RJC CPD Symposium - January 2026

UNIQUE INDENTIFICATION NUMER: RJC12012026

As a part of our Connect CPD initiative, we are pleased to announce our upcoming Annual Restorative Practice CPD Symposium from 12^th January to 16^th January 2026. Join us ONLINE for 12 hours of CPD spread over 5 days. Our symposium will cover a diverse range of topics relevant to those involved in restorative work across a variety of settings.

Can't make all of the sessions? We will be recording all sessions to be available for those registered, 1 week after the final session.

Over 5 days, you will have the opportunity to participate in 6 CPD sessions (12hrs).

• Engaging With Mental Health Services - Guidance for RJ Practitioners
• Restorative Practice as a Way of Being: Devon’s Journey Towards Relational Systems
• ‘YOUR CROSS-CULTURAL FILING CABINET’ What is in Yours?             

• Hate Crime Incidents; Working Restoratively with Young Harmers

• 7 is a magic number: A Radical Framework for Restorative Justice Practices
• Risk Assessment, Safety Management and Case Referrers…….connected? 

We are delighted to introduce a fantastic group of guest speakers from different sectors in the restorative field who will be sharing their wealth of knowledge and expertise in these sessions.

What did our previous delegates have to say?

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

Monday 12^th January 2026

Engaging with mental health services - guidance for RJ practitioners

Time: 10am – 12pm 

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Gerard Drennan, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

This seminar will provide an overview of the structure of mental health services, the operation of the Mental Health Act, interfacing with clinical teams, the challenges of clinical presentations, and the pragmatics of restorative justice practice in clinical settings.  

Tuesday 13^th January 2026

Restorative Practice as a way of being: Devon’s Journey towards relational systems

Time: 1pm - 3pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Chinara Davies and Debbie Raymond – Devon County Council

This will be a live, interactive session blending conversation, story, and reflection — anchored around a short podcast-style dialogue and a short video capturing Devon colleagues’ real feedback.

To inspire and connect practitioners, leaders, and communities across the UK by showing how Devon is embedding restorative practice as a whole-system culture — not just a toolkit or initiative.

Wednesday 14^th January 2025

‘YOUR CROSS-CULTURAL FILING CABINET’  What is in Yours?

Time: 10am - 12pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Samantha Alexander, Sandra Smith & Dawn Lewinson        

Women of Colour in Public Services CIC will deliver a two-hour interactive workshop on understanding cross cultural awareness and how we individually treat people. The impacts, languages, experiences and whether these are intentional or even, known. They will engage attendees to delve deep, within their personal space, then into recruitment, on-boarding, community and social interactions. The session aims to build the tools to examine and add/further add, to attendee’s knowledge, be confident in language, conversation and action and lead intentionally and unapologetically.  

Thursday 15^th January 2026

Hate Crime Incidents; Working Restoratively with Young Harmers

Time: 10am – 12pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Deirdre Leask, Jessica Dalrymple-Sobers and Alex Hyatt

Our workshop will look at a Hate Crime Intervention, designed by a group of staff at Southwark YJS.  The intervention has 6 modules, with an introduction and a resource pack.  Researching how to work with perpetrators of hate crimes consistently brought us back to restorative practice.

 The Hate Crime Intervention is a work in progress, and we hope to learn from using it, sharing it and reflecting on it.  Please join us in this workshop.

Thursday 15^th January 2026

7 is a magic number: A Radical Framework for Restorative Justice Practices

Time: 1pm - 3pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Tim Chapman

Building on the recent RJC Restorative Practice Guidance and the RJC State of the Restorative Sector documents, I want to outline a new framework of practice based upon research, practice and reflection that I have undertaken over the past five years. It integrates 7 core values and principles which provide a structure for the restorative process, 7 key qualities of character that the practitioner can bring to the process, 7 concepts that enable participants to restore the power and control that has been taken from them by suffering or committing harm, 7 contexts that enable participants understand and respond to the harmful effects of relations of power, 7 competences, 7 conversations and 7 elements to co-design the support, care and protection that participants need to restore what matters to them. 

The description and explanation of this framework will be achieved through the use of a scenario with which will interact though reflection and brief practices. 

Friday 16^th January 2026

Risk Assessment, Safety Management and Case Referrers…….connected?   

Time: 10am- 12pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Barbara Wooldridge

This session will be an open discussion looking at what we mean by Risk Assessment and Safety Management. Barbara will pose some questions to attendees and share some examples.

The session will also explore issues around multi-agency involvement and risk management, including what happens when things are not managed well.

The session will explore barriers to risk, and the importance of dynamic risk management. There will be interactive case study exploration throughout.

Please keep checking this page for further updates

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Gerard Drennan  

Dr. Gerard Drennan is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Head of Psychology & Psychotherapy in Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Services at South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London.  Gerard trained in restorative justice conferencing in 2012 with forensic mental health colleagues in Sussex and went on to lead implementation projects there, in South London and nationally.  Gerard has worked closely with the restorative justice community, including serving as Chair of Trustees of the RJC, to foster links between restorative justice practice and the mental health community. 

Chinara Davies

Chinara Davies, Practice Development Advisor – Restorative Practice at Devon County Council’s Children’s Social Work Academy, specialises in Restorative and Relational Practice as a “Way of Being”. Drawing on extensive frontline experience in child protection, adoption, and practice development, Chinara contributes to a wide range of initiatives that strengthen restorative culture across children’s social care and multi-agency safeguarding partnerships.

She works collaboratively with colleagues across social care including newly qualifies social workers, education, health, early help, and community services, supporting them to build confidence in restorative practice, develop meaningful relational approaches, and embed restorative values within organisational culture. Her role includes co-designing training, supporting practice improvement, and contributing to cultural-change programmes that centre connection, respect, and shared responsibility.

Chinara is known for her dynamic and compassionate approach to workforce development, making restorative practice accessible and practical for practitioners and leaders. Her commitment to equity, voice, and relational working is evident in the way she supports teams and contributes to multi-agency learning.

On the international stage, Chinara was invited by the United Nations to deliver a masterclass at the international conference in Central Asia on restorative practice facilitation recognising her expertise and her commitment to global dialogue on relational practice and social justice within the legal arena.

Debbie Reynolds

Debbie is the lead for a co-ordinated programme of work designed to embed restorative practice across Devon Children’s Social care. A qualified Social Worker, Debbie has specialised across her career in safeguarding children, restorative practice and improving access to mental health support for children facing adversity.

Samantha Alexander

Sam Alexander BA Hons PGDip.FMH 

Sam is a cultural intelligence expert and advocate for inclusive leadership in UK policing. Known for her strategic impact, empathy, and faith-driven leadership, she shapes programmes rooted in lived experience. Sam is an multi-award winner for her work on accessibility, diversity and inclusion. She is the Deputy Lead for Women of Colour in Policing (WoCiP) movement which addresses underrepresentation and retention for women of colour. Internationally, she advances inclusion and believes in taking a cross-cultural collaborative approach to business development, lens on language, working closely with clients to understand their needs and craft tailored solutions that address their unique challenges with authenticity, clarity, and purpose. 

Sandra Smith

Sandra Smith CMgr FCMI 

Sandra is a registered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute with over 30 years of leadership experience in retail management and more than 8 years in policing. In 2021, she founded Women of Colour in Policing – a pioneering initiative that has since been adopted nationally across police services. 

Sandra serves as a Mission Ambassador for the Anglican Diocese Pool Mission and as a Local Authority Governor, reflecting her deep commitment to community, education, and faith-led service. She has been recognised with multiple local and national awards for her innovation, dedication, and unwavering commitment to workforce development. Passionate about empowering women to reach their full potential in the workplace, Sandra continues to champion equity, representation, and growth across the public sector. 

Dawn Lewinson

Dawn supports organisations to create workplaces where difference is celebrated, inclusion is the norm and people thrive.  
With global experience working alongside leaders and frontline staff, Dawn partners with clients ready to challenge the status quo and drive meaningful change.  
Known for introducing conversations around unconscious bias into sectors that needed fresh thinking, Dawn creates safe and brave spaces that unlock the full potential of diverse talent to fuel innovation and sustainable success. 

Deirdre Leask

Deirdre Leask is a Team Manager at Southwark YJS.  She is an Advanced Accredited Practitioner and has worked and volunteered in Restorative Justice and community mediation for a very long time!  Deirdre has found restorative processes very effective in a number of community hate incidents and enjoyed developing this hate crime programme with a wide range of colleagues over three years.  She hopes that sharing our work with others will lead to more reflection and more effective practice in working with both perpetrators and people harmed by hate.

Jessica Dalrymple-Sobers  

Bio Coming Soon

Alex Hyatt

Bio Coming Soon

Tim Chapman  

Tim Chapman had a lengthy career in the Probation Service in Northern Ireland rising to a senior management position. He spent 10 years as a lecturer and course director of the Masters programme in Restorative Practices at the University of Ulster. He now teaches at the University of Sassari, Italy, as a Visiting Professor and at The University of Strathclyde as a Visiting Professor. He also offers training, research and consultancy in restorative justice. He has conducted training in restorative justice theory and practices from foundation level to specialist training throughout the world. He has published widely in effective probation practice, youth justice and restorative justice. He is currently writing a book based upon his research into victims’ experience of restorative justice and has completed research into the oral histories of victims of clerical child sexual abuse. He continues to practice and is leading a major restorative justice programme addressing institutional sexual abuse. This has involved engaging with over 50 survivors of clerical child sexual abuse. He is acting as a consultant advising on the restorative justice offering to survivors of the Post Office/Fujitsu Horizon scandal and supporting Ukraine to develop restorative justice for young people in conflict with the law.

Barbara Wooldridge

Barbara has worked as a trained Volunteer RJ Facilitator and Mediation Practitioner since 2022 with Restorative Gloucester, she is also accredited with RJC. She has completed an BSc. Hons Crim/Psych at the University. of Gloucester, with one component module focusing on Restorative Justice.

Barbara was also a teacher and College Lecturer for several decades, having qualified with Hons B.Ed.  (Math) in her early studies. She has noted that student conflict and fallouts seem to mirror mediation and RJ cases.

DATES & TIMES

12^th  – 16^th  January 2026

Morning sessions will run between 10am and 12pm

Afternoon sessions will run between 1pm and 3pm

Please see individual sessions above for session timings

LOCATION

All session will be hosted via MS Teams

Recordings of all sessions will be available for registered participants to view online for up to 3 months, available 1 week after the last session

EVENT FEES

*Includes a 1yr free membership (link to claim this will be sent following payment)

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO OPTION TO REGISTER FOR INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS

IMPORTANT: If you are a Registered Practitioner and/or RJC Member, you will need to be logged into your account to receive the discount associated with your membership/accreditation. The discount will show immediately so if you cannot see this or need help logging into your account, please contact us at enquiries@restorativejustice.org.uk

BOOKING TERMS & CONDITIONS

The following Terms and Conditions apply to this event:

• Payment of the registration fee must be made prior to the event commencing. Where payment has not been received, the RJC reserves the right to cancel your registration
• You must hold the required membership to receive the discount offered. If we are unable to verify your membership against the discount received at booking, additional payment may be required to secure your place
• Registration to participate in individual CPD sessions is not available for this event
• Weekly passes cannot be split between delegates
• Access to session recordings will be provided for a period of 3 months
• Access to session recordings will be granted to the email address used to register for this event within 1 week of the last session
• CPD Attendance Certificates will only be provided to delegates with confirmed attendance and/or confirmed engagement with session recordings

The RJC reserves the right to amend the content of the provisional programme for this event. All changes made to the programme will be communicated to registered delegates prior to the event start date

REFUND POLICY

In the event that you need to cancel your event registration you can either:

1) Transfer your registration to another person within 14 days of the event start

In the event that a higher fee becomes payable, the RJC will invoice this amount to the new delegate

2) Request a refund

The RJC will process this request in line with our refund schedule outlined below: 

Refunds will only be made to the account from which the payment was received

CONTACT INFORMATION

Contact Name | Aisa Shearing

Email | Aisa.shearing@restorativejustice.org.uk

_{This is an approved Connect CPD event. You can confirm the status of this event HERE.}