Fiona Dyer is the Director of the Children & Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), based at the University of Strathclyde. As Director, Fiona leads CYCJ towards its ambition of ensuring that Scotland’s approach to children and young people in conflict with the law is rights-respecting, contributing to better outcomes for children, young people and communities. This involves supporting professionals from all disciplines who work with children and young people on the cusp of or involved in offending by promoting best practice based on up-to-date evidence and research.

Prior to and since joining CYCJ in 2013, Fiona has been committed to ensuring the rights of children in conflict with the law are upheld. Her work to date includes the Expert Group on Preventing Sexual Offending Involving Children and Young People, Expert Review on Mental Health and Young Offenders, Age of Criminal Responsibility, Restorative Justice, Children’s Rights and supporting the work of the Youth Justice Improvement Board. Fiona currently chairs the Age of Criminal Responsibility Data and Research Group and Children’s Rights Group.

Before joining CYCJ Fiona was seconded to the Scottish Government youth justice team for three years as a professional social work advisor to lead on the Scottish Government policy of the Whole System Approach, which was implemented across Scotland. Prior to this, she worked for ten years as a social worker and social work manager within the fields of youth and criminal justice within rural and urban areas of Scotland. Fiona is a member of Social Work Scotland.

In your view, what is the most pressing issue in the field of children and youth justice in Scotland? What steps need to be taken to target this issue?

In Scotland we need to keep children and young people out of the adult criminal justice system as much as possible, with age-appropriate responses. We have made good progress in Scotland in recent years but there is a lot more to be done.

Evidence from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime shows that bringing children into a justice system that does not recognise or meet their needs can often lead to further offending. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly said that under 18s in the UK should never be tried in the adult court system.

Instead, we need to use Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) and Diversion from Prosecution (DfP) where possible to help stop children being labelled and keep them out of the formal system. For all under 18s who move through the system, this must be the Children’s Hearings System in Scotland, and not through the courts, and for those 18 to 26 this should be through Youth Courts.  

The overuse of police custody is another challenge and we know being in custody can harm a child’s development, as well as increase their chances of future reoffending. The age of criminal responsibility is currently set at 12 in Scotland, and we believe this must be increased to at least the UNCRC minimum recommendation of 14, if not higher.

Our position is evidence-based on the outcomes for children brought into justice systems too early, the backgrounds and trauma experienced by children who offend and research on brain development which shows that the brain is not fully mature until the mid-20s and possibly even beyond. This means that children and young people, in the context of causing harm, are generally less able to make good decisions, more vulnerable to peer pressure and more willing to take risks. We need to ensure our systems respond to all children as children, in need of care and support

The Scottish government recently passed the Children’s Care and Justice Bill. What are the main achievements of this Bill?

The passing of the bill was a momentous moment, marking years of campaigning, and offers great potential for making our care and justice systems for children and young people rights-based. At the core of the bill was recognition, in line with the UNCRC, that all under 18s in the care and justice systems must be treated as children, and responded to with care and support.

This includes the removal of all children aged under 18 from Young Offenders Institutions by the end of 2024. Where they need to be deprived of their liberty, all children will now be housed in secure care accommodation. The age of referral to the principal reporter will now be 18 and will bring an end to the current unjust two-tier system where some children are sent to the Children’s Hearings System whilst others go through the adult courts.

The theme of this year’s National Youth Justice Conference, which you hosted at the end of June, was ‘Implementing Change and Protecting Rights’. What were the key ideas that emerged from the discussions at this conference?

Our conference came at a very busy time for policy and practice change in Scotland with the Children Care and Justice Bill becoming an Act and the UNCRC about to come into force. A lot of the discussion was around what needs to happen to implement these changes and how the voices of children and young people can shape the system in the future.

There was also a focus on what has remained untouched by these changes, but which also needs to be looked at. This includes raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, and looking at the wider structural issues around offending, such as poverty and lack of mental health support.

Child criminal exploitation was also discussed and our failure to always identify children as victims.

The Whole System Approach was introduced by the Scottish government in 2011 to address the needs of young people who come into contact with the law. Could you outline the rationale behind this programme, and what it has achieved so far?

The ethos of the WSA, which is based on the principles of the Scottish Government’s “Getting it Right for Every Child” (GIRFEC) strategy, is that many children in conflict with the law could and should be diverted from statutory measures, prosecution and custody through early intervention and robust community alternatives. WSA works across all systems and agencies, into a single, holistic approach to working with children in conflict with the law. The components of the approach include early and effective intervention to ensure children receive the right help at the right time, diversion from prosecution, reduction in court appearances, and a reduction in children being remanded or sentenced to custody. Instead, robust community alternatives or secure care are prioritised.

This approach has been very successful in reducing the number of children brought into formal systems, court and custody.  Due to this success, the approach has been extended to all children up to age 21.

How does CYCJ seek to engage the voices of children and young people who have been in contact with the justice system?

Participation is one of our four key work strands, alongside practice development, policy and research. Our trained and experienced participation advisors work directly with children and young people who are, or have been, in conflict with the law to amplify their voices in justice policy and practice. This includes working in settings such as HMP & YOI Polmont, a Young Offenders Institution, secure care centres and within the community.

Their views and experiences shape our policy responses and inform our practice development work. For example, we recently worked with six young people in HMP & YOI Polmont to shape our response to General Comment 27 from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which was all about access to justice.

We also support their personal and professional development, and recently supported 11 young people in Polmont to complete the Activate course, an introduction to community development. This gives them a guaranteed interview to the University of Glasgow to study the undergraduate community development course.

CYCJ also has longstanding, award winning participation networks. STARR is the only curated space for those with experience of secure care to influence change. Notably, STARR led the development of the Secure Care Standards and Pathways, now adopted and implemented across the secure care estates.

Youth Justice Voices, a collaboration between CYCJ and the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (Staf) hosts two steering groups for participants with care and justice experience: Youth Just Us operating in the community, with Inside Out operating within HMP&YOI Polmont.

We also support partners and others to embed participation in their work.

How does CYCJ contribute to the capacitation and specialisation of professionals who work with these children in the justice system?

Practice development is at the core of our work as we develop, support and improve justice for children and young people. We provide support for practitioners through training and forums on issues such as early and effective intervention, diversion, secure care, restorative justice and managing distressed behaviours, and through our practitioner support service which receives over a 100 requests per month. We also write information sheets and briefing papers to keep practitioners updated with the latest policy and practice changes, and update our 17 Youth Justice Practice Guide chapters annually.