enterprise and cast a critical eye over some of the ladies’ handiwork. Patrick, who is a judge on the BBC’s popular Sewing Bee series owns two clothing labels (Saville Row tailors Norton & Son, and ready to wear label E Tautz & Sons) and is also involved with Community Clothing, a manufacturers cooperative which supports the UK clothing industry.

Patrick enjoyed a relaxed visit, chatting to 2 ladies from Alana House and New Leaf volunteer Noreen before going on to visit Springhill and Grendon where he met one the Governors.