Restorative justice: policy and practice framework

14. Trauma informed

14.1 In addition to demonstrating the principles as outlined above, trauma responsive restorative justice practice should also be underpinned by the 5 R’s provided by the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) National Trauma Transformation Programme[xiii]. The RJ Policy and Practice Framework language has varied the NES definitions to better reflect feedback from those who have experienced and caused harm.

• Realise how common the experience of trauma and suffering is and understand the potential pathways for recovery.
• Recognise the different ways trauma can affect an individual, families, staff and others involved.
• Respond by taking account of the different ways that people can be affected by trauma to support recovery, and ensure knowledge about trauma is visible across policy, practice and process.
• Opportunities to resist re-traumatisation and offer a greater sense of choice, control, empowerment, collaboration and safety with everyone that you have contact with.
• Recognising the central importance of relationships.

14.2 People who have both experienced and caused harm, and their supporters, understand best how receiving a trauma-informed service feels to them. They describe feeling free from stigma and judgement, feeling ‘seen’, validated and believed. RJ services must prioritise making people feel safe and find the ‘safe language’ people need to hear to feel included and empowered. This is illustrated in Figure 2, which is a graphic illustration from a focus group discussion between the National RJ team, hosted by Resilience Learning Partnership (Alloa).

How do we know we are getting trauma informed services

When asked about trauma informed restorative justice services people have replied in various ways -

• "improved wellbeing, mental health recovery".
• "a wee bit of peace"
• "look at my situation in a different light"
• [Feels like] "everyone is different but we are all treated the same"
• [Feels like there is] "recognition, genuine appreciation, growth and flourishing".
• [Feels like you] "understand yourself better, more ability to move on".
• "I can just come to you"
• "I can ask silly questions, there are no silly questions"

Figure 2 is a graphic illustration from a focus group discussion between the National RJ team hosted by Resilience Learning Partnership (Alloa).