E-bulletin, Issue 11, March 2014.

Have you spotted something different about CYCJ?  This month we unveiled our new logo, which is intended to represent our three key work strands: practice development, research and knowledge exchange. This represents a step towards creating a distinctive identity for CYCJ as an impartial national centre supporting, developing and improving youth and criminal justice.

We were delighted to be part of the Social Services Expo this month which took place in Edinburgh to celebrate World Social Work Day on March 18.  To those who visited the CYCJ stall and had a chat with the team, many thanks for sharing your thoughts, views and ideas with us.  A big hello in particular to those who signed up to our mailing list and are receiving this bulletin for the first time – keep in touch!  

This month we have published new research about the bereavement experiences of young men in custody. Our researcher, Nina Vaswani, found that almost all young men sentenced to Polmont had experienced bereavement, and that experiences of traumatic and multiple deaths were high.

This week we’ll be saying a fond farewell to Stuart Allardyce who has been on secondment with us from Barnardo’s.  He has made a fantastic contribution, particularly progressing practice relating to young people displaying sexually harmful behaviours.  It’s not quite goodbye though, as Stuart will continue to work with us on the IVY project (note the new name for the managing high risk mental health youth project – for obvious reasons!). We’d like to thank him for all his hard work and contributions to CYCJ, and wish him the very best for his future career.

We’re looking to recruit a National Development Consultant to join our team. This is a full-time secondment for someone with expertise in the area of working with vulnerable girls and young women. Click here for more information – and please circulate to any interested parties.

Looking to next month…Stephanie Smith and Leanne Gregory will be representing CYCJ at the Howard League ‘Re-imagining Youth Justice’ conference.  This is a highly prestigious conference, and I’m proud that we will be a part of it.

Finally, seven members of our team (that's half of us!) are preparing to demonstrate their commitment to improving the lives of young people…by completing a 10k run! Team CYCJ will be tackling the Balfron 10k next month, to raise funds for Aberlour, Scotland’s children’s charity. We’d be delighted if you could make a donation – it will be going to an excellent cause.  

As always, I hope that you will enjoy reading our news, and welcome any feedback you may have. Please get in touch via cycj@strath.ac.uk.

Claire Lightowler
CYCJ Director

The 2014 National Youth Justice Conference, taking place this June in Dundee, is now open for registration.

Highlights of the two day conference include an opening address by Aileen Campbell, Minister for Children and Young People, choral performance and dinner and disco, plus a wide choice of workshops and networking opportunities. Find out more.

Please note that places are not guaranteed – demand is expected to be very high and unfortunately we will not be able to offer everyone who has applied a place.

We are unable to book or fund accommodation for delegates. Places are available in the West Park Conference Centre at a reasonable rate, and there is a good choice of hotels in Dundee.

The deadline for applications is April 28. We will try and contact all successful applicants during the following week.

CYCJ is looking to recruit a National Development Consultant to join the Youth Justice National Development Team. The post is a full-time secondment for someone with expertise in the area of working with vulnerable girls and young women.

This post will join the Youth Justice National Development Team within CYCJ to provide a national role on the development of youth justice practice and knowledge exchange.

Find out more and apply.  Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested.

The CYCJ team are saying goodbye to Stuart Allardyce, who will be leaving this month to focus on his work with Barnado’s Scotland.

Since his secondment to the then Criminal Justice Social Work Centre four years ago, Stuart has been a valuable member of the practice team, leading on vital work with young people involved in sexual offending. In his role as a Barnado’s manager, he works with young people who display sexually harmful behaviour and have been affected by sexual abuse. He is also Chair of NOTA Scotland (National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers).

Stuart will continue to contribute to CYCJ on a consultancy basis with the IVY (Interventions for Vulnerable Youth) project.

CYCJ Strategic Manager Fiona Dyer says: “We will all really miss Stuart and are extremely grateful for everything he has done to develop CYCJ as a national centre of excellence for youth justice. His expertise and enthusiasm have been appreciated by everyone in the team.”

CYCJ will be going behind the headlines to highlight recent youth offending trends in ‘No offence to Neds: Exploring public perceptions and media reporting of young people involved in offending' on Tuesday, April 29. This will take place at the University of Strathclyde as part of Engage with Strathclyde Week.

Herald journalist David Leask will head a discussion panel that will discuss, debate and query the latest research into media coverage of youth crime and explore these trends against an emerging shift in the media portrayal of young people. Drinks and nibbles will be provided after the event.

This event is open to anyone with an interest in youth crime and the media.

Find out more and register. Please promote this event to your contacts.

The High Risk Mental Health Youth project has been given a new name. This will now be known as IVY – Interventions for Vulnerable Youth.

The IVY project was introduced by CYCJ to promote best practice in forensic mental health risk assessment and management for young people who offend. Read more.

The CYCJ would like to create a front line managers group to hear from you how we can best meet your needs and those of the staff you supervise.  What training do you need? What training does your staff need? What are your priority areas of work? What concerns do you have?  How can CYCJ support you?

If you are interested in being part of this group, please e-mail cycj@strath.ac.uk and note your interest by April 14. The first meeting will be held this May.

Factsheet 23 and Briefing Paper 4 are now available. In this month’s briefing paper, Fiona Dyer looks at the system supporting young people who enter into secure care or custody in Scotland to reintegrate and make the transition back into their families and communities, whilst Leanne Gregory’s factsheet considers the victimisation needs of young people in the youth justice system.

Briefing Paper 4: Supporting young people who enter into secure care or custody to reintegrate into communities. 

Factsheet 23: Victimisation and Youth Justice.

The CYCJ team will be raising money for charity - and getting fit into the bargain! We’re limbering up for the Balfron 10k on April 27, which we’ll be running on behalf of Aberlour, the largest, solely Scottish, children’s charity. Aberlour provides help to over 6,000 of Scotland’s most vulnerable children, young people and their families.

As a Centre that is passionate about bettering the lives of children and young people, we are excited about Aberlour’s mission and vision to support young people, and would like to contribute to this cause.

We’d be grateful for any donation that you can give, which you can do by clicking here.  If you’d prefer to donate money another way, please email cycj@strath.ac.uk. Thank you in advance!

Exploring the bereavement experiences of young men

Research by CYCJ Research Fellow Nina Vaswani into the bereavement experiences of young men in custody has now been published in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice. 

‘The Ripples of Death: Exploring the Bereavement Experiences and Mental Health of Young Men in Custody’ explored the prevalence and nature of bereavement among 33 young men who had been sentenced to a young offender institution. View it here.

This research was also referred to by the Scotsman on Sunday, in an article on support for children of prisoners. Nina was quoted directly: “What struck me was an unusually high rate of traumatic suicide and murders, accidents, very unexpected deaths and what you could call particularly needless deaths…I also found a culture of not talking or delaying talking about bereavement.”

You can read more in the next CYCJ factsheet, due out mid-April.

Leanne Gregory and Stephanie Smith will both present at the Howard League ‘Re-Imagining Youth Justice’ conference, taking place on April 2 in London.

The Howard League for Penal Reform is a leading voice in the world of youth justice. It is home to the U R Boss project, which supports young people in the criminal justice system to secure their legal rights and to have an impact on policy, practice and the services that affect them.

Stephanie, who is a Research Fellow with the team, will discuss Pathways into Polmont, a research project which aims to explore the backgrounds of young people and the circumstances that led to their imprisonment at HMYOI Polmont. These findings were also the focus of a poster presentation at the Expo Social Services Expo & Conference 2014.

Psychologist Leanne will present a paper in a panel session entitled ‘Re-imagining Mental Health Services: A Model of Tiered Service Delivery using Best Practice Principles in Risk Assessment, Formulation, Scenario Planning and Risk Management in Juvenile Justice’, with a focus on the IVY project. We will share these presentations with you once they become available online.

Looking back

Social Services Expo & Conference 2014

CYCJ attended the Social Services Expo & Conference 2014, which took place on March 18 to celebrate World Social Work Day.

Fiona Dyer and Leanne Gregory gave a well-attended presentation on IVY (Interventions for Vulnerable Youth) which you can view here. Graham Connelly and Stephanie Smith had a research poster on Pathways into Polmont on general display. CYCJ also had an information stall, where we enjoyed meeting people and making new contacts. You can read more about the day in the Raising Youth Justice blog.

The recent EEI networking events, which took place in Ayr, the Borders and Dundee, were well attended with extremely positive feedback. You can view the presentations and resources here.

Coming up…

Vulnerable Girls and Young Women Network Events: April/May 2014

Starting next month, CYCJ will be hosting three network events across Scotland, focusing on ‘What works for girls and young women’. These will take place at:

AYR Friday, April 25
DUNDEE Tuesday, April 29
INVERNESS Thursday, May 8

Read more and register for a place.

Safer Lives training opportunity

CYCJ plans to run a two day Safer Lives training course in Glasgow. This is relevant for anyone involved with assessment and interventions with children and young people under the age of 18 involved with harmful sexual behaviour or sexual offending behaviour (e.g. youth justice practitioners, criminal justice social workers, residential staff, children and family practitioners). 

The model may be of interest to professionals working with other client groups who want to consider which elements of the approach are transferable to their own practice. Although training in this model has been offered in many local authorities over the last five years, we are keen to offer a training course for those who may not have been able to access it. If you are interested, please forward your details to cycj@strath.ac.uk by April 28.

Training by TalkLink

TalkLink, the communications skills consultancy, will be holding two acclaimed skills development workshops in Aberdeen this year. These will focus on working with young offenders – a communications skills approach, and connecting and communicating with young people with ADHD. They will both take place in May and are free to attend.

Find out more. 

An article co-written by David Orr, Practice Development Advisor, has been published in a recent issue of Scottish Justice Matters dedicated to arts and justice.

The article, which David wrote with SJM’s Mary Munro, is entitled ‘Towards a new approach to restorative justice in Scotland: a short history’. View the issue here.

David Orr also contributed a guest blog for Includem, debating Movement Restriction Conditions (MRCs) and the place of electronic monitoring for young people. Read it here.

When a parent is imprisoned, what is the impact on the child? Watch a video featuring Justice Dr Albie Sachs, Constitutional Court Justice of South Africa and award winning writer, as he leads a high profile panel discussion with the audience about the impact of imprisonment on dependent children. Justice Sachs has agreed to teach students on the University of Strathclyde’s Master’s in Criminal Justice and Penal Change.

CELCIS are conducting a study about children and young people in Scotland who are (or have been) looked after at home (subject to home supervision requirements) and the services that are provided to them.  Commissioned by Barnardo’s, this study will help to inform the continued development of children’s services across Scotland.

If you are a professional within a local authority, or a third or independent sector provider working with children and young people, CELCIS would be extremely grateful if you could take some time to complete this short survey. You can access it here.

New research by Barnado’s reveals hundreds of children are being targeted online through social media and other digital technology. The study also shows hundreds of children are unwittingly putting themselves at risk of exploitation by going missing from home or care. Read more.

Don’t forget that we have a fully stocked library with hundreds of titles available to borrow! For a full list, click here. To order a book or make a request for a title, email cycj@strath.ac.uk.

www.cycj.org.uk

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