Specialised Trainings

Training of Trainers—Restorative Practices: Facilitator Skills Training



Steps to Trainer Certification and Licensure

Many people have asked about becoming restorative conferencing and practices trainers to provide the Restorative Practices: Facilitator Skills Training we deliver in the UK and use our educational and training materials. As a non-profit organisation, we know that we must involve a wide range of individuals and organisations with us in order to accomplish our mission to spread the concept of conferencing and restorative practices, while maintaining high standards of quality.
This five-day course runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Cost is £1350 per person for this ‘fully residential’ course held at our own Todmorden IIRP Training Centre.

View our current training schedule here.

Contact us for more information or to book a workshop/training.




We expect restorative conferencing and practices trainers to go through a number of steps:

  • We expect prospective trainers to have attended our IIRP UK 3-day ‘Standard’ Restorative Practices: Facilitator Skills Training and preferably our ‘Advanced’ day too.
  • We expect trainers to have facilitated restorative conferences and Practices before they come to the Training of Trainers (TOT).
  • We require that a prospective trainer participate in our IIRP UK 5-day TOT, which is a small-group training for which we charge a fee.
  • To complete certification, we expect the trainer to be observed, supervised and approved by an IIRP trainer when doing his or her first trainings.
  • In summary, the steps involved in becoming a trainer would include participating in a facilitator training, facilitating a number of conferences, completing the TOT, being observed and certified as trainers, and working out an agreement with IIRP UK to provide training.




We base our approach to certification on our commitment to:

  1. producing high-quality trainings and educational materials. We believe we can best influence restorative conferencing and practices by maintaining quality. We believe our trainers, trainings, books, videos, other educational materials and ongoing technical support are of the highest standard.
  2. spreading the message without regard to profit. At this point we have spent hundreds of thousands more than we have received in revenue to foster restorative conferencing and practices. Ultimately, of course, we must bring in enough revenue to pay off some of that investment and sustain our efforts in the future.



For each student attending a facilitator training you deliver as a certified trainer, you must purchase our two set pre-reads: Real Justice by Ted Wachtel and The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr plus a Conferencing Handbook training manual and Student Course Workbook for use on the course. The sale of the these books is how we will sustain our efforts. The current price is £50 per student for all four books. There is also an administrative fee for each course delivered which is currently £300 and covers loan of training materials, admin costs, TNT return courier of training box and materials, marking of ‘IIRP UK Certificate of Learning’ test papers and all certificates.

For each certified trainer, IIRP UK will assist in defining target groups and a defined geographic area and limit the certified trainer to those groups and areas in a written agreement.

All of our costs must be covered by the fee charged for each trainee’s books and the admin fee. This fee, of course, is not based on just the cost of books—but includes enough revenue to sustain all of our efforts.

The trainer certification application spells out the terms for certification. The terms are very liberal. People can back out anytime they want, with no risk beyond their time invested and a modest financial outlay. The terms are designed to be fair to both parties and to maintain quality and a clear understanding of both parties’ obligations to one another.

We trust that in this spirit, as a non-profit organisation, we will be able to develop an international network of certified restorative conferencing and practices trainers who have good educational resources at their disposal, at a cost that is affordable.