Policy divergence and devolution : the impact of actors and institutions

The creation of the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was accompanied with an aspiration that these new institutions would allow Scotland and Wales to develop their own policies, better suited to local needs than those designed in Westminster or Whitehall. This thesis explores policy-making in the first terms of the devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales, focusing on where the policies developed by these institutions diverged from those pursued at Westminster. Policy divergence is examined by studying the development of the financing long-term care for the elderly policies. The aim of this thesis is to identify why policy divergence occurred in the long-term care case, considering the impact of actors (or agents) and the institutional setting in which they operate, as suggested by Scharpf's model of actor-centred institutionalism. As actor-centred institutionalism suggested, both actors and institutions played a major role in shaping policy responses. In the Scottish case a range of actors cooperated and lobbied together for the introduction of free personal care, spurred on by the First Minister, who created an opportunity for those in favour of free personal care to pressurise his government to introduce the policy. In contrast, in Wales, actors were divided and never built up the same momentum to ensure the introduction of a more generous long-term care package. The institutional setting in which these actors operated was a major factor in shaping their policy preferences and the strategies they adopted to achieve them. This thesis considers the impact on policy-making of the devolved institution's electoral system, financial and legislative powers, design of the institutions, and the place of these institutions in a UK setting. The different institutional structures in Scotland and Wales provided different incentives and resources for actors, encouraged different styles of policy-making from Westminster and affected the way in which issues were framed. Examining the roles of actors and institutions in the formation of distinctive policies highlighted that in the real world these two elements are mutually dependent and cannot be separated. As a result it is impossible, and pointless, to determine whether actors or institutions were most influential on the development of distinctive policies. Instead this thesis explores how the difference between the configurations of actors and institutions in Scotland and Wales contributed to the creation of policies which were distinctive both from each other and the UK Government

Rights Respecting? Scotland's Approach to Children in Conflict With the Law

What the report ‘Rights Respecting? Scotland’s approach to children in conflict with the law’ shows is that many children who are in conflict with the law in Scotland do not experience ‘justice’ in the true meaning of the word. There is no justice in taking traumatised children; holding them solely responsible for their actions; putting them through processes they don’t understand, and are unable to participate in; blaming and stigmatising them whilst failing to give them what they need; putting barriers in the way of loving and caring relationships; and taking existing supports and opportunities away from them. The report concludes that Scotland would benefit from thinking about children in conflict with the law from the perspective of rights. This represents a shift from focusing on children as troubled, challenged, vulnerable and challenging, which whilst often well-meaning and containing a partial truth, can encourage negative unintended consequences which disproportionately affect and stigmatise the most disadvantaged children. Children in conflict with the law, like all children, are rights holders. They are entitled to their rights and should have their rights upheld

Scotland - it's complicated

This presentation was made by Claire Lightowler, Director of CYCJ, at the Five Nations Youth Justice Conference 2014, which took place in Cardiff

Restorative practice in the aftermath of serious crime : examination of the evidence and identification of learning for practice

Restorative justice is the "process that seeks primarily to address or repair the harm caused by an offence". The primary aim of which is "to enable people to express their feelings in a safe and constructive way, and to ensure that people take moral responsibility for their part in what happened"

The 19th Kilbrandon Lecture (University of Strathclyde, 27 January 2022) : a rights respecting approach for children who offend: Building on Kilbrandon's vision

This lecture was the second to be live-streamed as a webinar during COVID-19 restrictions. Dr Lightowler argued that the experiences of children in conflict with the law demonstrates that we need urgent action of a scale not seen since the Kilbrandon Report (1964). Children in conflict with the law are exposed to significant trauma, adversity, stigma, and injustice. These issues are often exacerbated by contact with the very systems and services intended to support them. Dr Lightowler will demonstrate the transformative change that could be achieved if Scotland viewed children in conflict with the law as rights-holders and devoted greater attention to upholding their rights. The lecture was followed by commentaries by Professor Ursula Kilkelly and Ms Ruth Kerracher, and a vote of thanks by Minister for Children and Early Years in the Scottish Government, Ms Claire Haughey MSP

Living it : children, young people, justice

Our main aim in editing this issue has been to create a space for those who had contact with the justice system as young people to share their experiences and reflections.This issue represents an attempt to shift power and control a bit from the professionals who usually edit these types of things, to people who have lived it

Youth in Justice : Young People Explore What Their Role in Improving Youth Justice Might Be

This report, which was commissioned by the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice and written by Space Unlimited, aims to understand how young people could become active participants in shaping improvements to youth justice policy, practice and research

Case Study : Secure Care in Sweden

This case study by CYCJ’s Claire Lightowler and Carole Dearie discusses secure care outcomes, legislation, policy and practice in Sweden, particularly highlighting similarities and differences to Scotland. It is based on a review of the literature, analysis of governmental data, a visit to a secure care unit for young girls and discussions with secure care staff and academics based in Sweden in October 2015

Embedding research into practice through innovation and creativity : a case study from social services

This paper explores ways in which IRISS (Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services) promotes the delivery of cost effective social services in Scotland that support the achievement of positive outcomes. The approach to evidence-informed practice is characterised as four pillars of activity. The first focuses on improving awareness and access to evidence. The second refers to strengthening the evidence base and is discussed in the context of work on self-directed support. Improving skills and confidence to use evidence forms the third pillar. The final pillar is embedding evidence in organisations, through coproduction, creating spaces to test and challenge evidence, and through the development of evidence-based products

Examining professionals' critical thinking about children who pose a serious threat to others

Concerns have been raised about the quality of child-care professionals' critical thinking and analytical skills. This study examines the critical thinking demonstrated by professionals when discussing risk in relation to vulnerable children. Data were collected from thirty consultation meetings, each of which focused on assessing the risks of a child who presented a serious threat of harm to others. Discourse analysis is used to examine the way in which critical thinking about risk is discussed at the consultation meetings. The findings suggest that critical thinking is demonstrated by professionals in ways that differentiate between potential harm and actual harm, and in relation to harm children pose to themselves and to other people. Also, the willingness of professionals to ask relevant questions and challenge each other is an important way of prompting individuals to demonstrate critical thinking. However, professionals tend to demonstrate a relatively narrow conceptualisation of critical thinking. This narrow conceptualisation cannot be reduced solely to the abilities or traits of an individual or professional group and it is argued that the bureaucratic and procedural demands of organisations in relation to vulnerable children may be an important factor in limiting the way professionals demonstrate critical thinking