Care experienced children and justice: The challenges of trying to disentangle systemic inequality
One of the many challenges care experienced children and young people face is that they are disproportionately more likely to come into contact with the justice system(s). Reflecting on both the ‘Sentencing of Care Experienced Young People‘ webinar and recent Court Report Refresher training CYCJ Practice Development Advisor Ross Gibson considers the scale of the […]
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Reimagining The Promise Pt. 2
At the start of Care Experience Week 2023, CYCJ Director Fiona Dyer shares this insight into the work that we’re going to help shape a brighter, fairer future for care experienced children and young people in Scotland. This time last year I wrote a blog highlighting how, following the publication of the Independent Care Review, […]
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Reimagining The Promise
We talk about Keeping The Promise – but what does this actually look like, when working with children and young people in conflict with the law? CYCJ’s Director Fiona Dyer shares why and how CYCJ has changed its approach to be part of the change demanded by the findings of the Independent Care Review. Keeping […]
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Beneath the surface
Looking back at her teenage years, Alice (not her real name) reflects on the hurt she experienced and the missed opportunities to do things differently. I was 13 the first time the police pinned me down on the ground, handcuffed me and put me in the back of a police van. I was 14 the […]
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From little acorns…
In this exclusive guest blog for CYCJ, Fiona Duncan (Chair of The Promise Scotland) reflects on Scotland’s care review journey so far, the thousands of voices that shaped this and the change that is happening to make sure The Promise to our care community is kept. “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, […]
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Relationships are the starting point
As we approach the one year anniversary of the publication of Scotland’s Care Review – and three months since the Secure Care Pathway and Standards Scotland launched – Chelsey talks about the importance of building genuine and honest relationships with young people, and the difference this can make. A young person once told a colleague […]
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Securing better futures
October 8, 2020 marks a very important moment for children and young people who experience secure care. That’s because it’s the day the Secure Care Pathway and Standards will be launched in Scotland’s five secure care centres, celebrating the hard work, creativity and passion that children in these centres put into helping to shape this […]
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Scotland – time for open hearts and minds
Today marks the launch of the Secure Care Pathway and Standards Scotland. These Standards have been three years in the making after a series of recommendations from the Secure Care National Project. The project identified the need for a specific set of standards for Scotland’s most restrictive form of care for our children. In late […]
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A space to be heard
What happens when a global pandemic gets in the way of youth participation work? Kevin Lafferty, participation consultant at Staf, talks us through the work he has been involved in with Staf and CYCJ’s Youth Justice Voices project during lockdown. Just as our Artivism project was about to end and our steering group Youth Just […]
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