Learning from Wales: Children’s rights, inclusion, youth justice
Following a visit to Wales to find out more about their latest approach to preventing children from entering the criminal justice system, Claire Lightowler and Fern Gillon reflect on the part a rights respecting school is playing in this. You know something is special as soon as you walk into Blaenymaes Primary School. The mural […]
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When the rain is blowing in your face…
Primary 4 children have written a special blog for CYCJ highlighting their takeaway messages from some of the amazing work that is happening at primary school level to help our children develop resilience and improve wellbeing. As we know, universal services play a hugely important role in preventing offending through promoting improved wellbeing, resilience and […]
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Thoughts on Loneliness
Loneliness has been described as the biggest issue facing young people who have spent time within the care system. In her second blog this year, Marie Gibson writes about her experiences of loneliness, and how that can impact upon mental wellbeing. You can read her previous blog here. I have known deep loneliness, but also […]
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Positive Young Voices, Positive Futures
This blog by ‘Ally’ reflects on his time as a member of Positive Young Voices, Positive Futures and the skills he has learned whilst on work placement from prison. My experience of working with Positive Young Voices, Positive Futures (PYVPF) has proven to be a positive and productive one which I have extremely enjoyed. This […]
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At what age are we responsible enough to make decisions?
On the day that Stage 3 of the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill is being debated by the Scottish Parliament, our blogger David Grimm tells us why we should go higher than 12, based on his own experiences. I was born in Edinburgh, raised between there and Glasgow and had social work involvement […]
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What’s next for Next Steps?
As we celebrated the final stage of the Responding to Offending in Residential Childcare -‘Next Steps’ project, Debbie Nolan reflects back on what we’ve learnt and where we want go next with this important work. For the past two years, CYCJ and Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (Staf) have partnered on the Responding to Offending […]
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Challenging perceptions of knife crime
In this guest blog, No Knives, Better Lives (NKBL) explain why they’re taking a different approach to challenging public and media attitudes towards knife crime in Scotland. NKBL is a national prevention programme in Scotland funded by the Scottish Government and run by a team in YouthLink Scotland, the national agency for youth work. NKBL […]
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The reality of being homeless
‘The most important thing you can give someone is your time.’ Social work student Michael Tolland reflects on his experiences of supporting people who are homeless, the impact on self esteem and health, and what may help. Having worked in homeless services, in both the statutory and voluntary sector for 18 years, I have a […]
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I’m only human after all – reflections on professional identity and boundaries (Part 2)
In Part 1 of her guest blog for CYCJ, Angela Morgan OBE considered how personal and professional experience shaped her professional identity as a practitioner. In Part 2, she looks at how these discomforts and tensions played out for her choices in how to be a leader. On arrival as CE at Includem I immediately […]
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