RJC CPD Symposium - June 2025

UNIQUE INDENTIFICATION NUMER: RJC30062025

As a part of our Connect CPD initiative, we are pleased to announce our upcoming Annual Restorative Practice CPD Symposium from 30^th June to 4^th July 2025. 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).

• Cases we hold – Practitoner wellbeing
• Circle Work: Holding space for difference
• GWiNN The Group with no name
• Restorative Approaches to improving behaviour in prisons
• Investing in, and elevating your facilitation practice Part II
• Recording success and successful recording

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 30^th June 2025

Cases we hold – Practitioner wellbeing

Time: 10am – 12pm 

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Janet Clark and Aisa Shearing RJC

This session will primarily focus on practitioners’ safety and well-being while handling complex cases. It will address sensitive topics such as children and death, and participants should be prepared that some of the information shared may be distressing.

Tuesday 1^st July 2025

Circle Work: Holding space for difference

Time: 10am - 12pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Charlotte Calkin – Restorative Engagement Forum

Charlotte and the team at REF use a wide range of restorative circle techniques to resolve many diverse issues.

In the past year, some of the spaces Charlotte has been holding have been with the Grenfell community, with NHS consultants, the National Trust, supporting Town Councils in their communities and in secure hospitals.

Circle work is all about holding the space, building a safe container for the complexity of difference in people’s narratives.

This session will look at the many different ways of employing restorative circle techniques and, as importantly, when not to use them.

We will use examples based on the wide range of experience we have had over recent years to explore the many methods for creating safe spaces.

Attendees will be invited to bring different examples and through discussion come away with a range of techniques to build their toolkit.

Wednesday 2^nd  July 2025

Time: 1pm - 3pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by:

GWiNN, the group with no name,

Who better to tell you about GWiNN than the children and young people who participate? GWiNN is a closed group for children and young people aged 18 and under who have been victims of youth crime. The aim of the group is to empower its members by helping them build confidence, develop skills, and establish a social network with others who have had similar experiences with violent crime. This support enables them to move forward with their lives.

Our restorative practitioners noticed that we had a disproportionately high number of children who were victims of youth crime. To address this, our restorative practitioners met with some of these young individuals to provide them with a safe space to come together.

This is their story...

Thursday 3^rd  July 2025

Restorative Approaches to improving behaviour in prisons

Time: 9am – 11am

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Dr Katherine Doolin University of Auckland & Jim Simon - RJC

Join Jim and Kate for an engaging workshop focused on mobilising restorative justice in prisons. This interactive session will facilitate small group discussions around key questions, including: What is needed to enhance capacity for restorative justice implementation? What challenges exist, and how can we overcome them to drive meaningful change? How can you influence the development of restorative justice in your role? Participants will enjoy ample opportunities to ask questions, share insights, and exchange experiences related to restorative justice in prison settings.

Friday 4^th July 2025

Investing in, and elevating your facilitation practice Part II

Time: 10am - 12pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Audrey Asamoah – National Probation Service

Audrey’s presentation will look at some issues of diversity and power using a real-life RJ case study. Audrey will refer to Larell Smith-Bacon’s Invested Facilitation model to explore with participants how they might elevate their practice. This will be a follow up session from Audrey’s previous presentation in December,

Friday 4^th July 2025

Recording success and successful recording

Time: 1pm- 3pm

Platform: MS Teams

Delivered by: Ben Fisk

Recording success and successful recording will expand on the research findings of Benjamin Fisk and his recently published report on the logistics of RJ service recording and monitoring for the RJC. This interactive and collaborative session will explore the types of success that practitioners and their services can evidence, whilst considering the range of stakeholders who are interested and invested in this evidence. We will reflect on what works well within your current practice, what you feel could be improved, and consider approaches to expanding metrics and standardising measures within services, multi-agency settings, regional networks, and beyond to promote awareness and enable access to RJ for citizens..

Please keep checking this page for further updates

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Aisa Shearing

Aisa has been working within the field of Restorative Justice for 8 years. She previously worked as operational lead for Make Amends, the commissioned service in Devon and Cornwall. Her role included delivery of restorative training and complex and sensitive case supervision.

Her background is working with young people who have emotional and behavioural challenges and she has also volunteered for the youth justice service as a referral panel member for the last 10 years. She has an honours degree in Psychology and an MSc in Business and Management with both undergraduate dissertation and Masters capstone projects focusing on Restorative Practice. Aisa also has a level 3 teaching and assessment qualification.

Janet Clark

Janet has been involved in restorative practice since 2001, she is an experienced trainer, consultant, practitioner, assessor, and published author in restorative practice. Janet is also an A1 Assessor for restorative practice.  Janet managed the award-winning Restorative Approaches in Schools (RAiS) project in Bristol and has supported a number of schools, education and youth settings, and other agencies in implementing restorative approaches. Janet delivers training, consultancy and facilitation in a wide variety of settings, including youth offending services, the police, probation, educational settings and community mediation. As a volunteer practitioner, and RJ Coordinator with CALM Mediation’s RJ Service, Janet brings an extensive background of hands on experience to the Symposium. 

Charlotte Calkin

Charlotte has worked in the restorative world for many years as a trainer, facilitator and consultant and is highly experienced in all areas of restorative practice. Charlotte’s organisation, REF, are currently working with many organisations across all sectors. She has delivered restorative justice workshops at the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna in 2018 and at the TEDSummit in Canada in 2017. She speaks widely at conferences, including at the 2020 RJ World Conference and also introduced the topic of RJ to the Justice Select Committee Enquiry in 2016. In 2019 she spent a year with the British Council in Colombia; working with young offenders on a restorative justice community re-integration project in the city of Cali. REF won the Howard League Award for Restorative Approaches for their work with young people and the police. 

GWiNN Group & Wigan REACH Safeguarding Adolescent Service

Steven Green, and the restorative team, work as part of the REACH Safeguarding Adolescent Service, REACH is a service name that has been chosen by Wigan children and young people and is the umbrella title for a number of different teams across our children's directorate working with some of our most vulnerable teenagers.

Those teams are the Youth Justice Team and the Youth & Community Team (formerly known as Targeted Youth Support Services), the Complex Safeguarding Team and our new Intensive Adolescent Support Team which will work with those adolescents and families where family breakdown as a result of contextual harm, is becoming a major concern.

Our restorative practitioners have noticed an increase in the number of children becoming victims of assaults that are filmed and shared on social media. Through consultations with some of these children, and following the Lundy model, it was identified that they needed a safe space. This led to the creation of the GWiNN, the Group with No Name.

 GWiNN is a closed group for children and young people aged 18 and under who have been victims of youth crime. The group aims to empower its members by helping them build confidence, develop skills, and establish a social network with others who have had similar experiences with violent crime. This support enables them to move forward with their lives.

Jim Simon

Jim Simon has served as the Chief Executive of the Restorative Justice Council (UK) since April 2019, bringing over 21 years of experience in education. A seasoned head teacher, practitioner, and trainer in restorative practices, he has effectively led the strategic development and implementation of restorative approaches across educational, youth, and criminal justice sectors. 

For the past four years, Jim has chaired the Advisory Board of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Restorative Justice, during which he spearheaded a nationwide inquiry into the application of restorative practices within the criminal justice system. Recently, he also directed an investigation into these practices in the educational, health, and social care sectors in the UK.

Dr Katherine Doolin 

Dr Katherine Doolin is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, New Zealand having previously worked in the law faculties at the University of Birmingham and University of Kent. Dr Doolin researches and teaches in the areas of criminal law and criminal justice, with particular expertise in restorative justice, prisons and youth justice. Her current research focuses on prison violence and on the use of restorative justice post-sentence, including in prisons. Dr Doolin has been a Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Law and Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, and the Institute of Criminology at KU Leuven, Belgium. She has extensive experience of carrying out evaluations of restorative justice schemes for adult and youth offenders. Since completing a doctorate at the University of Kent in restorative youth conferencing, Dr Doolin has published widely on restorative justice and presented on her research at over 40 international conferences, workshops, and seminars. 

Audrey Asamoah

Audrey is a restorative practitioner with over 10 years’ experience of facilitating and supervising restorative justice cases, some of which have attracted high profile media attention. Working within the criminal justice system, she has managed a team of restorative justice facilitators, developed, and delivered restorative training for staff, and with colleagues developed restorative practice interventions for offenders. Audrey has a particular interest in restorative practice for women, diversity issues and works as a volunteer youth justice panel member.

Ben Fisk

Benjamin Fisk is a registered social worker and former FGC coordinator with Leeds City Council. He has worked in senior leadership and management at international schools in South Korea and China. Ben is currently a part-time lecturer and doctoral research scholar at the University of Gloucestershire. His research and practice interests are around restorative practices in the areas of disability and complex needs, child safeguarding, recording and monitoring, and international school organisational culture.

DATES & TIMES

30^th June – 4th July 2025

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)

This Year we will be offering an Early Bird price for all registrations booked before midnight on 31^st March 2025. Registrations after this date and time will be as follows:

*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 AND 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.}