Mapping Innovation

We work to promote the best of Britain’s innovative justice practice.
Humberside Police have developed a diversion programme for clients of sex workers, which sits alongside their work to safeguard sex workers in the area.
Boxing Clever ​​​​​​​addresses issues such as increasing youth violence and the exploitation of young people in Milton Keynes by giving young people access to tools, support and passion for sport and aims to create a more connected community by breaking down postcode barriers.
Parrallel Lives provides a therapeutic environment to families who have experienced Adolescent to Parent Violence/Abuse (APVA) in Swansea and Cardiff.
LEPH (Law Enforcement Public Health) Link is a brief intervention and signposting app, inspired by public health principles.
Devon and Cornwall Police have adapted their existing Deferred Prosecution Scheme for 18-25s and Care Leavers.
Cleveland Divert aims to divert individuals who have committed a first-time or low-level offence away from the criminal justice system by addressing the underlying causes of the offending behaviour.
Agnes Wootton, Re-Frame Service Manager, tells us about their current RCT and the future of this early intervention, youth diversion programme.
Cranstoun’s West Midlands Arrest Referral Service aims to reduce the cycle of crime and substance use by assessing individuals who may be eligible for an alternative to custody.
The Out of Court Diversion Suite aims to divert individuals who commit low-level offences out of the court system by referring them to partner agencies that take a trauma-informed approach to address their offending behaviour. Brighter Tomorrows is a pilot programme that aims to tackle the complex needs of female offenders so that they are less likely to re-offend.
Suffolk Positive Futures (SPF) provides outreach sports sessions as interventions to directly engage with young people within troubled communities.
This specialist court model employs a multi-agency approach to provide a more effective response to processing domestic abuse cases within the criminal justice system.
Through the Local Criminal Justice Board, a number of out of court disposal pathways designed to encompass a broad demographic have been established, offering support and diversion away from formal court proceedings.
Northumbria police have established an innovative hub which centralises their multifaceted diversion programme, facilitating better decision making and improved outcomes for service users and communities.
This screening, treatment and diversion pathway, was developed to identify the links between gambling related harms and crime, to provide individuals with the opportunity to access the appropriate treatment service provision.
The Harm Reduction Unit enables criminal, health and social justice agencies to work together at a local level to manage the risks associated with stalking and domestic abuse and to support victims.
The unification of these schemes is the result of a commissioning partnership between statutory agencies in Wales, building upon the good practice developed during the schemes’ respective pilots.
The Child Impact Assessment is a framework for understanding more about the impact on a child of having their primary carer in the criminal justice system, and ensuring they are listened to and supported at each stage of the process.
Project CARA is a risk assessed response to domestic abuse instances, which aims to prevent further abusive behaviour by raising awareness of the impact on victims.
This course offers the chance for people to understand and address hate crime related behaviour, while also offering the opportunity to engage in restorative justice.
This voluntary referral scheme takes a public health and educational approach to the use of drugs. It is used as a method of diversion away from criminal sanctions for those caught in ‘simple possession’ of controlled drugs.
New Chance is an adult diversion scheme for women based in the West Midlands. Participants are referred by police and are given access to a programme of tailored support.
The Footprints scheme seeks to divert women away from the criminal justice system through the use of out of court disposals and participants are supported to address a range of needs.
This drug diversion scheme aims to reduce the harm caused by the use of drugs and drug-related offences by diverting people into a community resolution and access to drug treatment and support.
North West BCU (Borough Command Unit) operates a police-led deferred prosecution scheme called Turning Point. Youth diversion forms part of Turning Point and contributes as another alternative to youth out-of-court disposals (OoCDs) available.
C3 targets individuals who are engaged in prolific, non-violent adult residential burglary offending. Participants are given a deferred sentence and an intensive community sentence plan tailored to their individual needs.
Pathfinder is a Deferred Caution and Deferred Charge scheme run by Devon and Cornwall Police. The diversion scheme aims to reduce harm and re-offending through the use of interventions with a strong community focus.
The EAT programme is a police-led initiative in Wales that seeks to establish a multi-agency approach to tackling offending behaviour by identifying and supporting people who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences.
re:shape took a holistic approach to reducing the risk of sexual harm and keeping communities safe by offering tailored interventions to those at risk of causing sexual harm.
This decision-making framework provides police with an innovative tool that they can use to decide whether it is ethically appropriate to investigate cases of non-recent child sexual abuse.
This course aims to reduce the number of repeat alcohol-related crimes, with particular focus on violence. The programme combines interventions that address both violence and alcohol in conjunction.
Checkpoint is a voluntary adult offender diversion scheme which is aimed at low and moderate level offenders and helps them to identify and address the underlying causes of their offending.
The WONDER project aims to divert women from police custody facilities and help them to access tailored support and address their needs through a multi-agency and collaborative approach.
This scheme diverts young people aged 18-25 away from the criminal justice system and into interventions and support to help address their underlying issues and prevent future offending.
These services provide mental health support to people in Dorset who are in contact with the criminal justice system.
These projects in Northamptonshire focus on providing mental health support to eligible women who would otherwise be facing a custodial sentence, and support to people who frequently call the police during crisis moments.
Compulsory sobriety tags were piloted in London, North Yorkshire, Humberside and Lincolnshire to try to tackle a variety of alcohol-related night crimes such as alcohol-fuelled assault. The tags have now been fully rolled out across the whole of England and Wales.
The Whole Systems Approach adopted in Sussex centres on a multi-agency approach to addressing the complex needs of women who are in contact with the justice system by supporting them to access relevant services.
The Complex Youth Scheme was established to provide an early intervention scheme for young people in contact with the criminal justice system to try to tackle issues before they become embedded.
These projects seek to better address the needs of people affected by domestic and/or sexual violence by addressing four strategic pillars concerning VAWG and women in the wider community.
Two projects set up by Northumbria Police, RESPOND and Street Triage Service, aim to improve the way that police and other agencies respond to individuals with mental health issues.
Previously known as the Alcohol Diversion scheme, this course is targeted at first-time offenders or those who commit low-level crimes whilst drunk and offers them the opportunity to pay for and attend a training course on alcohol misuse and risk-taking behaviours.
This screening tool has been developed to allow non-specialist frontline services to be able to identify if someone is affected by problematic gambling and try to engage them into an appropriate treatment option.
This scheme was set up in order to avoid criminalising children unnecessarily. In the police triage scheme, specially-trained officers deal with incidents involving young people within the school environment.
This scheme thuses GPS tagging to monitor the movements of individuals on prison and probation licence conditions in order to track the compliance of prolific offenders with their licence conditions.
The anti-stalking unit was set up to tackle stalking-related incidents and the clinics provide wrap-around support to victims and intervention work is done with perpetrators to prevent and minimise risk.
This diversion scheme was set up to tackle the root causes of offending by offering deferred prosecution and a conditional caution as well as help with issues such as housing, mental health and substance misuse.
The Drug Education Programme (DEP) is a programme that offers individuals caught in possession of drugs a one-time opportunity to attend a course on the topic of addiction within Avon and Somerset.
Project SHE is a point-of-arrest diversion scheme for women who offend within Avon and Somerset. It aims to provide tailored support for women across multiple areas so that they can avoid returning to the criminal justice system.

This map charts innovative projects happening across the UK’s justice systems. You can search and filter the projects to find things that are most interesting to you.

The Centre for Justice Innovation regularly engages with practitioners to find out what’s exciting them in the world of justice. We want to know what projects practitioners are running that they are most proud of and, just as importantly, the ones a few counties away that are inspiring them.

We are expanding the map so that it not only includes innovations in criminal justice, but also in public family law and the child welfare system. We are keen to hear from practitioners from across the UK about new and exciting initiatives that we can add in all areas. If you would like your work to be included, please get in touch

Before you get in touch, please be aware that in order to be included on our map we require that your project:

  • is led by, delivered in partnership or commissioned by a statutory agency;
  • can demonstrate improved outcomes. In criminal justice, this might be for victims or service-users, or in family justice, for parents and children.
  • is innovative! By that we mean, it is trying something new in your locality or for that particular target group.