West Yorkshire's Immediate Justice approach

West Yorkshire has been awarded £2 million over two years from the Home Office to pilot and test Immediate Justice approaches.

In West Yorkshire, our Immediate Justice approach provides a range of tailored services for adults and children to benefit victims.

This includes completing unpaid work, repairing damage caused by their actions, and the option of restorative justice, where the victim can communicate with the person responsible for the crime.

Support for victims

Direct support is available to victims of ASB provided through a West Yorkshire wide victim support service.

When the offender has been identified, restorative workers will consult with the victims about the reparative activity the offender undertakes and feed back after offenders have completed ASB awareness courses.

Community conferences

Restorative Practitioners work with services to organise and facilitate community conferences with groups of victims and offenders to tackle an incident or ongoing situation that has affected a wide group of people.

The aim is to give the victims, offenders, and others the chance to discuss the consequences of the offence and agree on how the offenders should repair the harm they have caused.

Immediate Justice for Adults

Once an investigation by the police into a crime involving ASB is concluded, a Community Resolution, an Outcome 22, or a Conditional Caution may be considered. As part of this, if appropriate, the offender will enter the Immediate Justice scheme, and will either undertake supervised unpaid work, an ASB Awareness Course, or both.

In Immediate Justice, the police will refer the offender for supervised unpaid work delivered by the Probation Service.

If they receive a Community Resolution or an Outcome 22, they would undertake one 7-hour day of supervised unpaid work.

If they receive a Conditional Caution, they would undertake two 7-hour days of supervised unpaid work.

Immediate Justice unpaid work activity

Immediate Justice unpaid work activity is delivered in public spaces within the community impacted by the crime. This will have exceptions, and alternative activities are available to those with disabilities, injuries, and neurodiversity. impacted by the crime.

Unpaid work takes place 7 days a week across West Yorkshire and includes:

Removing graffiti.
Clearing wasteland.
Decorating public spaces and buildings to benefit the community.

The activity also enables individuals to make positive changes to their lives and reduce reoffending.

Services for children aged 12 to 17-years-old

Restorative Justice workers in each district of West Yorkshire Youth Justice Services support and deliver reparative activities for children aged 12 to 17-years-old.

The positive activities including health and wellbeing, educational sessions, involvement in community groups and activities that will develop a child’s sense of empathy for victims and the need to repair harm.

The activities will be strengths-based and will help children see the value of good behaviour, promote inclusion, and recognise their valuable place in their communities.

This approach diverts children away from and prevents further ASB or offending that impacts their communities.

Restorative Justice workers also contact victims to ensure their views are represented, their thoughts about suitable activities are considered and they are informed about the outcomes.

Evaluation of West Yorkshire Anti-Social Behaviour Immediate Justice Approach

As Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, working with the Mayor to oversee policing in West Yorkshire, on behalf of the public I welcomed the opportunity to pilot the Immediate Justice approach in West Yorkshire.

Our communities tell us that tackling place-based crime that damages people’s everyday lives, including serious violence, anti-social behaviour, and dangerous driving and speeding is a priority.

Safer Places and Thriving Communities is a key priority of the Mayors Police and Crime Plan. This focuses on the harmful and unacceptable behaviour that targets the different communities of West Yorkshire, through an ongoing commitment to Neighbourhood Policing and partnership working in localities.

Our pilot successfully delivered with partners provides a range of tailored services for adults and children trialled to benefit victims. This includes completing unpaid work, repairing damage caused by their actions, and the option of restorative justice, where the victim can communicate with the person responsible for the crime.

It is essential services are commissioned to support those harmed by crime and reduce reoffending. Our approach in West Yorkshire has ensured the pilot was trauma informed and included the commitment to the Child First approach.

Working in close partnership with West Yorkshire Police, HM Prisons and Probation Service, Youth Justice Services and our Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector, the initiative recognises and prevents trauma, responds early, and mitigates harm. 

I welcome this evaluation report to help evidence the success of this pilot and how together we can make West Yorkshire a safe, just, and inclusive place.

Alison Lowe OBE

West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC)

A webinar on partnership working to support Immediate Justice in West Yorkshire has shared learnings and key findings. The 30-minute webinar recording is available on demand on Youtube.

Definitions

Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB): ASB is defined as behaviour by a person which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm, or distress to persons not of the same household as the person.

Community Resolution: A Community Resolution is a method of restorative justice that is an alternative way of dealing with less serious crimes and incidents, allowing officers to use their professional judgement when dealing with offenders. A Community Resolution does not constitute a criminal record.

Conditional Caution: A Conditional Caution allows the police officer or a relevant prosecutor such as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to decide to give a caution with one or more conditions attached. A Conditional Caution does constitute a criminal record.

Outcome 22: Outcome 22 is a Home Office administration code that the police use to indicate that no further action has been taken in response to an offence, but some form of diversionary or educational activity has taken place.

Restorative Justice: For adults, this is a victim-focused approach that empowers victims of crime by giving them the opportunity to communicate with the person responsible for that crime.

For children, it supports each child to develop a ‘pro-social’ identity, and to help them to take a positive place in society. It can help children to see the value of good behaviour, promote inclusion, and help them to move forwards and recognise their valuable place in their communities.

Reparative activity: For adults, this means putting things right through repairing or making good the damage caused by an offence.

For children, this means activities to help them to recognise and make a positive contribution for themselves and others in their community.

Trauma informed: Working with the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Adversity Trauma and Resilience, we have placed a trauma informed lens on the Government’s ASB Action Plan to support our delivery approach and external communications.

Our trauma informed approach in West Yorkshire will mean services will see and understand what has happened to people, rather than what is wrong with people.

Working in partnership

A multi-agency West Yorkshire ASB Steering Group supports the approach and delivery of the Immediate Justice services.

Delivery partners:

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS)
West Yorkshire Youth Justice Services (YJS) – Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield
Restorative Solutions CIC
Victim Support
West Yorkshire Police