Senior Practitioner - Restorative Justice
An exciting opportunity to work for Thames Valley Restorative Justice
Service for 12 days (flexible) a month on a short-term six month contract
(October 2014 to March 2015)
Salary £8,585 for six months (£31,000 FTE)
Deadline for Expressions of Interest – Wednesday 10th September
Thames Valley Restorative Justice Service (TVRJS) is a collaborative partnership
established in 2000 between statutory and voluntary agencies at the forefront of
research, development and delivery of adult restorative justice in England and Wales.
Internationally recognised as a centre of excellent practice we are the most experienced
area in the country. Thames Valley Probation was the lead agency until the governance
and management of TVRJS was transferred to Thames Valley Partnership in September
2011.
The Role This six month piece of work, funded by the Office of the Police and Crime
Commissioner, Thames Valley, offers the opportunity to undertake a senior practitioner
role providing case supervision, skills support, expertise and ‘mentoring’ in relation to 2
projects that are being developed, both of which will use volunteer facilitators:
 Building on the pre-sentence Restorative Justice pilot in Oxford Magistrates
Court to extend the work into Reading and High Wycombe Magistrates Courts
and begin to engage with resident judges in the Thames Valley Crown Courts.
 Provide case supervision, skills support, expertise and mentoring to the Victim
Support led project which aims to develop victim-initiated RJ and will be the
successor to innovative work that started last year.
Job-share arrangements can be considered and flexibility around working hours will be
required. The successful candidate may be required to work from 2 office bases –
Bicester, Oxon and Chilton, Bucks and be required to travel across the Thames Valley
Pensions Thames Valley Partnership is an admitted body to the Oxfordshire LGPS.
To apply Interested applicants are requested to submit an Expression of Interest
covering no more than 3 sides of A4 and sent by email to include all relevant contact
details, including the contact details of at least one referee. You may wish to include a
CV but the Expression of Interest will not be considered based on the CV alone. Please
respond to the brief below including details relating directly to the key tasks and
evidence to show you meet the person specification. Please send to:
patsy@thamesvalleypartnership.org.uk - deadline Wednesday 10th September by 5pm
Interviews to be held at Townhill Barn, Chilton HP18 9NA on Wednesday 24th
September 2014.
These projects will be delivered collaboratively, in partnership with Victim Support (VS),
and Criminal Justice partners who make up TVRJS.
Credibility and quality of the approach
Our approach to all RJ work is informed by our participation in the random-controlled
trials in 2000- 2004 undertaken by the Justice Research Consortium funded by the Home
Office. We will also take the learning from the pre-sentence pilot in Oxford Magistrates
Court and intend to fully embed that model and take it further across the TV by working
with Reading and High Wycombe Magistrates Courts. Nationally there were 3 pilot
sites; the Oxford site which we managed, was the most successful in terms of
interventions completed and numbers of full face-to-face conferences achieved. There
is also considerable scope for pre-sentence RJ in the TV Crown. Additionally we have
been undertaking some victim initiated RJ using European Funding and sharing learning
with other bodies across Europe.
Proposed client group The pre-sentence service will identify 45 potential cases at presentence stage and deliver 15 pre-sentence RJ interventions during a deferred sentence
period. It will offer victims, witnesses and their families a choice of interventions led by
their needs. This is based on the Restorative Justice Council’s (RJC) Best Practice
Guidance for Restorative Practice (2011), and on information from the MoJ pathfinder
(Senior, forthcoming). The pilot site at Oxford Magistrates’ Court found that
approximately 70% of cases identified did not proceed to a RJ conference.
The victim initiated aspect develops from work that has been part of a pan European
project where we have been sharing good practice with colleagues in other countries.
Senior Practitioner Key
Tasks
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Assessing whether and when the volunteer facilitators are ready to take work
and helping them get there if they are not yet ready e.g. by working a case
together.
Providing skilled facilitation in complex cases and in relation to some cases in the
pre-sentence initiative.
Organising and running group casework discussion/supervision with the
facilitators including Victim Support volunteer facilitators.
Liaising with project manager about the readiness and suitability of facilitators
Attendance at occasional other meetings as required.
Monitoring referrals, progress chase and record outcomes of pre-sentence cases.
Supporting the manager(s) to develop the performance and outcome reporting
framework.
Engaging in activities to promote awareness and development of Pre-sentence
and victim-initiated RJ within Probation (NPS and CRC), in the wider Criminal
Justice System and to the public.
Liaising with other professionals and organisations, including the Police to gather
information on which to assess safety and inform the process, including inviting
those affected to attend and take part in the process.
Supporting the manager(s) to develop infrastructure, set up management
processes/systems e.g. admin, referrals, tracking, data in relation to the presentence initiative.
Strategic and line-management will be provided by the RJ manager.
Person Specification
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES
Essential
 Ability to demonstrate a wide knowledge of Restorative Justice, both theoretical
and practical within the Criminal Justice system.
 Experience of maintaining high standards of work as a practitioner or manager
within an RJ, Criminal Justice or related setting.
 Experience of delivering RJ as a practitioner and/or trainer.
 Accredited to or working towards Level 4 Diploma in RJ Practice.
 A grasp of current key issues and priorities for Restorative Justice within the CJ
system, and the implications for facilitators and managers.
 Experience of providing casework supervision and line management.
 Ability to work to deadlines.
 Ability to demonstrate presentational and training skills.
 Ability to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing.
 A capacity to take into account the principles deriving from evidence based
research.
 Be able to deal with all information on a confidential basis.
Desirable
 Experience of partnership work.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Essential
 A concern to promote positive change and innovation in service delivery.
 Ability to demonstrate commitment to anti-discriminatory practice.
 A people-centred approach.
OTHER
 Required to travel within and outside of Thames Valley on occasions.
 Be free from any medical condition which would prevent you from doing the job.
 Be free from any criminal conviction which would conflict with the
responsibilities of the post.
Thames Valley Partnership is an equal opportunities employer; the aim of our policy is
to ensure no job applicant, employee or worker is discriminated against either directly
or indirectly on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, religious belief,
sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age or disability. We do
not disbar applicants with criminal convictions and are mindful of the requirements of
the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, 1974.