Mapping Innovation

We work to promote the best of Britain’s innovative justice practice.
Funded by Calderdale Council, Positive Choices was founded in 2017. It is a single point of access to support and advice during pregnancy and early years for care experienced and other vulnerable young people.
The Glasgow Youth Court is a judicially led problem solving court for 16–24-year-olds, functioning within the Glasgow Sheriff Court.
We spoke to Michael O’Connor, Swindon’s Youth and Community Transformation Lead, about their Child First approach to Youth Justice and identity development for desistance model.
Youth Court Solutions (YCS) is an independent advice and support service based in Wellingborough Magistrates Court, delivering to the whole county youth cohort once every fortnight.
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.
Together for Childhood is a long-term project that uses a place-based approach in four communities to prevent child abuse.
Agnes Wootton, Re-Frame Service Manager, tells us about their current RCT and the future of this early intervention, youth diversion programme.
“Not just ring champions, but life champions.”
Suffolk Positive Futures (SPF) provides outreach sports sessions as interventions to directly engage with young people within troubled communities.
Lifelong Links is a programme developed by Family Rights Group to connect young people in care to a support network of people who are important to them.
Family Safeguarding is a strengths-based, whole-family approach to child protection. It brings together all professionals working with a family in one multi-disciplinary team with the goal of keeping more children safely at home with their families.
Stockport’s Supporting Families Employment Advisers, provide support with training, education and employment. They also accept referrals from the local Family Drug and Alcohol Court, providing holistic multi-agency support via the wider Supporting Families framework.
This multi-agency, early intervention project, supports the well-being of vulnerable and expectant parents. The project aims to break the links between early disadvantages - social and health inequalities - and poor future outcomes for families by providing wide-ranging support.
For Baby’s Sake is an innovative programme which takes a whole family approach to breaking the cycle of domestic abuse and childhood trauma for expectant parents and babies alike.
This innovative and intensive programme supports parents, mothers and fathers, who have had children removed from their care in the past and are at risk of recurrent care proceedings.
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.
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.
Parenting Apart Programme (PAP), supports separated and divorced parents understand the harm and impact of entrenched conflict by helping parents to see separation through the eyes of their children.
Out-of-court reviews of Youth Rehabilitation Orders provide an opportunity for magistrates to encourage and support children on YROs and promotes a collaborative approach between the youth offending service and magistracy.
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.
The Triage scheme provides diversionary out of court interventions to young people that are tailored to their needs and interests and includes continued support for the young person.
The Best Services Trial is an ongoing trial of the New Orleans Intervention Model which aims to improve the long-term mental health and placement stability of infants in foster or kinship care through clinical intervention.
Love Barrow Families helps local families by supporting parents to address their underlying problems with the aim of reducing the numbers of children entering the care system.
FDAC is a therapeutic, problem-solving court model which aims to provide parents with intensive support to help them to address their drug and alcohol issues, and reduce the numbers of children in care.
NBFCIO is a charity in Stockport that works with parents who are involved with children’s services but have underlying issues. By addressing and building emotional resistance through the Trauma-Informed Programme, parents are able to meet their children’s needs.
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.
The Whole System Approach (WSA) uses an early intervention approach to divert young people away from the criminal justice system and invites agencies to work together to achieve better outcomes.
Aberdeen Problem-Solving Approach (PSA) seeks to reduce the use of short custodial sentences by providing disposals to women and young men with complex needs and multiple previous convictions.
LYFT has created a unified and localised service that delivers an integrative home/community-based model of family therapy to children and young people between 11-18 years and their families.
REACH provides intensive multidisciplinary support to families with children who are experiencing multiple complex needs.
A Structured Deferred Sentence (SDS) is an interim disposal option established at the Hamilton and Lanark Sheriff Courts for 16-21 year olds who are not suitable for remittance back to the Children’s Hearings System.
Break4Change is a programme designed to help parents/carers and children who are involved in Child-to-Parent Abuse and aims to reduce parents’ sense of isolation and the young person’s feelings of entitlement.
The IVY Project uses a multi-disciplinary approach to provide risk formulation, assessment and intervention for young people who present with complex needs and high risk, violent behaviour.
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.
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.
Project Future is a coproduced holistic well-being and mental health service that is community-based and works with young people and families who have experience in the criminal justice system (CJS).
This youth justice partnership has been working with practitioners from the criminal justice system to pioneer participatory research with young people in 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.