Mapping Innovation

We work to promote the best of Britain’s innovative justice practice.
Kairos is a Coventry-based women's charity who have developed a womens justice support service for women who are in contact with the criminal justice system who are also subject to, or at risk of, sexual exploitation.
The Sunflower Women's Centre is the first and only women's centre in Plymouth. They offer a wrap-around service for women with a range of complex needs.
The Y2A Hub is a multi-agency hub for all young people on probation in Newham, which offers a developmentally appropriate and maturity-informed approach, supporting young people to gradually become adults.
Humberside Police have developed a diversion programme for clients of sex workers, which sits alongside their work to safeguard sex workers in the area.
Boxing Clever ​​​​​​​addresses issues such as increasing youth violence and the exploitation of young people in Milton Keynes by giving young people access to tools, support and passion for sport and aims to create a more connected community by breaking down postcode barriers.
Parrallel Lives provides a therapeutic environment to families who have experienced Adolescent to Parent Violence/Abuse (APVA) in Swansea and Cardiff.
CFO Activity Hubs support individuals on licence or a community order to reintegrate into their local communities.
Established in 1996, Everyman Project was a counselling service for men who wanted help to cease their violent and/or abusive behaviours.
Cranstoun’s West Midlands Arrest Referral Service aims to reduce the cycle of crime and substance use by assessing individuals who may be eligible for an alternative to custody.
Future Living is a registered charity in Hertford that supports individuals who have been subject to domestic abuse. The Monica Programme is an ongoing support group therapy offered to women and Wise Guys is a programme specifically for male victims of domestic abuse.
Suffolk Positive Futures (SPF) provides outreach sports sessions as interventions to directly engage with young people within troubled communities.
This specialist court model employs a multi-agency approach to provide a more effective response to processing domestic abuse cases within the criminal justice system.
For Baby’s Sake is an innovative programme which takes a whole family approach to breaking the cycle of domestic abuse and childhood trauma for expectant parents and babies alike.
The Child Impact Assessment is a framework for understanding more about the impact on a child of having their primary carer in the criminal justice system, and ensuring they are listened to and supported at each stage of the process.
New Chance is an adult diversion scheme for women based in the West Midlands. Participants are referred by police and are given access to a programme of tailored support.
The Footprints scheme seeks to divert women away from the criminal justice system through the use of out of court disposals and participants are supported to address a range of needs.
Checkpoint Plus is an adult diversion scheme that diverts women out of the formal criminal justice system into a holistic support package.
Glasgow Alcohol Court was established in 2018 and seeks to reduce the rates of reoffending by supporting individuals who offend with their underlying alcohol issues.
CASSPLUS is a community advice service in Devon and Cornwall which offers practical advice, personal support and help to access services to court users with the aim of reducing reoffending.
C3 targets individuals who are engaged in prolific, non-violent adult residential burglary offending. Participants are given a deferred sentence and an intensive community sentence plan tailored to their individual needs.
The Glasgow Drug Court aims to reduce drug misuse and related offending. If accepted on the programme, participants must engage in drug treatment, regular drug testing, and court reviews to monitor progress.
The Edinburgh APSC is aimed at adult men with a pattern of low-level alcohol-related offending. They receive a community order incorporating addiction treatment, regular judicial reviews and support with additional needs.
The Community Advice service is a free and confidential support service at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. It offers practical and emotional support for individuals appearing in court and their family members.
Pathfinder is a Deferred Caution and Deferred Charge scheme run by Devon and Cornwall Police. The diversion scheme aims to reduce harm and re-offending through the use of interventions with a strong community focus.
The Best Services Trial is an ongoing trial of the New Orleans Intervention Model which aims to improve the long-term mental health and placement stability of infants in foster or kinship care through clinical intervention.
Love Barrow Families helps local families by supporting parents to address their underlying problems with the aim of reducing the numbers of children entering the care system.
The Promoting Positive Relationships Programme is a non-adjudicated preventative group programme that was developed for men at risk of being abusive in intimate relationships.
The Aspire programme was set up to support young men who are marginalised from communities and at risk of becoming involved in criminal or paramilitary activity.
REACH provides intensive multidisciplinary support to families with children who are experiencing multiple complex needs.
re:shape took a holistic approach to reducing the risk of sexual harm and keeping communities safe by offering tailored interventions to those at risk of causing sexual harm.
The ECO is a community-based alternative to short sentences. With a focus on rehabilitation and desistence, the ECO involves interventions that address criminogenic needs.
Belfast SMC takes a problem-solving approach to help offenders with underlying substance misuse issues. Eligible offenders have their sentences deferred while they engage in an intensive treatment programme.
Break4Change is a programme designed to help parents/carers and children who are involved in Child-to-Parent Abuse and aims to reduce parents’ sense of isolation and the young person’s feelings of entitlement.
This course aims to reduce the number of repeat alcohol-related crimes, with particular focus on violence. The programme combines interventions that address both violence and alcohol in conjunction.
The WONDER project aims to divert women from police custody facilities and help them to access tailored support and address their needs through a multi-agency and collaborative approach.
The CSTR scheme aims to reduce reoffending by improving access to mental health and substance misuse treatment in the community through greater use of treatment requirements in community or suspended sentence orders.
This scheme diverts young people aged 18-25 away from the criminal justice system and into interventions and support to help address their underlying issues and prevent future offending.
The ICO is aimed at men aged 18-25 and offers an intensive community sentence to those who are at risk of a 12-month or less prison sentence and includes support for the individual's families.
These projects in Northamptonshire focus on providing mental health support to eligible women who would otherwise be facing a custodial sentence, and support to people who frequently call the police during crisis moments.
The Whole Systems Approach adopted in Sussex centres on a multi-agency approach to addressing the complex needs of women who are in contact with the justice system by supporting them to access relevant services.
Kent, Surrey & Sussex CRC has implemented a different strategy for supporting women who offend which recognises the complex needs of the women they work with and the need for trauma-informed intervention.
These projects seek to better address the needs of people affected by domestic and/or sexual violence by addressing four strategic pillars concerning VAWG and women in the wider community.
Previously known as the Alcohol Diversion scheme, this course is targeted at first-time offenders or those who commit low-level crimes whilst drunk and offers them the opportunity to pay for and attend a training course on alcohol misuse and risk-taking behaviours.
This screening tool has been developed to allow non-specialist frontline services to be able to identify if someone is affected by problematic gambling and try to engage them into an appropriate treatment option.
This scheme thuses GPS tagging to monitor the movements of individuals on prison and probation licence conditions in order to track the compliance of prolific offenders with their licence conditions.
Project Future is a coproduced holistic well-being and mental health service that is community-based and works with young people and families who have experience in the criminal justice system (CJS).
The anti-stalking unit was set up to tackle stalking-related incidents and the clinics provide wrap-around support to victims and intervention work is done with perpetrators to prevent and minimise risk.
This diversion scheme was set up to tackle the root causes of offending by offering deferred prosecution and a conditional caution as well as help with issues such as housing, mental health and substance misuse.
The Drug Education Programme (DEP) is a programme that offers individuals caught in possession of drugs a one-time opportunity to attend a course on the topic of addiction within Avon and Somerset.
Project SHE is a point-of-arrest diversion scheme for women who offend within Avon and Somerset. It aims to provide tailored support for women across multiple areas so that they can avoid returning to the criminal justice system.

This map charts innovative projects happening across the UK’s justice systems. You can search and filter the projects to find things that are most interesting to you.

The Centre for Justice Innovation regularly engages with practitioners to find out what’s exciting them in the world of justice. We want to know what projects practitioners are running that they are most proud of and, just as importantly, the ones a few counties away that are inspiring them.

We are expanding the map so that it not only includes innovations in criminal justice, but also in public family law and the child welfare system. We are keen to hear from practitioners from across the UK about new and exciting initiatives that we can add in all areas. If you would like your work to be included, please get in touch

Before you get in touch, please be aware that in order to be included on our map we require that your project:

  • is led by, delivered in partnership or commissioned by a statutory agency;
  • can demonstrate improved outcomes. In criminal justice, this might be for victims or service-users, or in family justice, for parents and children.
  • is innovative! By that we mean, it is trying something new in your locality or for that particular target group.