National Strategy for Community Justice: Revision Consultation

Action for Children continue to be concerned that young people with the highest and most complex needs seem to be most vulnerable to being involved in the adult criminal justice system. Therefore, we recognise that Scotland does have room for improvement when it comes to youth justice. That is why we welcome and support the revised National Strategy for Community Justice. Action for Children are heartened to see that Aim 1 has a focus of the use of diversion and intervention at the earliest opportunity. For youth justice getting this element right will be key to community justice.

We believe it should be our national collective ambition that we keep young people, especially those under 18 years, out of the adult court system and, where at all possible, avoid custodial sentences. Of course, Action for Children recognise that there are some young people who for their own and others’ safety require secure accommodation for a period of time.

Given the high social and economic cost to the public of a life of crime, programmes that seek to divert and intervene at the earliest opportunity to reduce and halt offending should be seen as value for money. We know young people are more open or susceptible to engaging in risky behaviour as they lack the experience and wisdom that comes with age and that these behaviours is a symptom of other issues in their wider life, usually something which needs a welfare-based approach. These wider problems might be picked up more if we invest in divert and early intervention programmes.

For example, Action for Children have invested in our award winning ‘Serious Organised Crime Early Intervention Service’.
The service is a multi-agency partnership initiative to target and divert young people away from Serious Organised Crime (SOC) in two areas of Glasgow, the only project of its kind in Scotland. It is now in the process of being expanded to Wales, England, Edinburgh and Dundee.

The service provides an early intervention approach by identifying young people (aged between 12 and 18) who are considered to be at risk of progressing to involvement in organised crime and using its products to work with them in pursuing an alternative career outside of crime.

The service aims to assist these young people to re-engage successfully and develop trust in order to acquire the necessary skills and tools to help them reach and maximise their positive potential. The intention is to assist them gain positive direction in their lives recognising small steps of achievements. The aims are to reduce offending behaviour, improve the young people’s physical and mental wellbeing (including reduced or stabilised substance misuse), improve relationships with families, peers and the community, and encourage the young people to access financial advice, education, and/or employment.

The service takes a two-pronged approach: employing specialist peer mentors to gain the trust of the young people and using service staff to work with them and their families - many of whom are pro-criminal and need to be convinced to allow their young people to try another way of life. The service’s staff have been head-hunted for their ability to understand the young people and the type of organised crime they will be dealing with.

A previous evaluation of our service found that the service had engaged young people in diversionary and positive activity. It also helped young people to disassociate from organised crime groups, find positive role models and develop a sense of direction. It found that 75% of participants were living a more stable life and had not engaged in further offending since entering the service.

Action for Children would like to see funding allocated to these types of preventive services we also believe that resources should be given to ensure staff are allocated to work with this age group who have the particular skill set to address and relate to young people and their behaviours and needs.

As stated, Acton for Children are supportive of the National Strategy for Community Justice, but for this strategy to be realised it will take proper investment of financial resources and investing in culture changes like collaborating, information sharing and partnership working to ensure we achieve our national collective ambition of keeping young people, especially those under 18 years, out of the adult justice system.
We make no apologies for stressing that the financial support given to the strategy must be as ambitious as the aims. Unfortunately, many providers have had a standstill or real terms reduction in budget for a number of years but we are still expected to deliver the same but with better outcomes. This is an unsustainable model that must change. We hope the revised strategy will act as a catalyst for this financial change.

Also, we would like to add a note of caution, while the strategy makes reference to providing consistency of service across the country. We must ensure that this consistency has flexibility inbuilt into the system so that we can meet individual and local needs. Action for Children believe that consistency should be that all young people deserve equity of access to support. And that support should and will look different depending on where you live, for example what is needed and may be relevant in the Highlands and Islands may not be the same as is needed in Glasgow or Edinburgh. What should be consistent is that the appropriate support is offered at the right time, in the right way, for as long as is necessary.

While not expressly mentioned in the strategy Action for Children would like to highlight the need for and importance of maintaining and building relational practice, rather than overly promoting a model of service delivery that uses light touch telephone contact and sign posting. While technology can be useful, it cannot and should not replace face to face engagement.

The experience of covid has time and again stressed the need to able to see people in person. During the covid restrictions, for a lot of people who we supported, they only really connected and responded with direct face to face contact. Often Action for Children staff were the only support network people saw and relied on. The benefit of staff door-step contact (having eyes on ground) was evident when staff carried out social distance ‘Walks and talks’ and ‘circuit training’ with young people. During these one-to-one sessions, not only did this help with the young person’s physical health, we noted that during these walks the young people open-up more to us and talk about many issues that they might not have done even before lockdown.
Quite simply nothing beats face to face contact that laying eyes on people, young people have craved that more personal touch. They have responded to our staff who provided a face-to-face service saying they trust us and believe we have stuck by them.

Therefore, any community justice strategy must have personal engagement at its heart, which builds and maintains trust. Building trust with young people who come into contact with the criminal justice system can bring about positive and lasting outcomes. If this happens, we can also build more trust with the general public showing that this strategy is yielding better results. Thus, in turn making life better for all in our society.