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Policy and practice impact
CYCJ calls for pioneering public health response to harmful sexual behaviour
The Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice has been part of a report calling for Scotland to pioneer a public health response to harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people.
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The Expert Group on Preventing Sexual Offending Involving Children and Young People report calls for more preventative activity tailored for boys and young men, given that the majority of adolescents displaying harmful sexual behaviour are male.
As secretariat to the expert group, Fiona Dyer from the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice welcome the publication of the report and the announcement that Scotland is developing a national strategy to tackle sexual offending by children and young people.
Fiona says: “The evidence shows that around 1/3 of sexual offences against children are committed by children and that sexual offending by children is on the increase in Scotland. These statistics are concerning and coordinated support needs to be offered to already stretched services to address this behaviour, support those involved and provide appropriate assessments and interventions. I am confident that, if fully implemented, the recommendations of the expert group will start to address this issue to ensure our children and young people, families and professionals receive the help and support they need.”
New briefing published to support supervisors in adult social care
Dr Trish Hafford-Letchfield, Professor of Social Work in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, has recently published a briefing paper commissioned by RiPfA - Research for Practice in Adults - a national organisation who bring together evidence from research, practitioner expertise and the experience of people accessing services to provide learning and development support for the health and social care sector.
The briefing, titled Leading with compassion: Supervisors’ Briefing, explores what is needed to support the development of compassionate leadership skills in both supervisors and those they directly supervise and work with. The briefing also provides some practical tools to support the development of compassionate leadership skills across organisations.
Alongside the briefing, Dr Hafford-Letchfield also ran a UK webinar hosted by RiPfA to discuss the evidence the briefing was based on.
This Conference was organised by the Scottish Government in partnership with the Regional Studies Association (Scottish Branch), the European Policies Research Centre (University of Strathclyde) and the ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change (University of Edinburgh). The Conference took a fresh, evidence-based look at regional and local development in Scotland and the regional policy responses that are required. The final agenda can be viewed here. The Conference was opened by Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and ViceChancellor of the University of Strathclyde.
Professor John Bachtler, European Policies Research Centre, opened the academic programme by providing an overview of regional inequality in Europe and the contribution of Structural Funds in Scotland between 1975 and 2020. His presentation ‘From cohesion to shared prosperity’ highlighted the lack of institutional stability in Scotland, and the implications of losing European Structural Funds. John discussed the recent trends in regional policy in the UK, namely the impact of the crisis on government interventions and the recent revival of thinking about subnational scales of economic development.
The subsequent Conference programme was structured under four headings: territorial challenges in Scotland and the United Kingdom; UK Government policymaking and shared prosperity in Scotland; the political economy of regional policy in Scotland; and the priorities and instruments of future policy - possibilities and limits.
Trauma Awareness Training in the Railway Industry
Someone will attempt to take their life on the UK rail network every 31 hours. Dr Nicola Cogan and Dr Liza Morton from the School of Psychological Sciences and Health organised this event for train drivers in Scotland. The training was an initial pilot funded by Scottish Union Learning. ASLEF had identified a need to raise awareness of the latest evidence base for supporting people following a traumatic incident. Nicola and Liza, who are both HCPC registered practitioner psychologists, developed the training in collaboration and consultation with the railway industry. This included interviews with ‘experts by experience’, that being, railway drivers that have had lived experience of driving a train and experiencing ‘person under the train’. One of the MSc Research Methods in Psychology students, Hilary Harrison-Millan, also gained valuable work experience having helped with preparing for the event and on the day.
The aim was both to provide drivers with an understanding of trauma, its impact, practical strategies for coping, as well as advice as to when to seek professional help. Nicola and Liza are also in ongoing discussions with a view to looking at developing policies on workplace practices to reduce the likelihood of train drivers going on the develop more severe mental health difficulties following an incident (such as PTSD).
Evaluating the contribution of CYCJ
The Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice has published findings from an innovative evaluation exercise, which it undertook to better understand and strengthen its contribution to youth justice. The evaluation, conducted with independent evaluator Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin and jointly funded with the Scottish Government, took place from June to December 2019.
During this time, Catherine-Rose worked closely with CYCJ to better understand the Centre’s work. This involved conducting interviews with team members and stakeholders, and joining conversations, meetings and activities to assess the impact that CYCJ is having on those who work across youth justice in Scotland and on young people’s experiences/outcomes. Her resulting findings aim to support CYCJ in its mission to improve youth justice and continue to support Scotland to be the best place in the world for children to grow up.
Catherine-Rose’s work was shared at a CYCJ led event on February 6, alongside CYCJ director Claire Lightowler’s ‘Rights Respecting? Scotland’s approach to children in conflict with the law’ report, which was launched at the University of Strathclyde’s Kilbrandon Lecture.
Claire Lightowler and Fiona Dyer, CYCJ’s Director and Deputy Director, commented: “CYCJ has been in existence for the past six years and we were coming to the end of our organisational strategy, as well as Scotland’s national strategy for children and young people involved in offending. The time felt right to reflect on both where we go next as a youth justice sector and as an organization”
CYCJ will now take this work forward by sharing findings with stakeholders and embedding the recommendations across its work plan going forward.
‘The Brokerage’- New Network of Knowledge Brokers launched by SPRE
A new network of knowledge brokers at all of Scotland’s HEIs is being launched by the Scottish Policy and Research Exchange (SPRE), spanning all disciplines and subject areas, to help SPRE find the right expertise to inform policy in a more timely manner. Please consider joining.
Brokers might be active researchers or academic staff with oversight of research or KEI, or they might be knowledge exchange, public engagement, communications or public affairs professionals - or hold any number of other roles. What defines them is that they will have an overview of the research going on in their area and an interest in policy engagement. The service is simply called ‘The Brokerage’, it is free and open to anyone working in Scottish higher education and research.
Members of the network will receive:
A weekly update of all new inquiries launched by the Scottish, UK, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures and governments. Urgent requests for expertise relating to policy in Scotland and notification of other opportunities for researchers to engage with policymakers.
Any knowledge brokers at Strathclyde or in your other networks are welcome to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/ spre.scot/thebrokerage
