Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour: review report

Young People

Persistent stereotypical labels that identify young people as the primary perpetrators of antisocial behaviour were evident throughout all of our engagement across a wide range of sectors (noting that the Working Group was not presented with quantitative data to substantiate this, see section on trends above).This continued stereotype/narrative often overlooked the reality that individuals of all ages can engage in disruptive or harmful actions, perpetuating an unfair bias that singles out young people in Scotland.

This persistent view can divert attention from addressing the broader societal factors that contribute to antisocial behaviour across all age groups, such as poverty, inequity, lack of mental health resources, and inadequate community support.

By focusing solely on young people, we risk ignoring root causes and reinforcing harmful cycles of alienation and mistrust between generations and continuing unhelpful stereotypes of young people which impacts policy and decision making at a local and national level. It is essential that we work to reframe the narrative to ensure that we focus on interventions and investment that will support better outcomes for all citizens of Scotland.

Notwithstanding this, qualitative insight as part of consultation and engagement did highlight situational and place-based challenges encountered in relation to young people and antisocial behaviour.

It is important to set some context to the current external environment for children and young people. The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent cost of living crisis has had a continued and lasting impact on young people, disrupting significant life milestones and affecting both physical and social development.

Many young people experienced interruptions to education, missed key developmental stages, and lost opportunities for social interaction, affecting everything from academic progress to emotional resilience. With interrupted ‘rites of passage’, young people continue to face challenges, and this should not be underestimated when addressing antisocial behaviour.

Similarly, and perhaps more significantly, we found that deep rooted issues related to poverty significantly increase the risk of antisocial behaviour due to limited access to the resources, opportunities, and support systems/relationships that foster positive development. Financial hardship correlates directly with stress within families, housing instability, food insecurity and restricted access to quality education, opportunities, safe recreational spaces, and mental health services.

Young people in poverty often struggle with feelings of frustration, exclusion, and low self-worth, which can lead them to participate in antisocial activities. This is often “normalised” in communities/households, with a lack of adequate role models, perpetuating cycles of disadvantage and limiting future opportunities.

The UNCRC, recently enshrined in Scots Law, emphasises the right of all young people to grow up in an environment that supports their development, well-being, and dignity. When addressing antisocial behaviour, the UNCRC advocates for approaches focused on rehabilitation, education, and support, rather than punitive measures. Articles in the UNCRC stress the importance of providing young people with guidance, opportunities, and protection from factors that may lead to antisocial actions, such as poverty, discrimination, and inadequate mental health resources.

By prioritising these rights, the UNCRC encourages societies to address the root causes of antisocial behaviour, fostering environments that promote positive development. It is crucial that we adopt a rights-based approach for young people in Scotland, recognising the statutory obligations of government, public bodies and Local Authorities in relation to UNCRC.

Continued disinvestment in youth services at a local and national level has significantly contributed to antisocial behaviour in Scotland by removing critical support systems and positive outlets for young people. Safe and welcoming spaces where young people can have fun, make connections, learn social skills, receive guidance, and engage in constructive activities have been deprioritised over several years from a funding/resource perspective at a local and national level.

As part of our engagement with youth sector practitioners, we heard repeatedly about boredom, lack of affordable/accessible things to do, frustration, and isolation felt by young people which can lead to engagement in antisocial actions. A recent report published by Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) noted that teenagers affected by austerity-induced youth club closures in London became 14% more likely to commit crimes within six years of the closure - with particularly large increases in acquisitive crimes (e.g. theft, robbery and shoplifting), drug offences and violent crimes. The result of this report clearly points to the important direct role of youth clubs in supporting young people outside of school hours and suggests that youth club closures create greater societal costs than the sums saved from public spending by their closure.

Sustainable, adequate and ‘ring-fenced’ funding for youth provision is therefore essential to tackling antisocial behaviour in Scotland - at a local and national level. Programmes such as Cashback for Communities are welcomed but cannot replace statutory funding. Ensuring that youth service/provision is reliable, constant, consistent, well-resourced, and shielded from budget cuts is essential to tackling antisocial behaviour. Without ring-fenced funding, these vital resources are often the first to face cuts, leaving gaps in support that can increase the risk of antisocial behaviour.

The development of the Youth Work Strategy for Scotland was paused in light of the Independent Review of Community Learning and Development (CLD) announced on 5^th December 2023, which concluded in June 2024 and published on 17^th July 2024 - Learning for All for Life. The review examined the extent to which CLD, including community based youth work, is delivering positive outcomes for some of our most vulnerable learners. The Scottish Government and COSLA have accepted the first recommendation of the report to establish a joint CLD Strategic Leadership Group (SLG). The SLG will play a central role in developing a detailed response to the other 19 recommendations, including on youth work. Scottish Government and COSLA are working on the membership and terms of reference for the first meeting of the SLG in early 2025. but, as it stands, Scotland does not have a revised national Youth Work Strategy that is being collectively actioned and evidenced.

Upstream preventative investment, based on the Marmot principles, as noted previously in this report, is especially relevant when addressing the root causes of antisocial behaviour for young people, reducing the need for costly interventions later. By investing in programmes and resources that support young people’s development, such as accessible mental health services, recreational facilities, and safe and welcoming spaces in their local communities - we can work towards ensuring young people receive the support, guidance, and connection they need to thrive.

In addition, embedding a social return on investment (SROI) approach to upstream prevention highlights the broader benefits of designated and sustained funding, as investing in youth services not only reduces antisocial behaviour but also leads to long-term social and economic gains - reducing future costs in criminal justice, welfare, and healthcare systems.

As noted previously, the lack of quantitative data on youth antisocial behaviour was evident as part of this independent analysis, and therefore investment is also required in this area as it continues to perpetuate unhelpful narratives around young people and enables the continuation of resources, investment and attention being redirected away from tackling root causes or appropriate situational responses. The use of data and emerging tools has the potential to support a prevention model, utilising place-based predictive analytics to ‘get ahead’ of emergent issues.

Antisocial behaviour is essentially talked about in terms of a deficit model. There is an opportunity to address this with young people by talking about what constitutes prosocial behaviours and endeavour - through appropriate sustained investment, resources and infrastructure - to make this the cultural and social norm. Reframing antisocial behaviour as an opportunity to develop prosocial skills shifts the focus from punitive punishment approaches to be about prevention, growth and support.

By recognising antisocial actions as expressions of unmet need, we can support young people toward healthy forms of engagement, fostering empathy, resilience, and a sense of belonging that ultimately reduces challenging behaviour and actions.

Actions:

• Challenge persistent stereotypes that unfairly label young people as primary perpetrators of antisocial behaviour, acknowledging that individuals of all ages engage in antisocial behaviour. Focus on promoting prosocial behaviours, fostering empathy, resilience, and belonging as part of prevention strategies. Recognise antisocial actions as expressions of unmet needs and address these through supportive, developmental interventions.
• Align interventions with the UNCRC principles, prioritising education and support over punitive measures and ensuring statutory obligations to support young people’s development and dignity are upheld by government and local authorities.
• Prioritise development of a dedicated Youth Work Strategy for Scotland.
• Establish ‘ring-fenced’ funding for reliable, consistent, and well-resourced youth provision at a local and national level, preventing cuts that leave young people unsupported. Revive safe spaces and activities for young people to combat boredom, frustration, and isolation, which can contribute to antisocial behaviours.
• Learn from, and continue to invest in, the major success of recent policy related to youth crime (given the crossover between antisocial behaviour and other offending behaviours) - the whole system approach encompassing diversion and early and effective intervention.
• Explore local community/place-based decision making for allocation of Scottish Government Cashback For Communities funding as part of prevention of antisocial behaviour.
• Invest in providing tailored youth diversionary projects and the returning of safe spaces (as part of a contextual safeguarding approach), utilising the unique relationship and wider role housing providers have with communities to encourage multi-generational use of community spaces to increase community cohesion and mutual tolerances.

Case study - Scottish Violence Reduction Unit: Glasgow City Centre Youth Pilot

A new initiative is under development by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, with the potential to serve as a scalable model for other Scottish cities if proven successful. This project adopts a Public Health approach to reduce antisocial behaviour and violent crime among young people congregating in hotspot areas of Glasgow City Centre. It places a strong emphasis on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), with particular attention to Article 12 - ensuring young people are meaningfully engaged in shaping the initiative, voicing their perspectives, and driving change.

The programme will target young people from various Scottish localities who gather in Glasgow City Centre, aiming to address rising incidents of antisocial behaviour and violence through early intervention. With many young people in these areas vulnerable to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE), the initiative includes a dedicated focus on preventing violence against women and girls.

A multidisciplinary team of trained volunteers from existing youth work and safeguarding organisations will be deployed every Friday and Saturday from late afternoon to early evening (2pm - 9pm). The team will provide visible safeguarding, proactive engagement and early intervention to defuse tensions, address vulnerabilities, and support positive outcomes for young people. Volunteers will adopt a supportive and non-judgmental approach in line with UNCRC principles, focusing on reducing blame and shame while signposting young people to relevant support services (e.g. mental health or addiction services).

Volunteers will wear identifiable vests featuring a unique emblem (design pending) to ensure they are easily recognised. The team will have access to the Glasgow City Centre Network Radio, allowing seamless communication with local law enforcement if required. A tailored social media strategy will leverage platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat to inform young people about the team’s presence in real-time, promoting awareness and accessibility.

Staff from businesses in hotspot areas will be identified and trained in contextual safeguarding and de-escalation techniques. This will create an additional layer of preventative action by equipping business staff with the skills needed to build relationships with young people, diffuse potential conflicts, and contribute to safer community spaces.

By integrating a holistic, rights-based approach with practical, on-the-ground interventions, this initiative aspires to not only address immediate concerns but also lay the groundwork for long-term, systemic change that can be replicated in other Scottish cities.

Thanks to SVRU for permission to use this case study.

Case study - Planet Youth: Upstream Prevention in Practice

Planet Youth is an internationally recognised place-based improvement methodology that centres the voice of children and young people using data driven insight to create long term sustainable change. Focusing on improving young people’s health, wellbeing, and relationships it is data driven, evidenced based and currently operating as a pilot in six areas across Scotland.

It is based on the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM), a primary substance use prevention process tool where the key ingredient is data-driven collaboration via community engagement, family and school involvement and prosocial positive youth development. This includes schools, parents, carers, businesses, local government public services. The model has been developed by Planet Youth, a research consultancy in Iceland that is now supporting the implementation of its model in communities throughout the world.

Over 20 plus years later, Iceland is still seeing continuous and sustained improvement in risk taking behaviours in its young people. There is every reason to believe the same will happen in Scotland with further investment in the model. A truly upstream model, its theory of change evidenced changes in behaviours of young people over time which include reductions to antisocial behaviour, less offending behaviours and intake of harmful substances. It is about equipping young people to make better decisions and creating protective environments with the use of local coalitions and data.

In 2019 a small group of partnerships in five local authority areas joined together with Winning Scotland, to develop and undertake a proof of concept implementation of the approach in order to gauge its suitability in the Scottish context. In the wake of the first cycle of activity, Scottish Government funding of £1.5m was awarded to Winning Scotland to coordinate and facilitate a two-year pilot programme running to March 2025, to assess more robustly the potential of Planet Youth in Scotland to drive positive system change around upstream prevention and benefit, in time, all of Scotland’s young people.

Six local coalitions are currently participating in the pilot, which will be subject to a robust evaluation. A small central team has been established within Winning Scotland to lead the programme development and implementation work.

Thanks to Winning Scotland for permission to use this case study.

Case study - Contextual Safeguarding (Firmin, 2020a; see also HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2023)

Contextual Safeguarding is about responding to potential harm faced by young people beyond their front doors. It is an approach that looks at how we best understand risk, engaging young people to help them feel safe, working within contexts including peers, school and communities. It involves developing plans to address the context.

Contextual safeguarding highlights the traditional limits of child protection responses (e.g. involving parents/carers) and draws attention to extra-familial harm (occurring in settings like parks, shopping centres, restaurants, transport stations, online, etc) - which has often fallen outside safeguarding’s remit.

This can take many forms such as: the creation of safe spaces in the community; safety planning; bystander intervention training; targeting the factors that are undermining the relationships between children and their parents or carers; addressing the dynamics of school or peer contexts associated with a particular child’s behaviour; and shifting cultures or norms that contribute to harm. Interventions should complement and enhance any individual or family interventions that are required, not replace them.

In practice, this has meant that children experiencing extra-familial harm, who display offending behaviour, have often been responded to through criminal justice, rather than safeguarding processes. So far, the main testing ground for contextual safeguarding approaches has been in children’s social care, however, as Firmin (2020b:10) has recognised: “Among areas testing Contextual Safeguarding approaches […] some have trialled bringing together Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) and Child Protection or child welfare meetings for individual children, and wider peer groups, who are harming others and being harmed themselves.”

This approach was used in Edinburgh, and is being tested in North Lanarkshire. You can find the evaluation of the Edinburgh pilot project here > Contextual Safeguarding Pilot.

An important overview of how the work is being implemented can be found at: Firmin, C., & Lloyd, J. (2022). Green Lights and Red Flags: The (Im)Possibilities of Contextual Safeguarding Responses to Extra-Familial Harm in the UK. Social Sciences, 11(7), Article 303.