Restorative Practice in Children’s Social Care: Building Relationships and Repairing Harm

Overview

Restorative practice provides a relationship-based approach to responding to conflict, challenging behaviour, harm, and relationship breakdown. Rather than focusing primarily on blame, punishment, or consequences, restorative approaches encourage children, young people, and adults to understand what has happened, recognise its impact, take responsibility where appropriate, and participate in repairing relationships and moving forward.

📅 Date & Time: 11th September, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
📍 Live Online via Teams
📢 Early Bird Price: £54 (VAT included) – Register 2+ weeks before
🎟️ Standard Price: £74 (VAT included) – Group Discount available for groups of 5+

This practical course introduces the principles of restorative practice and explores how they can be applied across children’s social care. Participants will consider how restorative approaches can strengthen relationships, improve communication, reduce conflict, and create environments where children and young people feel heard, respected, and involved in resolving difficulties.

The course emphasises that restorative practice is not simply a technique used after an incident. It is an approach to relationships, communication, and organisational culture that can influence everyday interactions between children, young people, practitioners, carers, and professionals.

Course Content

The course explores the principles, values, and practical application of restorative practice within children’s social care.

Participants will examine the difference between punitive, problem-solving, and restorative responses to behaviour and conflict, considering how different approaches can influence relationships, accountability, and future behaviour.

Key areas include:

• Understanding restorative practice and its underlying principles.
• Moving from blame and punishment towards accountability and repair.
• Understanding behaviour within the context of relationships and unmet needs.
• Exploring harm from the perspectives of everyone affected.
• Using restorative questions and conversations.
• Supporting children and young people to reflect on actions and consequences.
• Encouraging meaningful responsibility without shame or labelling.
• Repairing relationships following conflict or incidents.
• Using restorative approaches proactively rather than only after something has gone wrong.
• Understanding when restorative interventions may or may not be appropriate.
• Developing restorative cultures within teams and services.

The session also considers how restorative practice can complement existing approaches to safeguarding, behaviour support, trauma-informed practice, and relationship-based work.

Practice Application

The course has a strong practical focus, helping participants develop approaches that can be used within everyday interactions with children and young people.

Through scenarios, discussion, and practical exercises, participants will explore how to:

• Use restorative questions to understand what has happened.
• Help children and young people consider who has been affected and how.
• Facilitate conversations following conflict or relationship breakdown.
• Respond to challenging behaviour without immediately relying on punitive consequences.
• Support children and young people to take meaningful responsibility for their actions.
• Identify realistic ways of repairing harm and rebuilding relationships.
• Use restorative conversations between children, young people, staff, and carers.
• Manage disagreement while maintaining professional relationships.
• Adapt restorative approaches according to individual needs, communication abilities, and circumstances.
• Incorporate restorative thinking into key working, supervision, team discussions, and incident reviews.

Participants will also consider situations where restorative conversations may be inappropriate, unsafe, or require additional planning and professional judgement.

Regulatory and Professional Context

Restorative practice aligns with wider expectations across children’s social care for relationship-based, child-centred, proportionate, and rights-respecting practice.

The course considers how restorative approaches can support expectations within the regulatory frameworks governing Children’s Homes, Supported Accommodation, and Fostering Services, while recognising the different requirements and responsibilities within each setting.

Participants will explore connections with safeguarding, positive relationships, behaviour support, children’s participation, professional curiosity, risk management, and the promotion of positive outcomes.

The course also considers the importance of avoiding responses that unnecessarily punish, stigmatise, or criminalise children and young people, particularly where behaviour may be connected to trauma, adversity, exploitation, emotional distress, or previous experiences of relationships.

Restorative practice does not replace safeguarding procedures, risk management, professional accountability, or appropriate consequences. Instead, it provides an additional framework through which professionals can respond to harm while maintaining safety, accountability, relationships, and opportunities for learning.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the principles and values underpinning restorative practice.
• Distinguish between punitive and restorative responses to behaviour and conflict.
• Recognise the importance of relationships in preventing and responding to difficulties.
• Use restorative questions and conversations confidently in everyday practice.
• Support children and young people to understand the impact of their actions.
• Promote accountability without relying on blame, shame, or unnecessary punishment.
• Facilitate opportunities to repair harm and rebuild relationships.
• Recognise when restorative interventions may not be appropriate or require additional safeguards.
• Integrate restorative approaches with safeguarding, trauma-informed, and relationship-based practice.
• Contribute to the development of a more restorative culture within their team or service.

Intended Audience

This course is suitable for professionals and carers working with children and young people across children’s social care. It is particularly relevant for Residential Childcare Practitioners, Supported Accommodation Practitioners, Foster Carers, Social Workers, Supervising Social Workers, Key Workers, Team Leaders, Deputy Managers, Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals, Nominated Individuals, and other professionals involved in supporting children and young people.

The course will be particularly valuable for services seeking to strengthen relationship-based practice, improve responses to conflict and challenging behaviour, reduce reliance on punitive approaches, and develop a more restorative organisational culture.

Course Facilitator

Silvia Quijada has worked as a Youth Justice Officer in South London, supporting children and young people presenting with significant risks and complex needs. Her practice experience includes restorative justice, trauma-informed approaches, supporting the development of prosocial identities, and working with children, young people, and families affected by adversity and harm.

Alongside her practice background, Silvia is a Lecturer in Criminal Justice at Nottingham Trent University and has a strong academic background in Criminology, including postgraduate study in Neurocriminology. Her research interests include the application of neuroscientific perspectives to restorative practice within Youth Justice, as well as children’s experiences of domestic abuse, resilience, agency, victimisation, and the criminal justice system.

Silvia brings together practice, youth justice experience, restorative justice expertise, and academic research to help professionals understand both the principles and practical application of restorative approaches. Her training supports practitioners to use restorative conversations and interventions in ways that promote accountability, repair harm, rebuild relationships, and reduce unnecessary criminalisation of children and young people.

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