Celebrating 13 years of CYCJ – by Fiona Dyer

This spring has marked some important anniversaries in the world of youth justice. Recently, colleagues and I celebrated 20 years since the creation of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. This week, we mark 13 years of CYCJ as we know it today. In that time so much has changed in the areas that impact our work: the radical pace of digital change, the fallout from a global pandemic, and the increase in cost of living. Nonetheless, I want to take this anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on the positive changes we’ve seen for children and young people’s lives: landmark policy changes, large scale commitment to keeping the promise and huge reductions in children coming into conflict with the law.

Like many of our partners, CYCJ have been involved in some seismic changes to the way that Scotland responds to children and young people in conflict with the law. We’ve led on and been involved in legislative change that bring current systems closer to the ethos of Kilbrandon. Although our Children’s Hearings System has always sought to prioritise children’s ‘needs not deeds’, we knew that there were ways to improve things for all children. For instance, raising the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12, the root and branch review of our care system leading the Promise, and removing all children under 18 from our prisons. These are just some examples of rights-respecting justice in practice we’ve supported since being established as a centre.

13 years ago, the idea that the UNCRC would be incorporated into Scot’s Law was a distant concept. Three years later, ahead of the 2016 Holyrood elections, the Scottish Youth Parliament called for the UNCRC to be brought into law in Scotland, supported by three quarters of young people. It wouldn’t be until 2020 that the Bill would make it to the Scottish Parliament, and after much debate would finally receive Royal Assent in 2024. Throughout all this time, CYCJ campaigned in support of the changes this Act would have. UNCRC incorporation underscores children’s right to be heard during decisions that impact them, which is particularly important for children in conflict with the law,  whose views can be lost at time when statutory processes are in motion.

UNCRC incorporation showed that Scotland was committed to a rights-respecting justice system for children, and the subsequent Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 would provide the opportunity for even further improvements for all children under the age of 18. For years CYCJ had recognised that prisons were not a place for children – and through hard work to support the creation of the Act, we can now proudly say that Scotland is no longer a place that imprisons its children. I will always feel immensely proud of the work that went into achieving this hard won milestone.

Ensuring that there are trauma-informed spaces for children when they come into contact with formal justice systems is another step on the journey to making Scotland truly rights respecting as highlighted within our reimagining secure care report. For some time, we have also been striving for children to be kept out of police cells, because we know how traumatising this experience can be. Creating an alternative environment which considers children’s needs, age and stage, is one improvement we are calling for which would once again bring part of our current justice system closer to the ethos of Kilbrandon. There is currently a legislative opportunity to do this by amending the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) Bill as it progresses through the Scottish Parliament. We hope that our colleagues in Holyrood will support us in our calls.

At CYCJ we help to drive the Whole System Approach – a programme for addressing the needs of children who come into conflict with the law. Ensuring that agencies work together so that we do, in reality, get it right for every child, means that we are taking practical steps that will make Scotland the best place to grow up. Our team take great care to embed each facet of the WSA through practitioner forums, training and toolkits (to name a few). The WSA helps to prevent children from coming into contact with formal justice systems in the first place, therefore reducing the likelihood of offending in the future. Of course, this is just one of the elements of our important work. We’re constantly evolving.

We’ve used our expertise in research to uncover the real issues at the heart of the youth justice system. We’ve engaged with children and young people themselves to ensure that their views and experiences influence the decisions made about them. We’ve worked with a spectrum of practitioners, so that their wisdom and knowledge can be a force for change. We couldn’t have done any of this without the support of our stakeholders and partners, and I want to thank you all for helping us to connect to the spaces and places where we can affect change.

In 2025, we launched our eLearning platform, something that developed as a result of feedback, surveys, informal conversations and trend analysis, which told us that practitioners of all disciplines were looking for extra support. We have always offered training and assistance to practitioners, but branching into the world of online learning was a daunting but exciting step. Our platform has been accessed by over 1000 learners since its launch last August, and has received support from Scottish Government as they recognised the vital learning contained in our Digital Safeguarding in Practice module. We will always seek to respond to the needs of our colleagues across Scotland’s care and justice systems – and we always welcome your input and ideas.

We’re scanning the horizons of what is needed of us next.  We’re working closely with colleagues to embed contextual safeguarding into everyday practices across Scotland. We’ve developed a Developmental Wellbeing Approach to support practitioners working with children displaying distressed behaviours. And we’re working tirelessly on supporting the implementation of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act. We’re alive to the fact that as the world changes, we need to keep ahead of the curve of what those changes mean for Scotland’s children and young people. We have a brilliant and dedicated team whose passion, tenacity and drive help to make sure that whatever comes next, we will be ready.

On the day I write this blog, we have opened registration for the National Youth Justice Conference 2026. This year will be the 13 conference since CYCJ was formed – though for those for you who have been around as long as I have, you will remember many before that too.  I am already looking forward to another opportunity to connect with stakeholders across all our workstreams. I never tire of the energy that this conference brings me. Yes, at times, we hear of practitioners who are supporting children in impossibly difficult situations. But I also see the passion and drive from all attendees and their dedication to make things better. I share that passion. It helps me to keep pushing forward on our journey of ensuring that Scotland’s approach to children and young people is right-respecting.

I look forward to meeting you along the way.

The post Celebrating 13 years of CYCJ – by Fiona Dyer appeared first on Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice.

Source: Raising Youth Justice – Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice Read More