Welcome

If you work with children who are involved in serious offences, you’ll be familiar with the uncertainty, as a professional, about what you can do to manage and reduce risk and confusion in how you meaningfully engage with the young person during this time, while the allegations remain untested in law.

CYCJ has produced a paper for professionals that provides guidance on defendable and ethical practice when working with young people in these kinds of situations. Ethical Decision Making with Children and Young People involved with Offending Behaviour was written by CYCJ Associate Stuart Allardyce, Children’s Service’s Manager at Barnado’s, and SCRA’s Jill McAfee. In this month’s Information Sheet, Stuart summarises the key messages of the paper. Access it here. 

This month we’re pleased to welcome Brian McClafferty, Donna McEwan, Pamela Morrison and Carole Murphy to our practice development team. In addition, we welcome back Charlotte Morris (Communications Officer) and Nina Vaswani (Research Fellow) from maternity leave. Carole Dearie re-joined the Good Shepherd following her secondment with CYCJ and we also said goodbye to Claire Francis, who provided maternity cover for comms and admin. We wish both Carole and Claire the very best for the future, and thank them for their contribution to the team.

The outcomes from our recent ‘Secure Care in Scotland, Looking Ahead’ event are now available online. This valuable event brought together professionals concerned with the future of secure care and meeting the needs of our most vulnerable and high risk young people. Check out the fantastic artwork by artist Graham Ogilvie who captured the key points visually - we're featuring one of his illustrations in this month's banner image.

We’re pleased to be offering Dyadic Developmental Practice and Psychotherapy (DDP) training at CYCJ, at a cost of £400 for a four day course on June 8th, 9th, 23rd and 24th. There are only a few places left – so apply now to ensure you don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity. Email cycj@strath.ac.uk with your details.

Do you know a young person aged between 12 and 17 in care, with involvement in offending, who might be interested in taking part in our Picture of Loss project? We’re working with young people to explore their experiences of loss and bereavement, using photography, storyboards and photo-interviewing techniques. To find out more, click here. Contact nina.vaswani@strath.ac.uk if you think you know someone who’d be interested in being involved. And please do spread the word amongst your contacts.

Finally, be sure not to miss part two of Fiona Dyer’s New York youth justice journey in our blog!

Enjoy reading, and make sure to let us know about your news, views and stories.

Claire Lightowler
CYCJ Director
 

Are you ready to Act?

This August, the significant provisions in the Named Person and Child’s Plan sections of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 are expected to commence. Is your organisation ready? Can we help? Check out our free services and what we offer, and please get in touch if you think we can work together. We are particularly interested in speaking to pastoral care staff in secondary schools.

Implementation groups - update

The third meeting of the Improving Life Chances Implementation Group was held on April 25. This continued the development of the workplan and shared information about areas of activity and key themes under the six priority areas covered by this group. Presentations were given by: Carole Dearie (CYCJ) on the work of the Vulnerable Girls and Young Women Champions Group; Alan McCloskey (Victim Support Scotland) on the work of the previous Victims and Community Confidence group; and Alison Gough (CYCJ) on the work of the National Secure Care Project. Achievements so far include:

• The development of a statistics/research overview paper covering the priority themes;
• Contributing to the National Guidance Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2 to ensure the needs of young people at risk of or involved in offending behaviour are reflected in this policy guidance on school exclusion;
• Collating case study information on school exclusion and the development of a key themes document;
• The establishment of the Opportunities for All subgroup to identify ongoing work in this area and the unique contribution that this group can make

Give your feedback on the young person's journey

In January, CYCJ launched the Youth and Criminal Justice in Scotland: the young person’s journey online resource that describes the stages in the youth and criminal justice process for under 18s in Scotland. We have committed to annually updating this resource and to help us do so, we are very keen to hear any feedback on the resource from those who have used it. We are particularly interested to find out:

• How have you used the resource?
• Does the resource cover the key areas of practice and stages in a young person’s journey through the youth and criminal justice system?
• Is the information contained within the resource useful?
• Have you had any issues using the resource?

Please send any feedback to deborah.nolan@strath.ac.uk by June 21.

Keeping you informed of the figures

We have been publishing monthly averages of the number of young people in secure care and custody since December 2015. The average number of young people in custody in April 2016 was:
 

Date	Under 16	Untried under 16	Convicted Male U18	Convicted Female U18	Untried Male U18	Untried Female U18	Convicted Awaiting Sentence U18	Total average
April 2016	0	0	34	2	32	0	6	74
March 2016	0	0	31	1	28	1	6	67

 
During April there were on average 82 young people in secure care, an average of nine of whom were sentenced. This compares with 83 and 10 respectively during March 2016. Next month we will provide a graph of the average figures for the previous six months. For more details, please contact deborah.nolan@strath.ac.uk.

Research review

The care system and criminalisation – join our workshop

CYCJ recently undertook research across two Scottish local authorities, exploring the criminalisation of children and young people accommodated in the care system, and the perceptions and practice among residential staff.

Join our workshop where we will present our findings and national and local recommendations, drawing upon: statistical data on the number of police incidents; the policies informing practice, guidance and support for staff; and interviews with residential staff on the decision making aspects of their job when dealing with dangerous or criminal behaviour. Delegates will also have the opportunity to relate the research to their own work and experiences. Email nina.vaswasni@strath.ac.uk to find out more.

Kristina Moodie and Debbie Nolan will present initial findings from the ‘Criminalisation of Looked After Children’ study at the SIRCC conference this June.

Events and training

Dyadic Developmental Practice and Psychotherapy (DDP): Level One Training
Wednesday 8 June and Thursday 9 June, Thursday 23 June and Friday 24 June  
£400 per place

This introductory four day training course is relevant to professionals who have experience in communicating with and working therapeutically with children and young people and their families. Find out more. To apply, please email ivy-admin@strath.ac.uk with your contact details.

Thank you to everyone who applied to attend the National Youth Justice Conference 2016. All successful applicants should now have been notified of their place.  For those unable to attend the event this year, you can follow the action using the #YJconf16 hashtag, and resources from the conference will be made available on the CYCJ website following the event.
 
Do you work with vulnerable and high risk girls? There are now 52 trainers in Scotland who have been trained to deliver the Improving Practice for Girls Programme, representing various disciplines across Scotland.  If you are interested in receiving this training, please click here to gain access to a list of trainers who will provide you with more information on the programme and availability.   

CYCJ will be running an ASSET training for trainers course on Monday, June 27, from 10am to 4pm. To register your interest, please email stewart.simpson@strath.ac.uk. Please note that lunch will not be provided.

The Risk Assessment Users group will meet for the first time on Thursday, June 30, 10-1pm. This was developed to support practitioners using risk assessment tools as part of core business. The group will meet every three months and look at themes such as identifying risk factors, work with different risk factors and scenario planning. Places are still available - email cycj@strath.ac.uk if you are interested in attending.

May has been another busy month for the CYCJ roadshows. We have undertaken roadshows with Managers at the Good Shepherd Centre to support the implementation of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014  and with staff from across sectors in Midlothian Council at their Children and Families Development Day focused on Preventing Offending Getting it right for children and young people and restorative justice. If you are interested in us coming to provide a roadshow in your organisation, please get in touch!

Got events you’d like to promote? Get in touch with us at cycj@strath.ac.uk, together with a description of the event, links to further information and any other relevant details.

News and views

Should prison be used as a moral crusade? Frances Crook, CEO of the Howard League (and keynote speaker at this year’s National Youth Justice Conference) debates this question in her latest blog post, following Michael Gove’s speech to prison governors, focusing on the moral mission of prisons to change people’s lives. Read it here. Do you agree? Share your views on Twitter or on our Facebook page.
 
"We are not listened to; the majority don't want to listen.” Young people in the youth justice system view it as a disempowering experience, according to a report by Clinks in collaboration with Peer Power and Beyond Youth Custody. Read it here.

The proportion of people being reconvicted within 12 months has reached the lowest level in 17 years. The recently published Reconviction Rates in Scotland 2013-14 also shows a drop in the average number of times a person reoffends.

Mental Health Awareness Week took place this month. To find out more about what it’s really like to be a young person living with mental health issues and the aftermath of sexual exploitation, read this blog by Safe and Sound.

You said...we did

At the recent Skills Development Scotland inputs on Youth and Criminal Justice in Scotland: the young person’s journey, the issue of disclosure (or most specifically the uncertainties surrounding disclosure of criminal records) were again highlighted. As a result, we have chosen this as our topic for this month’s Information Sheet.

Stakeholder Spotlight

The Howard League

Frances Crook, the Chief Executive of the Howard League, will be the keynote speaker at the National Youth Justice Conference on June 15^th. This month’s Spotlight focuses on the organisation behind the woman.

The Howard League for Penal Reform is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.

They work with Parliament and the media, with criminal justice professionals, students and members of the public, influencing debate and forcing through meaningful change to create safer communities.

The Howard League campaigns on a wide range of issues, including short term prison sentences, real work in prison, children in prison and community sentences. It is entirely independent of the government and is funded by voluntary donations and membership subscriptions. Find out more.

Did you know...?
The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the UK. It was established in 1866 and is named after John Howard, one of the first prison reformers.