Paper describing and evaluating Asset, a needs and risk assessment tool which supports evidence-based interventions in youth justice and helps to classify and concentrate resources on priority issues which can be changed.
In the last seven years the number of children locked up on remand has increased by 41%. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that imprisonment should only be used as a measure of last resort. This report on the overuse of remand for children is based on information gathered from a number of sources: interviews with senior practitioners and sentencers; a literature review of research and statistics; a survey of bail and remand officers; a national seminar. It discusses why the problem has arisen and presents a series of twelve policy and practice solutions.
These policy and procedures acknowledge that child protection services must be part of a continuum of services available to children in need and their families. They also reflect the increasing recognition of the social context in which the protection of children takes place.
This report by the Improving the Effectiveness of the Youth Justice System Working Group describes the characteristics of effective local management of youth justice services and outlines a set of standards to improve delivery.
The group was asked to develop a strategic framework of national objectives and standards for Scotland’s Youth Justice services, to help achieve the national target of reducing the number of persistent offenders by 10% by 2006.
Paper examining research concerned with adult and youth violent offending with the aim of increasing awareness of the salient issues amongst social work practitioners and those interested from a policy perspective.
This resource is the third in a series of lectures designed to honour the memory and achievement of Lord Kilbrandon who wrote one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with 'children in trouble'. This lecture discusses justice, children and the hearings system.
This is the Children's Hearings website which provides information on the unique system of care and justice for Scotland’s children and young people. The website also contains background information on Children's Panels and users can learn what actually happens in a Hearing.
The children's hearings system, Scotland's unique system of juvenile justice, commenced operating on 15 April 1971. The system is centred on the welfare of the child. A fundamental principle is that the needs of the child should be the key test and that children who offend and children who are in need of care and protection should be dealt with in the same system. Cases relating to children who may require compulsory measures of intervention are considered by an independent panel of trained lay people.
The Kilbrandon report was, and still remains, one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with 'children in trouble'. Though it is now over thirty years since it was first published, current debate about child care practices and polices in Scotland still resonates with principles and philosophies derived from the Kilbrandon Report itself.
Lord Laming published The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report on 12 March 2009. In his report Lord Laming recommended that “The Department for Children, Schools and Families must provide further guidance to Local Safeguarding Children Boards on how to operate as effectively as possible following the publication of the Loughborough University research on Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs)”.The publication of this summary outline builds on the progress already made in addressing Lord Laming’s recommendations.