From the frontline
Giving you an insight into what our teams are seeing and experiencing on the frontline of our vital work with children and young people.
Fiona an academically high achieving 17-year-old, fled the family home after her mother grabbed her by the throat when she asked for more food. Fiona had suffered years of psychological and physical abuse from her mother who has long standing mental health. Her father does not protect her from harm by her mother, and the family are estranged from their extended family. Fiona suffers from anxiety and depression and has no savings or regular income.
After the attack, Fiona’s mother was arrested and cautioned by the police for assaulting her. The police officer assessed Fiona would be at risk if she went home. Fiona went to stay with her friend’s family. She asked for help from children’s services to have a safe home, financial support and contact with her siblings. Even though Fiona was a child in need and entitled to help under the Children Act 1989, the local authority refused to provide her with any help or support. For five months, the friend’s family have provided a safe home, food and emotional support without any assistance or contact with the local authority. Doing the work of the state.
At Just for Kids Law, we have assisted Fiona to access a lawyer – with the benefit of legal aid – to get the support and help that the law says she is entitled to.
Contextual Safeguarding: hear from our team
Join Just for Kids Law legal director, co-founder and co-lead Aika Stephenson at the first ever International Contextual Safeguarding Conference, in-person this September at Durham University.
This two-day, in-person event will launch the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding and bring together practitioners, researchers, policymakers, young people and parents from around the world to explore how we protect adolescents beyond their homes, across geographies and professional contexts.
🎤 Fellow speakers include Professor Carlene Firmin, Jahnine Davis, Naomi Danquah, Jade Barnett, Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and more
Association of Child Protection Professionals (AoCPP) says: Over two days, you’ll hear from world-leading practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and young people as we launch the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding and explore how to create safety for adolescents beyond their homes—across settings, systems and sectors.
To secure your space visit
Join us in raising £65,000
Too many children and young people caught in the intersection of policing intervention and poverty, homelessness, care experience, educational needs or racialised, never have their voices heard by those in power.
This year we would love for the Big Give to be a way for us to connect with people from across our community and support our aims to raise £65,000 funding for participation activities which include:
- A residential weekend of team and skills building
- National campaign planning and delivery days
- Policy, child rights and communications skills training days
- Voices unlocked: meeting the decision makers
Contact Natasha if you can help or want to find out about any of the following:
- Could you, or where you work be a Big Give Christmas Challenge 'Pledger'? Deadline 9th September.
- Do you lead a team, or are you part of a group or society that would support our work through festive fundraising?
- Are you a singer, choir member or part of another musical group?
- Can you connect us to an interesting location to host a festive event?
Please contact Natasha at NatashaIles@justforkidslaw.org to find out more.
Did you know?
The first year of our 2024-27 strategy is complete. We start to share what have we achieved for children and young people.
Whilst pulling together the monitoring and evaluation for our 2024-25 Annual Accounts, we can share that across Strategic Priority 2: Ensuring children & young people experiencing criminal exploitation are recognised as victims and supported, we ensured 9 children and young people experiencing criminal exploitation are recognised as victims. In these cases this also ensures that the individual children and young people are placed on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), supporting them to get additional support and ensuring they continue to be recognised as victims of exploitation.
Strategic Priority 1: Ensuring children & young people have their rights respected in their interactions with the police
Strategic Priority 2: Ensuring children & young people experiencing criminal exploitation are recognised as victims and supported appropriately
Strategic Priority 3: Supporting care experienced children & young people to secure care entitlements
Strategic Priority 4: Protecting and promoting children & young people’s rights, ensuring they are embedded in government policy making
We'll share more of our 2024-25 strategic impact over the next few months.
From exploited to exploiter? Join Aika Stephenson and fellow experts at the Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) Report launch
Hear from Aika on Friday 19th September as she joins fellow experts at the launch of From exploited to exploiter?, a new policy briefing from AYJ exploring the unjust criminalisation of victims of child criminal exploitation (CCE) who are transitioning to adulthood.
As the Crime and Policing Bill makes its way through Parliament, creating a new offence of CCE, there is a critical opportunity to improve the response for victims - but a growing risk that exploited young adults will be harshly prosecuted as perpetrators. The briefing, produced by the Alliance for Youth Justice and funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust, examines this risk and delves into how current policy and practice across safeguarding services, police, prosecutors, and courts, including the use of the National Referral Mechanism and section 45 defence against prosecution, is leaving young adults vulnerable to continued exploitation and conviction.
This event will bring together policymakers, practitioners, lawyers, academics, and voluntary sector leaders for a presentation of the report's findings, a panel of expert reflections, and discussion on the urgent reforms and inter-agency collaboration needed to support young people and protect them from severe prison sentences as they transition to adulthood.
Our expert panellists include:
- Aika Stephenson, Co-Founder and Legal Director, Just for Kids Law
- Dez Holmes, Director, Research in Practice
- Dr Grace Robinson, Director, Black Box Research and Consultancy
- Debbie Ariyo, Founder and CEO, AFRUCA (tbc)
APPG reports, supported by JfKL and CRAE, call for urgent reform on how children are treated in police custody
Two powerful new reports launched by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Children in Police Custody reveal deeply concerning practices and call for urgent reform to better protect children's rights. They are a testament to the importance of listening to children and young people—especially those most impacted by policing.
We’re proud that Just for Kids Law and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England played a key role in supporting this work, from helping establish the APPG to sharing evidence and supporting children and young people to share their views for these important inquiries.
The APPG reports—which centre the voices of children—shine a light on the rights violations children face, from traumatic strip searches to long hours in cells, and recommend vital reforms.
We will now be working with partners and the APPG to ensure the recommendations are taken forward.
Read the recommendations in full: