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Summary

Anonymous (2003). Safer Schools Partnerships (SSP's) and Restorative Justice in Schools South Yorkshire Joint Secretariat, England. Downloaded 17 February 2005.

The main aims of Safer School Partnerships (SSP's) are : - To reduce the prevalence of crime and victimisation amongst young people and to reduce the number of incidents and crimes in schools and their wider communities - To provide a safe and secure school community which enhances the learning environment - To ensure that young people remain in education, actively learning and achieving their full potential - To engage young people, challenge unacceptable behaviour, and help them develop a respect for themselves and their community. The SSPs currently funded by the Youth Justice Board provide for a Safer School Partnership team working across a family or cluster of schools. In addition to the police officer, the model includes a project worker to enable more specialised work to be undertaken with the pupil and their family/carer, to facilitate the provision of other mainstream services, provide links to the Youth Offending Team (YOT), local police and other relevant agencies. They also include an administrative support post.... The purpose of restorative justice in schools RJiS is to use restorative justice including restorative conferencing and peer mediation to reduce offending, bullying and victimisation in schools and improve school attendance. RJiS enables victims to be satisfied and receive reparation and students who perpetrate harm to understand and take responsibility for putting right the harm they have caused and making reparation. Promising findings suggest that RJ can also substantially reduce school exclusions. Projects in Hammersmith and Fulham have reported that, following 155 restorative conferences involving 290 students, exclusions, mainly fixed term, have been avoided in 190 individual cases. (excerpt)

Link: www.southyorks.org.uk/Link%20Documents/Doc%2010%20-%20S%20R%202004%20_SSPs_%20including%20Wales%20and%20RJ.pdf

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