Building upon our previous research into offending and residential childcare “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”: Responses to Offending in Residential Childcare, for the last year CYCJ, in in partnership with the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (Staf), has been working on the ‘Responding to Offending in Residential Childcare – Next Steps’ project.
This work has focused on developing an understanding of, and influencing, local practice in four children’s houses from across three geographical areas. This report highlights the recognisable achievements made and learning gained both for practice with children involved in offending in residential childcare and in respect of the chosen methodology, before examining the project design and how the project was undertaken in practice.
Over the next year, this project will continue to seek to support practice at a local level, as well as exploring how the implementation of these findings can be supported at a national level. In commencing this national phase of the project, on April 26, 2018 we will host a roundtable discussion on Offending and Looked After Children involving representatives from Staf, Social Work Scotland, the Howard League for Penal Reform, Community Justice Scotland, Police Scotland and the Care inspectorate, amongst others. We will continue to update as this work progresses.