Service Manager, Neighbourhoods, Regeneration & Sustainability (NRS)
The Community Justice section within Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability at Glasgow City Council engages with children and young people involved in offending and problematic and concerning behaviour.
As part of the Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) programme (Figure 1) the team also deliver intervention programmes for individuals and groups. Our clients are referrals that are received through the EEI process, however, due to the success of the engagements, our highly skilled staff have also responded to requests from partners such as Police Scotland to deliver restorative community programmes. These have been area based but also thematic, tackling issues such as improper and dangerous use of fireworks.
YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT EEI BY CLICKING THE PICTURE LINK BELOW:
Figure 1 – EEI in Glasgow
Sean Hanlon, Operations Managers within NRS commented,
“Over the last few years, our programmes were highly successful by engaging with children and young people who have been involved in offending behaviour. In the case of our highly successful fireworks programme, our staffing team worked with young people who had been identified by Police Scotland and took them through a structured programme, reflecting on their behaviour and the wider impact that has on the community.”
The Community Restorative Programme is part of a wider approach to embedding Restorative Justice in Glasgow. It is one of a suite of programmes and approaches that are developing. You can read about some of those developments in the articles:
TESTING TIMES – A RESTORATIVE APPROACH TO DIVERSION FROM PROSECUTION
Restorative Justice is an important element of reducing the risk of re-offending and in providing some closure for victims. You can find out about the process and what it means by CLICKING THE VIDEO LINK BELOW (Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Restorative Justice Explained
Due to the responsive nature of these programmes, identifying funding led to a delay in responding to requests, and this could sometime delay the process for several weeks.
Funding was identified through Community Justice Glasgow to allow a 12-month pilot to take place, allowing the Community Justice Section within NRS to respond to requests in a timely manner. This funding also allowed for a governance structure to be established, comprising of partners within Police Scotland, Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership and Community Justice Glasgow to ensure that programmes taking place had the correct participants and signed off by Glasgow’s Multi Agency Tasking Group (MATAC) which would examine the analytical evidence and partnership intelligence for the requirement of these programmes.
The pilot was agreed in November 2019, however due to COVID-19, the delivery model had to alter, piloting online sessions with young people. This delivery model was used in two Schools within Glasgow with a total of 14 participants taking place.
When restrictions loosened in 2021, face to face engagement took place, allowing us to once again undertake group work sessions.
To date, three programmes have taken place across the city, engaging with children and young people, supported by a range of partners such as Police Scotland, Education Services, Violence Reduction Unit and local businesses.
The Restorative Community Programme intention is to bring affected community groups into the programme to address participants who are having a detrimental impact on their community, to highlight the impact of some of the behaviours on them. Programmes strive to break down the barriers between young people and the Police, through relationship and team building, whilst delivering thematic group work sessions to promote safer and more responsible citizenship. Staff tailor group inputs in response to offence types.
A recent Glasgow Live article by Sarah Hilley (Local Democracy Reporter) outlined some of the work that has taken place and its impact both on the perpetrators and victim of the crime. CLICK IN THE LINK BELOW (Figure 3) to read all about it:
Figure 3
You can also read the recent report that went to the Glasgow City Council Education, Skills and Early Years City Policy Committee (Figure 4), updating on the Programme and highlighting the partnership working that takes place to deliver this programme.
Figure 4
