KW Consultancy and Training Ltd

KW Consultancy & Training Ltd. uses highly skilled and motivated trainers from the public, private and voluntary sectors to act as co-trainers to ensure that the training provides a balanced, impartial overview of restorative processes that is appropriate for all organisations and their staff teams working in the context of dispute and conflict resolution. The training does not show favour to any method but, instead, encourages students, when trained, to fit the services provided to the needs of the client(s).

Ken Webster, Managing Director and Principle Trainer

Ken was a police officer for 30 years and retired from Thames Valley Police in May 2000 in the rank of Inspector. Working with colleagues, Ken was instrumental in the introduction and development of the highly renowned Milton Keynes Retail Theft Initiative. This initiative played a significant part in the introduction of Restorative Justice throughout Thames Valley.

Whilst serving as a police officer, he gained over 3 years' experience of managing a Home Office funded, innovative multi-agency youth crime reduction project that included victim-offender mediation and restorative conferencing.

As part of the national training team contracted by the Youth Offending Team for England and Wales, Ken assisted in the management and delivery of the Offending Team staff in England and Wales in 2000.

As an independent consultant and trainer he has continued to provide the same high quality training in Scotland the South East of England and in Northern Ireland to support the Criminal Justice Review and restructuring of the police service in the Province following the Patten Review. The training in Northern Ireland was particularly challenging and stimulating in that the courses brought together members of the police, probation and social services, educationalists and community representatives. What was a particular success was the way that those community representatives and police officers were able to develop, through the training, a better understanding of each other's perspectives in areas in which there were particular tensions.

Ken is a trained facilitator of Restorative Conferencing and Victim/Offender Mediation for crimes of severe violence.

A report published by the Northern Ireland Office commented on his training as follows: "Evaluations of the training were, without exception, highly positive. It was described as exhausting, enjoyable, great benefit, practical, participative, realistic, safe, honest, "the best course I've been on". The trainers came from outside the police and this helped students to speak freely about their anxieties".

In October 2002, Ken successfully completed a Restorative Approaches in Schools Trainers' Course run by Thames Valley Police and is licensed by them to train in that context.

Ken is a member of the informal team drawn together by the Home Office to take all aspects of accreditation of restorative justice trainers and training forward.

Ken is a member of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice and is currently chair of that Forum's Practice and Training committee. He has spoken on Restorative Justice at a number of international events both in Europe and in the USA, most recently the highly acclaimed "Humanizing Criminal Justice" series of seminars in Nyack Count New York State, USA, partly sponsored by the international Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Sue is the Projects Manager for Medway Mediation in Kent and provides all the training needs for the service there. Sue is an experienced community and victim-offender mediator and has facilitated restorative conferences under the Intensive Support and Supervision Programme piloted in Kent. She also has considerable experience in facilitating family group conferences in the context of family welfare and restorative conferencing in the context of offending behaviour by young people.

In January 1996, Sue established the services provided by Medway Mediation to provide conflict resolution for disputes between neighbours. The service currently deals with 130 referrals per year and was successful in gaining charitable company status.

Sue has since developed the mediation service to provide victim-offender mediation, peer mediation, restorative conferencing to challenge inappropriate behaviour and classroom disruption in schools and family group conferencing. Sue provides day-to-day management, support and supervision for 4 full time members of staff and 36 volunteer mediators.

In 1997, Sue became a trainer in community mediation skills and now delivers the Open College Network-approved course in community mediation. In 1999 she became a trainer in peer mediation in both the senior and junior schools context and a trainer in victim-offender mediation.

Sue has acted as co-trainer with Ken Webster on many occasions in the particularly challenging environment of Northern Ireland, having trained a total of 112 facilitators there from all the statutory agencies, representatives of the voluntary sector and community members. Her outstanding communication skills has enabled her to relate extremely effectively with everyone she comes into contact with and her obvious belief and considerable experience in the restorative processes has won over many sceptics.

In October 2002, Sue successfully completed a Restorative Approaches in Schools Trainers' Course run by Thames Valley Police and is licensed by them to train in that context.

Richard was a police officer for 30 years with Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, retiring in 2001 in the rank of Inspector. In respect of training qualifications, Richard holds the Police Trainers' Certificate and was a law trainer at a District Police Training School. Latterly he was responsible for curriculum design for the Detective Training Course at Devon and Cornwall Constabulary's Force Training Centre at Middlemoor, Exeter.

During the last 3 years of his police service, Richard was the Inspector in charge of the Criminal Justice Division taking the lead on behalf of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary on all aspects of youth justice and was the Police Liaison Officer with responsibility for overseeing the establishment of the Youth Offending Teams locally.

On his retirement in 2001, Richard was appointed the Youth Justice Development Officer for Devon and Cornwall Constabulary with specific responsibility for the formulation of policy on youth justice and development of restorative principles within the force. This role also included management of a restorative justice pilot scheme incorporating restorative justice into the work of the Police Youth Affairs Officers supported by Devon Local Education Authority and working in 5 Secondary Schools within the area.

In October 2002, Richard successfully completed a Restorative Approaches in Schools Trainers' Course run by Thames Valley Police and is licensed by them to train in that context.

Richard resigned the post of Youth Justice Development Officer in April 2003 to develop his skills and experience as a trainer in the field of restorative justice. As a freelance restorative justice trainer, Richard has provided training for Youth Affairs Officers for Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, training for the first tranche of Safer Schools Partnership Officers in London and Birmingham and has trained with Ken Webster in Glasgow, Northern Ireland and Bromley. He is familiar with and has administered the accreditation process for the training through the Open College Network.

Martin has practised within the mainstream criminal justice system for 26 years and is an experienced trainer. For much of that time his work has been within the Probation setting, and has involved practice in a number of community locations as well as the main custodial establishments. A feature of his work within the prison environment was the resettlement of long term and life sentence paramilitary prisoners.

More recently Martin has specialised in a number of specific areas of practice. These have included Mediation, Alternatives to Violence project work, and Restorative Justice. Since the mid 1980's Martin has been closely associated with the development of Mediation practice in Northern Ireland. In 1992 he was the central figure in the establishment of what later became the Mediation Network for Northern Ireland (M.N.N.I.). M.N.N.I has become a highly respected, leading edge agency within Northern Ireland. Its mission since 1992 has been to bring the practice of Mediation to bear on the conflict within the province: in short a core belief of the agency is that Mediation can transform how we view conflict and how we manage it.

From 1994, Martin has been working to promote understanding of the philosophy and practice of Restorative Justice within the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice System. His special focus has been in the area of Victim Offender Mediation and particularly Family Group Conferencing (F.G.C.) with young offenders.

In April 1998, Martin facilitated the first F.G.C. within a criminal justice setting in Ireland (North or South). Since that time he has facilitated further F.G.C.s with young offenders: offences have ranged from assault to burglaries to hoax bomb warnings. Martin has also coordinated and delivered training for staff within the Probation and wider Criminal Justice setting.

During his time with M.N.N.I. Martin delivered a Community Awareness Training programme for police recruits within the province. This work has opened the way for a more fundamental reassessment by the police command of how operational staff link to a divided community.

Mark is a trained mediator and restorative conferencing facilitator. His current role is as the project manager and trainer for the AMENDS project in Enfield, part of the services to prevent offending by children and young people provided by Enfield Youth Offending Team. His activities in respect of that post include developing and implementing a recruitment strategy for volunteer mediators, providing training for, managing and supervising those mediators' work as well as undertaking mediation work as necessary. His training activities have included training to Referral Order panellists.