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“Ask what is strong, not what is wrong”
With less than a month to go before Restorative Justice week 2025, and with plans under way for the start of our Restorative Skills course next week, thoughts naturally turn to restorative justice.
It’s been almost a year since my first Restorative Justice Council conference, and the sense of hope that I took from that event is still tempered by frustration that Scotland has not yet turned policy intent into practice. What has moved on, however, is time, and with the Holyrood elections in 2026 fast approaching, there is a clear opportunity for political parties to take a fresh, evidence-based look at penal reform. And the evidence tells us that penal reform, if it is to effectively break the cycle of offending and reoffending, must include a measure of restorative justice.
Scotland and the rest of the UK continue to record the highest per-capita incarceration rates in Western Europe [1], but we already know the evidence for restorative practice is strong; so perhaps this time we need to ask ourselves, and our representatives, whether we are ready to act on it.
Spotlight on our Service
Falkirk Council Conflict Resolution Service
Falkirk Council is situated in Central Scotland in the Forth Valley region. It has a population of approximately 160,000 and the district is approximately 115 square miles. Falkirk is the home of The Helix Park and the famous sculptures called The Kelpies. We are also fortunate to have the Falkirk Wheel, the world’s only rotating boat lift which links the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal.
Falkirk Council’s Mediation Service was established in 1996 and Falkirk Council was the first local authority to establish an in-house Mediation Service. The aim was to increase community awareness and understanding of mediation and to promote mediation and other conciliatory methods of conflict resolution. It was also our aim to establish excellent working partnerships with our referring partners and agencies. The service succeeded in all their aims and we had a very busy and successful Community Mediation Service.
RJC accreditation - our journey
RJC accreditation – our journey
As we are nearing the start of this year’s restorative skills course, thoughts turn back to our accreditation journey, which started in 2023. Having our training evaluated and accredited is important to us. Accreditation allows us to review our materials and processes through the lens of a third party, updating and refining through the evaluation process. Accreditation is an opportunity to step back from the everyday work and ask ourselves – “is this training still fit for purpose?” Having an accredited course is also useful for how other organisations view us; it is to a greater or lesser extent a kitemark of quality. These are just a few reasons why we at the Scottish Community Mediation Centre, value accreditation.
Back in 2023 we had a valued working relationship with a Scottish university who credit-rated both our Restorative Skills and Mediation Skills courses within the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF). Unfortunately for us, they took the decision to cease their offering of credit-rating to external training providers. After a shortlisting exercise, in late 2023 we approached the Restorative Justice Council (RJC) and met with them to explore the accreditation process. Having gained an understanding of the process, timeline and cost, we obtained Sacro management approval for applying for accreditation, and the work began.
Restorative practice explored
Where someone has been harmed, a restorative intervention may help. There are a number of terms in use within the restorative landscape – restorative justice, restorative practice, restorative conferences to name a few. You may well have heard of these, but have questions or be unsure how a restorative process works and what it is in practice.
Twice a year the Scottish Community Mediation Centre run a workshop that explores some of the principles of restorative practice, and how the restorative process usually works. Our next workshop is now just over a month away, on 19th November.
For more information or to book a place, please visit our webpage.
Of Curiosity
“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
Having worked alongside and got to know many mediators over the years, one of the themes that emerges from conversations is their ability to ask good questions. What do I mean by ‘good questions’? I have previously blogged about the value of open questions, however in this context I’m talking about something different.
Using open questions is a good way of finding out a lot of information from a neighbour in a conflict. But using an open question that is carefully phrased and occurs at the right point of a conversation, can reveal a lot more than the question itself would suggest. To understand a person’s perspective, to fully appreciate their point of view, it can be at times necessary to explore their underlying motives and concerns. What drives an experienced mediator to do this will be the desire to get the full picture and understand what the key interests of that person are in their dispute, or it may also be driven by an innate curiosity.
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