The Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 Learning Event – 30 January 2024 Report on Key Findings

Section 3: Actions to be taken on feedback from discussions

Key aspects and description or lesson/mitigation

Communication - Communicating effectively to the public on the different roles and responsibilities of partners and agencies to help provide a clear understanding of what is involved when a child displays harmful behaviour.

Communicate information widely to help support communities and the public on what happens when partners and agencies respond to low-level but high volume of incidents to build on community confidence.

Consider the implications the Children’s Care and Justice Bill has for ACR, particularly around victims.

Collaboration and partnership working - There have been positive changes to collaboration and partnership working since commencement of the Act. It was discussed about how important it is as other policies develop to improve synergies across policy practice to continue a holistic approach.

Training and resources - The low number of incidents has made testing the system more challenging and difficult to know if front line staff feel fully confident with the changes.

It was discussed that there needs to be a continuous refresh of training and learning across the country to ensure staff are fully trained and prepared for readiness. Having a national point of contact for ACR would be useful as well as developing multi-agency training programme for social work and police around investigative interviews.

Definitions, language and roles - There has been a positive shift in understanding services after having more experience of ACR. Other influences such as The Promise and UNCRC have helped to better understand the roles, responsibilities and processes when a child under 12 causes harm.

Use of the powers within the Act - The learning to date has been crucial with continued work being taken forward by the Advisory Group and supporting subgroups to capture learning from across Scotland. The learning from different partners is vital as the review develops. The learning from the discussions at inter-agency referral discussions (IRDs) and when ACR was considered but not pursued would be helpful to share between authorities on the decision making process to allow staff to understand the reasoning behind those informed decisions.

Victim Support - Ensure that victims and their families are provided with adequate support and information throughout the process to ensure their rights are upheld and to avoid any unintended negative consequences.

Community confidence - There is a need to improve public perception and understanding of the Act and systems that are in place, particularly around lower level but higher volume, of harmful behaviour.

Places of safety - It is important to ensure that appropriate places of safety are available, regardless of the location, to ensure that children are not placed at further risk. The Scottish Government maintain the list of places of safety across Scotland and it is updated on a quarterly basis.

Investigative Interviews - The learning from each investigative interview would be a useful tool for partners as well as joint training for Police and Social Work at Investigative Interview level and Early and Effective Intervention (EEI).