Photo credit: Highland Community Justice Partnership

In September 2025 I was delighted to be invited to speak at the Exploring a Highland Model for Restorative Justice seminar in Inverness, Scotland.

I spoke about the development of a restorative justice service in a rural and island area. My presentation was based on the development of Space2face, the restorative practices and arts charity I co-founded. Other speakers were Gael Cochrane and Hannah Dickson from Community Justice Scotland, and Lauren Emmerson from the Children and Young People's Centre for Justice, based at Strathclude University, who spoke about different aspects of the development of restorative justice in Scotland. To my surprise, it was a sell out event!

I was also excited that Geese Theatre Company were participating in the event - it has long been a dream of mine to see them perform. Their performance, based on the preparation that surrounds a meeting between someone who has caused harm (the perperator) and the person who has been harmed (the victim), was profound and moving.

There is currently no statutory provision or funding for restorative justice in Scotland. The Scottish Government produced an action plan in 2018 for the roll out of restorative justice services across Scotland by 2023. This has not happened although there are quarterly progress reports produced by Community Justice Scotland (CJS) with restorative justice test cases commissioned by CJS being delivered to inform Scottish Government policy. Space2face is proud to be delivering some of these test cases.