Plenty to learn from the UK

Restorative practices mean the "us and them" approach to problem solving dissipates.

Much as we in the provinces get a bit peeved when foreign visitors come to Auckland and Rotorua and then head away thinking they have "done" New Zealand, I am sure the English feel the same.

This week I have had the privilege of travelling to some cities in the Midlands of the UK to view the work they are doing around youth justice, restorative justice and seeing the advances they are making towards a "paperless" court.

This has meant spending a few hours on trains between Leeds, Manchester, Hull and Birmingham. It has been interesting to see the changing faces of wealth and income, ethnicity, pace, accent, costs and prices. I was grateful to my parents for years of being subjected to Coronation Street had tuned my ear, so I could hold up my end of the conversation.

What struck me, though, was the common interest the UK and New Zealand have in making sure all levels of society succeed although not everyone travels at the same pace. There remain huge disparities within the economic structure of the community but those working to increase wealth, opportunity, and in my portfolio area, make justice accessible, are burning brightly with the same passion.

I visited the Leeds Rhinos Rugby League Club which has now teamed up with a Rugby Union Club and provides after hours care to a big group of vulnerable kids. They have intensive and structured play and learning in a specially constructed school room with educators and social workers to assist. Referrals come from school, police, and community groups so the city has buy-in for the project.

Youth Offending Teams in Britain work across agencies and are frequently co-located in premises owned by councils because over there the central government has devolved responsibility down to councils and funds them via social and educational services. This seems cumbersome because of the loss of money through administrative costs, but has an advantage in being delivered locally by the commune for the community.

The local government strengths can be enhanced though by leadership and we have seen Mayor of London Boris Johnson's youth project really gather some steam and have some good outcomes. He has decided to do interventionist work with black youth as they are particularly vulnerable and active in criminal activities.

Another lesson is that New Zealand is very fortunate in having one police service as opposed to the 43 that exist in England. Making a decision that will run across the country is fine, but how that will be interpreted and prioritised is another question altogether. This means that some initiatives such as restorative justice, diversion, alternative action and charging processes are withheld if the relevant chief constable disagrees with the policy.

On Thursday, I was pleased to meet Princess Anne and present her with some glasswork from the electorate. She is a very impressive person and remembers Whanganui well from Prince Edward's stay while a housemaster at Collegiate.

I am now in Halifax, Nova Scotia to observe how their Restorative City project is working. The project is being run in conjunction with one in Whanganui and this project extends restorative practices across the community, schools, businesses, public offices etc to ensure that collaboration and conciliation are promoted in social practice, work practice, the investigation of complaints and the resolution of issues.

It means that the "us and them" approach to problem solving dissipates and all views are considered whether they be on the right or the wrong side of an argument for either perspective.

This approach in some schools has meant that students attend and are not excluded, teachers turn up to teach and do not have stress-related sick days. Parents are involved and do not have the option of leaving all education to the school abrogating their responsibility. Grades go up, students excel, productivity grows. There is even less offending because people understand the reason for the rules, and are less inclined to break them, and conversely rules are more sensible and more reasonably enforced.

It is amazing how sensible we can be when we bother to go and find out what the problem is, discuss how it can be resolved, and don't be too quick to enforce one view at the expense of another.