Published works

In October 2016, the Policies Institutions and Governance of Natural Hazards research project released a discussion paper on ‘Learning for emergency services, looking for a new approach’. As a result of feedback on that paper a forum was held to discuss the use of restorative practices in post event inquiries.
This forum, held at the Universtiy of Newcastle, identified that:

Communities and people need to be at the centre of the process. Those affected need to be involved in designing the process and taking responsibilities for implementing the learning. In traditional inquiries the inquiry decides what is important, makes meaning from the evidence and hands down its recommendations to others. It does not have responsibility to implement the recommendations and the findings may not be about what matters to those involved.

This report summarises the presentations and their findings to stimulate agencies and governments to think about alternative ways to conduct post event inquiries.