Our standards highlight the importance of taking a personalised approach to working with people on probation and children.
This personalised approach should consider:
- Protected characteristics – recognising the nine protected characteristics (gender, age, race, religion and belief, disability, pregnancy and maternity, sexual identity, gender reassignment, and marriage or civil partnership).
- Diversity in terms of ‘intersectionality’ – a term used to explain how different aspects of our identities (for example, gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, physical appearance, height, etc.) combine to create unique advantages, often described as ‘privilege’ or disadvantages, often described as ‘discrimination’. This should include structural barriers which have prevented the child working with youth justice services and the person on probation accessing universal services, such as education or healthcare.
- Personal circumstances – for example: living in a rural area, ability to attend appointments, ETE patterns, immigration status, understanding of English, attachment, speech and language needs, neurodiversity, caring responsibilities, educational difficulties, having grown up in local authority care, past/ongoing trauma, vulnerability to exploitation, level of maturity, family and wider social context and previous experiences with professionals (NB: This is not an exhaustive list).
- Motivation and readiness to engage, comply and change
- Capacity and capability
- The child’s/person on probation’s strengths and protective factors.
Thus, allowing staff to understand what it is like for that particular child/person on probation, in their specific circumstances and within their specific landscape, so you can understand their lived experience.
Specifically focusing on youth services, if practitioners are able to understand the child’s personal circumstances/diversity needs, this will assist in having a child first approach.
This understanding of context provides a solid basis for establishing a positive working relationship with the child/person on probation for the period of supervision and should serve to positively impact on all elements of the ASPIRE model.