Membership Spotlight highlights the work of our member organisations and outlines how other individuals and NGOs can support them. We are shining the light on The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) find out what they are currently working on and their involvement in the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill. They have been a member of Together for nearly four years.

Tell us about the work of your organisation in Scotland

The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) works towards ensuring that Scotland’s approach to children and young people in conflict with the law is rights-respecting; contributing to better outcomes for our children, young people and communities.

We work across three workstreams:

1. Participation and engagement: amplifying the voices of children and young people

2. Practice and policy development: developing, supporting and improving justice for children and young people

3. Research: Improving our understanding of justice for children and young people

What projects are you currently working on?

Our focus for 2020-2025 is on supporting Scotland to comply with its international commitments for children and young people in conflict with the law including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).  This permeates the many projects we are involved in, including:

• Reimagining secure care
• Reimagining justice
• Child criminal exploitation
• Supporting the workforce
• Restorative justice
• Activate in Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution
• Bairn’s Hoose
• Whole system approach
• Children’s Rights
• Youth Justice Voices
• Scottish Child Interview Model

How do you support children and families to learn about their rights?

Supporting children and families to learn about, and ultimately exercise, their rights is a core theme across our three main areas of work:

1. Our participation team works directly with children and young people to help amplify their voices, ensuring they understand and can exercise their rights.

2. Our practice and policy development team work to create a more rights-based approach to policy and practice for children and young people in conflict with the law and their families.

3. Our research team works to improve wider understanding of how children, young people and their families interact with the youth justice system, to create to a more rights-based process.

We also have our Just the Right Space website, a resource dedicated to helping children, young people and their families navigate the justice system, which includes many accessible papers and resources.

How can children and young people make their views heard to influence your work?

Our participation team works directly with children and young people to understand better their experiences of, and thoughts on how to improve, the care and justice systems. This learning directly influences our practice development and policy work, where we engage with a wide range of agencies and organisations across the whole spectrum of youth justice to drive continuous improvement. We currently support several participation groups including Youth Just Us, Inside Out and Youth Justice Voices Northeast (alongside Staf), and STARR,  Scotland’s only curated space for care experienced people. We also work with several different schools and young people with lived experience of the justice system.

Does your organisation influence policy development on issues affecting children and young people?

Influencing policy development is a key part of our work. A very important recent example was the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill which we were heavily involved in. This included a member of our team being seconded to the Scottish Government Bill team for two and half years, alongside CYCJ responding to the consultation, appearing before the Education, Children and Young People Committee at Stage 1, supporting young people to meet the Justice Committee and engaging with key politicians across the chamber throughout the Bill’s journey. You can read more here ‘Raising Youth Justice’ our blog mini-series on the Bill.

What do you enjoy most about being a member of Together?

Being part of a community of organisations and individuals who are determined that children’s rights will be upheld and protected in Scotland.

Scotland is currently trying to incorporate various international treaties and implement significant legislation that has the potential to meaningfully embed a rights respecting culture for children and young people. Being able to lean on the support and knowledge of Together and its members during this time means that we all feel better equipped to advocate strongly for this change to happen.

How can other organisations or individuals get involved or support your work?

We are very keen to work with others to make our care and justice systems more rights-respecting, trauma-informed spaces for all children and young people to receive the care and support they need. In particular, now that the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill has passed through Parliament, we are developing support to aid organisations through the commencement and implementation of the Bill and are keen to hear from all organisations interested in this. As part of this, we will make sure that children and young people who have been, or are, in conflict with the law are given space to help influence how implementation happens. If this is you – or you know someone who would be keen to get involved – contact cycj@strath.ac.uk to find out more.

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Sign-Up and Become a Member (Individual or Organisational)

• Would you like to find out further information about joining Together’s Membership?  Then visit our website page ‘Become a Member’ for further information.
• Are you a Together organisational member and would like to collaborate for a Membership Spotlight? Email: caitlin@togetherscotland.org.uk

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