Restorative practices are a set of values and skills that professionals can use during their day-to-day interactions with the people for whom they deliver services.2 They can be applied across the ‘human services’,3 including in criminal justice agencies such as policing and prisons, social work, schools and universities, among other settings. Professionals working in these services have significant discretion to decide how to allocate benefits and sanctions on behalf of the State, and how they interact with the people over whom they have authority, and for whose welfare they are responsible.4 Advocates argue that restorative values and skills can help professionals orient their practices towards building and maintaining positive relationships, ensuring people feel treated fairly and involved in decisions, and addressing and repairing harm and resolving conflict constructively.