Dr Luke Roberts is delighted to share his new book for those interested in changing systems, leading with big ideas and what it takes to sustain innovation. This book shows how to apply thinking in systems to educational settings to enable readers to make a lasting difference.
Retrospective
Dr Luke Roberts CEO Resolve Consultants - In commercial Confidence
In 2013 Dr Luke Roberts was asked if he had ever worked in prisons to which he said “no”. The next question was would you like to? And so began his relationship the Youth Custody Service. In 2013 he worked with Warren Hill. After his training in restorative approaches there was a 40 per cent drop in in violence on one of the wings due to some excellent work of the officers, Physical Education Instructors, supported by a senior leadership team which understood the benefits of that the proposed interventions could make.
In 2014 Warren Hill became a Category C men’s prison. All seemed to be over and then…
In 2015 Dr Luke was asked to present to all the governors and and senior leaders in the Youth Estate. Of the 10 most violent prisons the four youth estate prisons were the top 4. Dr Luke presented in the meeting that violence was not the problem, to which there murmurings that they have got the wrong person.
He suggested that violence was the by-product of conflict and that by resolving the conflict there would be less violence. To which they was full agreement that they did have the right person and he now need to build a model that address all sites in England.
During the first round of training it became very clear that staff in the youth estate were not fans of restorative justice. Therefore, there was a shift in language to “Conflict Resolution” as they ‘dealt with conflict everyday’.
The four sites involved were HMP Cookham Wood, HMP Feltham, HMP Werrington and HMP Wetherby.
The sites each had dedicated conflict resolution practitoners who’s full-time role was to address conflict situations between young people and young people and young people and staff.
In 2017, as the Conflict Resolution model developed it became clear that one of the main causes of conflict in Youth Offending Institutions was the tribal behaviour that occurred when being assigned to a wing. This was partly due the result of outside gang identification, of area loyalty, but also internally generated loyalty from being assigned to a wing.
As a result groups assaults meant that the Conflict Resolution had to identity and engage with multiple members of a Wing participating in a conflict.
Officers from the Cookham Wood YOI, with the support of Resolve Consultants held a multi-agency workshop to explore the interplay between conflict in communities and conflict in the Cookham Wood Community.
A young person was released on license to share their lived experience of being in Cookham and the need for change. The visualisation with the support of Scriberia captures the discussions on the day.
As the project developed in 2018 Medway Secure Training College (STC) joined the project, have moved from the private sector to the public sector.
The Medway STC had both girls and boys which meant the conflict resolution model adapted to a new range of conflict types to support young people and staff.
During initial interviews it became clear that young people did not like being recorded as this felt like an investigation.
A new methodology called Visual Voices was developed to capture their views in a way which was engaging for them and allowed to sense check in real time.
The following visualisations where conducted over late 2018 early 2019.
The visual voices across the Youth Offending Institutions and Medway STC showed a range of conflicts which were being addressed successfully across all sites.
Young people reported learning how to manage conflict in their lives both in custody and when leaving.
Young person and staff conflict was also being successfully addressed to repair relationship, remove tensions and allow for more access to educational and social offers within the organisations.
Medway STC was closed in in 2019, but valuable learning was shared with Oakhill STC.
In 2018, the Welsh Youth Justice System asked for conflict resolution to be developed in the only Youth Offending Institution - HMP PARC and a Secure Childrens Home.
Both presented unique challenges and opportunities to the development of conflict resolution. The Childrens Home in particular recognised the opportunity to bridge different functions of Care, Education and Health.
A Visual Voices of both Hillside Secure Children Home and PARC YOI were completed in early 2019.
In 2021 was the world and the Youth Estate adjusted the COVID-19 Pandemic Wetherby YOI asked for support in address the lose of the wider community due to restrictions and risk of infections young people were contained in micro-communities. A consequence of which was a fear of meeting other young people outside of their group.
In addition new staff had not experience of being present when the community was fully active.
As part of the Post-Covid recover the Governor wanted a model which went beyond Conflict Resolution.
The visualisation is what was developed with staff and young people to create a shared sense of community with clear values and what the community is seeking to achieve in 2022.
In 2022, Dr Luke was asked to work with senior leaders across the Youth Custody Service to support their leadership with understanding system change.
This work built on his experiences of integrating a conflict resolution model into the Youth Custody Service.
The three 3 hour sessions allowed staff to explore their knowledge of the system and collective experiences on what was happing in the light of COVID as well as their aspirations for change to the needs of their young people, staff and wider communities.
