Programs and approaches from Scotland

An update from our CEO Chelsea Tobin, who is on a Churchill Fellowship. To stay up to date with her learnings, sign up to an occasional newsletter.

The last few days of my trip have been really interesting and I’ve met some wonderful organisations and individuals in Scotland. Below I’ve pulled together some highlights of the different approaches I’ve heard about. It doesn’t really do their work justice, but reflects the things that I think will be of most interest and value to helping us develop better youth-oriented family violence responses.

ASSIST in Glasgow is doing remarkable work supporting young people experiencing violence whose perpetrators are facing criminal charges. They help more than 100 survivors weekly and currently offer active support to 1,200 young people, maintaining an impressive 84% continued engagement rate.

The organisation’s work highlights a significant disparity between the types of crimes prosecuted in court (often physical offences) and the full spectrum of abuse experienced by survivors. This discrepancy underscores that individual incidents brought to court frequently fail to capture the entirety of the abuse suffered. The trusted relationship between case managers and young survivors is vital in uncovering and addressing the full extent of abuse, going beyond the specific incidents that may have led to criminal charges.

I also visited the Children’s Hearings System in Scotland, which seeks to integrate justice and welfare for children and young people through tribunal hearings, instead of traditional court proceedings. A hearing may be held if they’re not being looked after properly, or they’ve been in trouble with the Police or school. It gives the child or young person the opportunity to talk about what’s happening in their life. This system prioritises the best interests and welfare of the child over punitive measures. Although the philosophy is widely supported, there are concerns about unintended consequences. For instance, a system intended to keep youth out of jail may inadvertently pose risks for young victims. This powerful video snippet from a UK Justice Committee hearing features ASSIST’s Fiona McMullen explaining a particularly situation and clearly shows the differences in the journeys of two young victims and their perpetrators going through the Criminal vs Children’s Hearing Systems.

I was also privileged to have a highly engaging discussion with John Devaney, the Dean and Head of the School of Social and Political Science and Centenary Chair of Social Work at Edinburgh University. We covered several important topics:

• Impact of domestic violence on youth: We discussed research that indicates one-third of young people experience no lasting impact from domestic violence. We discussed how to expand this group by understanding the support systems in place, considering factors like age and gender. John is starting new research in this area and I’m eager to see how these insights can be applied in Australia.
• Trauma manifestation: We explored how trauma manifests differently with adolescents and younger children often showing behavioural signs. While girls may internalise trauma leading to self-harm, boys tend to act out. We debunked the myth that childhood exposure to domestic violence directly leads to future victimisation or perpetration, with John emphasising that unresolved trauma has a more significant impact.
• Youth workers and drug use: John shared research on effective youth worker interventions with young people using drugs, which could be applicable to how we structure services that respond to young people’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their own relationships.
• Multidisciplinary responses: We discussed the importance of multidisciplinary teams in responding to young people, highlighting the important role of teachers and youth workers. We also reviewed research on suicide reduction through the “identified support person” model.
• Domestic abuse fatality reviews: John’s work in the UK and Ireland shows that fatality reviews should focus primarily on learning, rather than accountability (as there are already accountability mechanisms), and consider timelines for the period to be reviewed, the involved services and possible interventions. We discussed whether these principles could apply to domestic abuse deaths and suicides, noting that Scotland is developing a system to assess the significance and recency of abuse.
• Ideal youth FDV & IPV response: I asked John about the ideal setup for responding to family and domestic violence (FDV) and IPV among youth. He emphasised the need for evidence-informed, multidisciplinary approaches and the importance of identifying key support persons in the community.

Another insightful discussion was with SafeLives, who showed me a film about Scotland’s Independent Strategic Review of Funding and Commissioning of Services addressing Violence Against Women and Girls. The film is powerful with voices of lived experience and they also shared the report, which is an insightful read (and applicable for Australia).

SafeLives has done some great work around hearing the voices of young people as illustrated by their SOS: The Sound of Silence project, which amplifies the voices of young people, and Draw the line, a mobile website resource that featured stories about real relationships, written by teens.

I encountered a kindred spirit in the CEO of Children 1st in Scotland, who, amongst many other children focussed programs, has implemented Scotland’s inaugural Bairns Hoose. This model, inspired by the renowned Icelandic Barnahus, integrates justice, health, social work and recovery support to prioritise recovery and healing from the very first day.

Bairns Hoose is grounded in the principles of trauma-informed care and relationship-based practice, offering children and their families the chance to build trusting relationships with consistent professional support. Unlike the Family Justice Centres in North America, Bairns Hoose is a therapeutically designed house. Check out the Bairns Hoose house and service model and explore the Stage 1 evaluation findings.

I also had the privilege of meeting with Scotland’s Children and Young Person’s Commission, where we discussed several of the topics already mentioned. A noteworthy initiative is their Power Up, Power Down – Superlistener program. This involves exploring narratives related to children’s rights and power dynamics, allowing children and young people to “rewrite” the story to enhance outcomes. This concept could be effectively used in a campaign to transform young people’s options for seeking help and the responses they receive.

I hope you’ve found this interesting and would be happy to share more on any of these wonderful organisations when I’m back in Australia next month.

Until then

Chelsea