In this Issue
|
Celebrating 2016
Amazing, action-packed, inspiring and progressive…just a few of the words to describe our year here at the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice.
We’ve joined a new Institute to create a brighter future for Scotland’s most vulnerable children, hosted well-received events and training - including the national youth justice conference - and published important work on secure care, residential care and offending, loss and bereavement, and Movement and Restriction Conditions. And that’s just for starters!
As we’re feeling festive, we’d like to share some of our 2016 highlights with you. Thank you to everyone who was involved in making these happen, and for your input this year and always. Check out each month for links to news and resources that you might have missed first time round.
We wish you a wonderful and peaceful festive season and all the very best for 2017. |
January
Starting the year off as we meant to go on, we launched the ‘Young Person’s Journey’, an interactive online ‘map’ that guides young people, their families and professionals through each stage of the youth and criminal justice process for people under the age of 18 in Scotland.
We also published ‘Young People at Court in Scotland’, a paper which examines the young people appearing in adult courts in Scotland, and related Government policies, legislation and practices, before making recommendations for a legislative and policy change. This earned a mention in the State of Children's Rights report – see our November update for more details. |
February
We published our case study from CYCJ’s trip to Stockholm in October 2015. The visit took in a tour of ‘Rebecka’, a secure unit for young girls, along with discussions with Swedish secure staff and academics, and analysis of governmental data. There’s also a related blog post.
February’s Info Sheet explains the seven stage process of the Home Detention Curfew (HDC, or ‘tag’ as it is often referred to); a scheme that allows certain prisoners, including 16 and 17 year olds, to serve the final part of their sentence at home or at another suitable address in the community, subject to licence conditions. |
|
|
April
‘Secure Care in Scotland, Looking Ahead’, an event hosted by CYCJ and WithScotland, brought together senior policy, planning, operational, commissioning and practice managers concerned with the future of secure care and meeting the needs of our most vulnerable and high risk young people. CYCJ’s Secure Care National Adviser Alison Gough delivered an update on the progress of the National Secure Care Review, funded by the Scottish Government. View the event’s outputs, summarised using fantastic artwork by the talented Graham Ogilvie, here.
Continuing our theme of sharing and seeking knowledge internationally, CYCJ Associate Stuart Allardyce blogged on viewing youth justice as a global concern, through his work with colleagues from Scotland, Chile and beyond. Our Practice Development Manager Fiona Dyer also reported back from her trip to New York City, where she visited The Centre for Court Innovation, New York University’s Silver School of Social Work and the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research. |
|
|
June
Our national youth justice conference was once again a hit, exploring the theme of ‘Youth Justice in Practice’. Delegates heard from inspirational speakers including Frances Crook, CEO of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Sheriff Alistair Duff, Director Judicial Institute for Scotland and Max Rutherford, Criminal Justice Programme Manager with Barrow Cadbury Trust – and now a CYCJ Associate.
Annabelle Ewing MSP, Minister for Community Safety & Legal Affairs, gave the welcome address and there was once again valued input from young people with lived experience of the criminal justice system. View presentations and podcasts from the conference.
This month saw the annual update of our much loved guide to youth justice in Scotland for 2016, incorporating changes to legislation, policy and research. You can access the full guide, individual sections and an overview here. |
July
CYCJ is proud to be a member of the Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership (CHIP), which brings together those with responsibility for the successful delivery of Scotland’s Children’s Hearings System. Read the CHIP statement of vision and values which reflects the enduring ethos of the Children’s Hearings System.
Following his visit to Scotland, where he met with CYCJ, Kibble Education and Care Centre and HMYOI Polmont, Ken Macintosh, Principal of New Zealand’s Central Regional Health School, was inspired to blog about how what we do here could improve outcomes for New Zealand’s looked after children. |
August
CYCJ and Scottish youth justice received more yet praise from ‘down under’, in a blog by Jackie Anders of Melbourne’s Children’s Court. Jackie visited Scotland as part of her Churchill Fellowship.
Max Rutherford (Criminal Justice Programme Manager, Barrow Cadbury Trust) and David Orr (Senior Practitioner, Edinburgh Young People's Service) were welcome recruits to the CYCJ Associates scheme. Current Associates Stuart Allardyce (Barnado’s Scotland) and Professor Bill Whyte also confirmed their commitment for another year. |
September
‘Who Cares’, STV’s influential documentary about Scotland’s looked after children and young people, broadcast this month, and we were privileged to be a part of this. Five brave young people shared their stories, and Dr Claire Lightowler, Director of CYCJ, was interviewed about youth justice and the care system. Find out more in our blog.
With the one year anniversary of the publication of the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant approaching, Debbie Nolan blogged on how we can make the promises made in the Covenant a reality, and improve outcomes for Scotland’s care leavers. The Covenant was created by an alliance of stakeholders to close the gap between policy and practice for care leavers. It supports the implementation of Part 10 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.
Our IVY (Interventions for Vulnerable Youth) project turned three this month! Since it began, over 30 local authorities have made 145 referrals. Funded by the Scottish Government to meet the needs of high risk young people by promoting best practice in mental health and risk assessment/ management, IVY is a specialised psychology and social work service that supports and contributes to the assessments and interventions detailed in the child’s plan. |
October
We welcomed the First Minister’s pledge to undertake a review of Scotland’s care system with care experienced young people leading the review, following last month’s STV documentary. This month we published two papers which raised important issues for the review. ‘Secure Care in Scotland; Looking Ahead’ summarises the key messages arising from the Secure Care National Project, based at CYCJ. Following concerns about the higher criminalisation rates of looked after children and young people, our report ‘Between a rock and a hard place’ explores the realities of residential child care staff practice, and the factors influencing decision making in responding to offending behaviour.
This month the spotlight was on Movement Restriction Conditions (MRCs), when the Scottish Government approved all seven recommendations made to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on the use of electronic monitoring. CYCJ also published its report exploring how MRCs are being used through the Children’s Hearings System and how they could be better used in the future. To raise further awareness, we asked four volunteers to wear an electronic tag for a week – find out how they got on in our blog.
At our joint seminar with Strathclyde University's School of Social Work and Social Policy, Professor Stephen Case gave an excellent talk on positive youth justice from an English and Welsh perspective – ahead of the Charlie Taylor report being published. He stressed the importance of all youth justice models starting with the approach of ‘children first, offenders second’. Watch Professor Case presenting on positive youth justice. You can also read his blogs for us on negative and positive youth justice. |
November
The chance for our work to have a greater impact on young lives came when we joined the newly launched Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures, a joint venture between CELCIS (the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland), the University of Strathclyde and ourselves. This brings together existing expertise to encourage collaboration and innovative thinking about how to create the best environments, systems and support to enable children and young people to reach their full potential. Find out more.
We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Childcare and Early Years, Mark McDonald MSP, and the Scottish Government’s Director of Children and Families, Helen Cameron, to CYCJ and our IVY service, to showcase the work we are doing and explore youth justice issues. Mr McDonald was very impressed, describing the discussions as “interesting and valuable”.
CYCJ was praised at the launch of the publication of the State of Children's Rights report which provides a non-government perspective on the extent to which children in Scotland are able to enjoy the human rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and other international treaties. Katie Burke, an ex-member of the Youth Parliament, said that in coordinating the UNCRC's visit to Scotland, a highlight was visiting CYCJ to hear the experiences of young people involved in the justice system.
During Children’s Grief Awareness Week UK, we published our report about research into the impact of loss and bereavement on young males in HMYOI Polmont, conducted with the University of Strathclyde’s School of Social Work and Social Policy. We also held a conference on working with loss and bereavement in young people. Podcasts and slides can be accessed on our website. |
December
It was a triumphant conclusion to 2016, when the decision to raise the age of criminal responsibility from eight to 12 was announced by the Minister for Childcare and Early Years on December 1. This decision was well received by CYCJ, as we’ve long been campaigning for the age to be raised, and contributed to the consultation process with our official response and participation on the Advisory Board.
Finally, we published a briefing paper bringing together the key messages and issues arising from our work over the past three years, and how we can move forward. Whilst we’re proud of what has been achieved, we recognise that there is still a lot of work to be done together. We look forward to continuing this in 2017!
|
Coming up in 2017...
On February 2, we’ll be holding our free Managing and Responding to High Risk in Young People conference at the University of Strathclyde. Find out more and book your place. |
|
