Reimagining Secure Care Governance Group minutes: July 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Tom McNamara, Scottish Government (SG)Youth Justice and Children’s Hearings
• Liz Murdoch, SG Youth Justice
• Alison Melville, SG Youth Justice
• Maureen Roberts  (Project lead & secretariat), Children’s and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ)
• Donna McEwan, CYCJ
• Fiona Dyer, CYCJ
• Katie Upsdale, Dartington Design Lab
• Kate Tobin, Dartington Design Lab
• Jillian Gibson, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, (COSLA)
• Vivien Thomson, Social Work Scotland (SWS)
• Ben Faruggia, SWS

Apologies:

• Laura Cavan, COSLA

Items and actions

Welcome

Tom welcomed members and thanked Maureen for the previously circulated progress report.

Previous minutes and actions

Previous minutes agreed with no amendments.

Items not on the current agenda

• Maureen to meet with Stephen Bermingham from Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) regarding virtual session for panel members and CHS staff and to invite Jillian to next virtual session (completed).

Membership – Mental Health (MH) representative

Continued from previous meeting Tom agreed that links should be made with the Mental Health Strategy Group to request an MH representative from SG to join this group, amplifying the focus at practitioner and strategic levels. Given this has been prominent in all stakeholder and Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) (CCJ) Bill Committee sessions, Tom will discuss with Ian Donaldson (SG) regarding MH representation on this group at a strategic level.

Project team update

Maureen provided an update of the progress made since the last meeting virtual stakeholder sessions have been completed, as have the in-person sessions with secure care staff. Participation workers are currently undertaking sessions with children in secure care and Young Offenders Institutions, and an online survey has been developed for parents/carers of children in secure care. Analysis and synthesis of sessions undertaken to date have highlighted the following themes:

• trauma informed systems
• alternatives to deprivation of liberty
• funding/commissioning
• legislation and regulation
• models of care
• mindsets and culture

Members discussed the themes, and it was agreed these (and any other emerging) should form part of the agenda for the next Reimagining Secure Care (RSC) Governance Group meeting as Maureen and Donna will have been able to analyse the outstanding data from children in secure care and their parents/carers.

Members provided feedback on the RSC Service Design visual developed by Katie from Dartington, agreeing this would be relevant to share with stakeholders (and others) when finalised.

Katie explained that the next steps in the service design process involves engaging co-design teams consisting of stakeholders around the themes (once finalised). Co-design groups will consider different design ideations (potentially across 3 in person/online meetings). Draft options will then be shared with the RSC Governance Group.

Project interim report

Members discussed timescales of a project interim report and agreed end of October to be appropriate in terms of having more clarity around CCJ Bill, National Care Service and associated funding arrangements across the landscape.

Member feedback

Members discussed the importance of transparency around the project and for it to be realistic in its scope and ambitions given a review of secure care in Scotland will have short, medium and longer term goals reaching until 2030 and beyond.

Key actions and timescales

• Tom to discuss with Ian Donaldson regarding the need for Stephen McLeod, Professional Advisor in MH Services or Aileen Blower from SG to join the group
• Katie to update the RSC project visual for general sharing
• Maureen and Donna to complete the analysis of the outstanding sessions and online survey data to synthesis emerging themes
• all to consider the emergent themes at next RSC governance group meeting

Any other business

There was no other business

Date of next meeting

The date of the next meeting is 31 August 2023