Making Justice Work for the Community Reparation George Pejcic, Performance and Development Manager,

1
Making Justice Work for the Community -
Reparation George Pejcic, Performance and
Development Manager, Birmingham YOS Antony
Thompson, MoJ/DCSF Joint Youth Justice Unit

2
Structure of the session

• 5 mins introduction
• 15 mins George on Birmingham experience
• 10 mins In plenary, questions to George and
  discussion of the policy more generally.
• 25 mins discussion in small groups on the 3
  areas
• 15 mins reporting back and conclusions

3
Introduction What the policy involves

• Increased reparation during evenings and weekends
• Improving visibility of reparation activities
• Community engagement in choosing reparation
  projects

4
IntroductionWho is here?

• Quick show of hands
• How many people here are from YOTs? Which other
  agencies are here?
• How many YOTs in the room are currently
  delivering reparation on Friday and Saturday
  evenings? (or planning to)
• Are your local communities aware of the
  reparation work your young people are doing? 
• Are you currently consulting your local
  communities on possible local reparation
  projects? 

5
The Birmingham experience

• Birmingham Youth Offending Service
• 5 Youth Offending Teams
• 270 staff and 150 volunteers
• In 2007/8 we worked with over 4,500 young people,
  with over 5,600 disposals from Police and Courts
• We encourage YOS officers to include reparation
  as an element on all community orders.

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Our aim is to ensure reparation

• Is informed by the victims views
• Takes into account the nature and seriousness of
  the offence
• Takes into account the needs, maturity and
  ability of the offender
• Is properly explained to the young person so they
  understand why they are doing it

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Reparation in Birmingham

• Around 30 regular projects, both for individuals
  and groups of young people
• Most involve all year round evening reparation.
• Others are available in evenings seasonally
• Most reparation takes place either at weekends or
  after 4pm or during school holidays

8
Working in partnership

• Examples of group based reparation projects
• Fire Service Benevolent Fund
• Sculptures for nature trails
• Motor Vehicle Project Sight Savers
• Mosaics
• Graffiti removal
• Gardening and associated site cleaning
• Charity shops

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Evening Reparation

• Graffiti Removal
• 6 young people, 2 staff
• Sites identified through Graffiti Hotline,
  Contituency meetings, Regulatory Services
  (Environmental Crime Unit)
• Environmentaly friendly chemicals- COSH
• High pressure bowser
• PPE for young people

10
Evening Reparation

• Bus cleaning
• 6 young people, 2 staff
• Special Needs Transport Ring and Ride
• Frankley Garage
• Cleaning materials COSH
• PPE for young people

11
Issues

• Practical and resource issues for Friday and
  Saturday night reparation
• Promoting public confidence takes time
• Meaningful consultation with the local community
  takes time
• There is a need to win hearts and minds with
  young people and their families to ensure
  compliance, with colleagues to gain support as
  well as with the wider community
• Safety of young people and staff
• Health and Safety

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Discussion questions

• Group 1
• What are the particular issues relating to Friday
  / Saturday night delivery of reparation
  activities?
• How can these be overcome / avoided?
• Group 2
• How can the visibility to the community of
  reparation projects be improved?
• Any reservations?
• Group 3
• How can the community be engaged in choosing
  reparation activities they think need doing?
• Any reservations?

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Conclusions

• Feeding back to the whole group
• Any additional ideas
• What needs following up?