A national pilot aimed at strengthening restorative justice for children across England and Wales is set to expand following the confirmation of multi-year funding support.
The initiative, led by Restorative Justice for All (RJ4All), is being delivered in partnership with the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and funded by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF).
The programme will introduce a shared restorative justice practice model across 10 Youth Justice Services (YJSs), providing practitioners with a consistent framework for working with children aged 10 to 17. The model outlines 10 practical stages of restorative justice delivery, from referral and preparation to follow-up support, while allowing flexibility to meet local needs.
Grounded in the Child First evidence base, the approach is designed to place both children and victims at the centre of the process and support both direct and indirect restorative interventions.
The expansion builds on work carried out during the 2025 co-design phase, when RJ4All collaborated with frontline practitioners from 10 YJSs and a dedicated Restorative Justice Practitioners Board. Insights from 15 children with lived experience also helped shape the final Shared Practice Model for restorative justice in youth settings.
The programme is now entering its Delivery and Evaluation phase, with further testing planned across Youth Justice Services in Cambridgeshire, Cardiff, Buckinghamshire, the Isle of Wight, Lambeth, Leeds, Northamptonshire, Salford, West Mercia and Southwark.
The YJB provided strategic oversight throughout the development process, supporting recruitment, partnership working and quality assurance across participating services.
Kate Langley, Director of Operations South at the YJB, said restorative approaches can play a significant role in reducing reoffending when implemented effectively.
“This pilot will help strengthen the evidence on what works to deliver high-quality restorative justice across the youth justice system,” she said.
“The Youth Justice Board’s role is to support local services to improve practice, and this work will provide valuable insight into how restorative approaches can be delivered consistently and effectively for children, victims and communities.”
Theo Gavrielides, Founder and Director of RJ4All, said the programme represented an important opportunity to strengthen the evidence base surrounding restorative justice.
“For too long, restorative justice in the youth justice system has operated without the kind of rigorous evidence base it deserves,” he said.
“By developing a shared practice model with practitioners on the ground and testing it properly, we can begin to build the evidence that policymakers, victims and young people themselves need.”
Restorative justice has formed a statutory part of the youth justice system since 1998, but research into its effectiveness for children, victims and communities has remained limited.
Independent charity Coram will evaluate the programme through a randomised control trial, expected to provide one of the most comprehensive assessments of restorative justice in youth justice settings to date.
Training and implementation support will be tailored to individual services, while ongoing oversight will aim to ensure consistency and quality throughout the pilot.
An online conference later this year will bring together practitioners, academics and policymakers to share early findings and discuss wider adoption of restorative approaches across the justice system.
