What’s coming up in 2024?
Welcome to 2024! We have an exciting year planned of campaigning for and delivering high-quality Restorative Justice. In this blog, we explore some of Why me?’s upcoming plans, projects and aspirations for the year.
New areas of work
Violence in pupil referral units
This year we will be working on a project exploring how restorative practices can be used to address violence in pupil referral units and alternative provision. At the end of last year, we circulated a survey that gathers the views of leaders in alternative provision. You can still respond to the survey here. We will use these findings to share best practice for the use of restorative approaches in PRUs.
Policy
Victims and Prisoners Bill
Next week we will share a blog on the current situation regarding the Victims and Prisoners Bill. Having been debated in Parliament in December last year, the Bill still does not currently reference Restorative Justice. We hope that over the course of 2024, the right to be referred to a Restorative Justice service will be included in the Bill.
General election
The general election in the UK is expected to take place this year. With a potential shift in political leadership, it is important to maximise this opportunity to raise awareness of Restorative Justice and ensure that it is supported by decision-makers.
Police and Crime Commissioner elections
The Police and Crime Commissioner elections are also coming up in May this year. We are delighted that multiple serving PCCs have publicly declared their support for Restorative Justice over the past few years. Support from PCCs means that more resources will be invested into Restorative Justice services, which, in combination with strong leadership will open up more pathways to RJ.
We will be working on a campaign to gather the support of prospective candidates for the Police and Crime Commissioner positions across the country. Through this campaign, we aim to get public declarations of support for Restorative Justice and reassurances that their local services will be effectively resourced.
In preparation for the policy events this year, we will be holding a consultation session in our first forum of the year, gathering your ideas about what should be included in a Restorative Justice manifesto – we hope to see you there.
“Collaboration is the key to success in changing the landscape and so we will continue working alongside you and other organisations to ensure that Restorative Justice is taken seriously by policymakers and senior leaders.” – Lucy Jaffé, Director of Why me?
Youth Justice Board
At the end of last year we held an event in conversation with Liz Opoku of the Youth Justice Board (YJB). During the session, we consulted the restorative sector about the YJB’s new Key Performance Indicator on Restorative Justice. Liz answered the sector’s questions about reporting and shared plans for the YJB’s upcoming strategy.
We will be continuing this conversation in 2024, ensuring a dialogue between restorative practitioners and the YJB. We will look to run a forum on the topic in the coming months. If you would like to be added to our forum mailing list, get in touch via keeva.baxter@why-me.org.
The Why me? Team
We are excited to be welcoming some new members of the team this year. Our first new arrival is Isabelle Gius, our new Communications and Campaigns Officer under the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine leadership programme. Isabelle will be helping to construct our upcoming communications projects and strengthen our voice, helping us to spread the word about Restorative Justice to new audiences.
We will also be joined by several other new members of staff across the year, including a new CEO since our Director, Lucy Jaffe, is leaving us after 12 years of passionate campaigning.
Communicating Restorative Justice
With the arrival of our new Communications and Campaigns Officer in January, we will have more capacity to expand our communications work, spreading the word as widely as possible and reaching new audiences.
Firstly, we will be sharing a simple reframing guide on ‘How to communicate Restorative Justice effectively’ soon. Subject to funding, we will be expanding our research in this area, developing and testing key messages for criminal justice professionals who currently do not refer people to Restorative Justice services.
We will also continue to work on our ‘Restorative Talks’ podcast series, disseminating it amongst new audiences and sharing more voices of people affected by crime. If you haven’t yet listened, find out more and listen to the podcast here.
We are looking forward to collaborating with you on all of our upcoming work, if you have anything you would like to see from us this year, get in touch!