We spoke with Geraldine O’Hare, Director of Probation for Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI), about this innovative practice taking place within Northern Ireland. After a successful pilot of the ECO in the Ards and Armagh & South Down Court Divisions in October 2015, it has now been expanded to the North West and more of Northern Ireland.

Problem solving in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Department of Justice (DoJ) has implemented a programme of problem solving initiatives as part of an overall approach taken by the DoJ which aims to reduce reoffending rates by tackling the underlying problems that lead to re-offending. One of these initiatives is the Substance Misuse Court (SMC) which has been running at Belfast Magistrates Court since April 2018, with Judge Fiona Bagnall presiding.

Jane Griffiths tells us about the Break4Change programme that helps parents/carers and children involved in Child-to-Parent Abuse.

Child-to-Parent Abuse gets little statutory attention and as a result, is under-reported, under-researched and unknown to many practitioners. Break4Change aims to address these issues.

We spoke with Colin Paine, Thames Valley Police Detective Chief Superintendent, about the new CSE framework developed with Dr Hannah Maslen, deputy director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. The framework is a new and innovative guide with which the police can decide whether it is ethically appropriate to investigate cases of non-recent child sexual abuse.

Fiona Dyer tells us about the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice’s IVY Project, which is designed to address the gap in mental health assessment and management for high risk youths with complex needs.

*As of November 2019, Kibble, a specialist child and youth care charity and social enterprise, took over the hosting of the IVY Project. Dan Johnson, Clinical Director at Kibble, gave us an update.  

Nicola Lloyd, Neighbourhood Justice Manager at West Midlands Police, talks to us about the Force’s innovative Alcohol Related Violence Course (ARVC) which is targeted at alcohol-related offences including assaults, public order and criminal damage.

Stephanie Kilili – Policy Officer, Office of the Durham Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner –  shared with us their adult diversion scheme aimed at helping offenders get on track with their lives and taking them out of the criminal justice system.

Here are our 7 priorities for community justice for the new Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland

The purpose of this briefing is to summarise the evidence to date on the impact of pre-court diversion for adults and to draw out some promising practice principles for those working in pre-court diversion schemes.  

We spoke to Durham's Checkpoint diversion project about the successes of their scheme, their advice for others setting up a similar scheme, and their ambitions for the future.