Child First? Examining children’s perspectives of their ‘effective’ collaboration in youth justice decision-making

Summary

This Child First research project explores children’s experiences of collaboration in youth justice, which has been somewhat neglected within youth justice policy, practice and research. The authors explored children’s collaboration in decisions affecting them at all stages of the youth justice system, focusing on four interconnected research questions relating to: collaboration understandings, collaboration objectives, collaboration effectiveness and collaboration practise development.

The project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and led by researchers at Loughborough and Aberystwyth Universities and emphasises the need to move beyond adult-centric policies and practices to ensure that justice-involved children are “listened to, and their views respected”.

Approach  

• The study used an innovative participatory methodology, which prioritised co-constructing the research with justice-involved children to ensure child-centric, Child First, co-creation of all research elements.
• A Project Reference Group (PRG) (n=22) of justice-experienced children was recruited to collaborate with researchers throughout the life of the project to co-create the project design (including exploring creative methods) implementation processes and interpretation of findings, recruited from one hosting Youth Justice Service (YJS).
• Additionally, research participant children (n=66) were recruited from six geographically and institutionally diverse research sites (3 x youth justice services, 2 x youth offending institutions and 1 x secure children’s home) to participate in system journey interviews about their experience and perceptions of collaboration and their involvement in decision-making processes within- and between al stages of the Youth Justice System.

Key findings 

Main themes from the participant sample included the importance of asking children about their circumstances, goals and interests, being listened to and their views being taken into account when developing support and interventions plans together with their designated worker. Recognising and addressing inevitable power imbalances between children and adults and building relationships with “caring” professionals in child-friendly environments were also reoccurring themes. Findings reveal that children’s experiences of Child First collaboration practice are mixed, with some parts of the youth justice system better than others. For YJSs, collaboration experiences were generally positive; within custody, it varied depending on the establishment and incentive scheme level; while interactions and engagement with the police, courts and children’s social care services were mostly negative.

Key themes from the research were:

• Understanding – essential elements of ‘collaboration’ are to: ask, listen, respect opinions, and keep informed
• Objective – youth justice involvement should help children move on with their lives, with interventions resulting from a collaborative process
• Effective collaboration –authentic, positive, non-hierarchical relationships with professionals who care, comfortable environment, facilitating effective and relevant support
• Practice development – involve children at all levels of youth justice (strategy to practice), from all intervention levels (prevention to resettlement) and all agencies of youth justice, actively mitigating power imbalance to develop a youth justice system which meets their needs.

Recommendations and next steps 

Include all four key collaborative elements of: asking, listening, respecting, keeping informed

• Centralise children’s self-identified goals and aspirations to all interventions
• Actively involve children in youth justice decision-making at all levels of operation
• Workers need to neutralise power imbalances
• Consistency is needed across the whole Youth Justice System, recognising the ‘collaboration’ tenet of Child First as the facilitator of the other tenets
• Particularly needed further development in collaborative practice were: Police, Courts, Custody 

Practitioner Pack

You can also find a practitioner pack of resources to help services embed the report’s findings into practice. There are a range of printables, including child, parent and practitioner-facing posters and leaflets, a project infographic, and an exemplar document detailing some of the good practice examples the research found. Also included is a full training package, which can be delivered locally, either using the facilitator notes or the training video. Please note, this is best used whole staff groups, rather than individually, as much of the value locally will be discussions between colleagues.