National Preventive Mechanism Eleventh Annual Report 2019–20 The Justice Committee also looked forward to the findings of the Independent Care Review, commissioned by the Scottish Government. A large-scale ‘root and branch’ review, it aimed to stimulate fundamental and long-lasting changes in the culture of the care and criminal justice system for children in Scotland. After three years, the review published its final reports in February 2020, which called for a radical overhaul of the system and detailed the human and economic cost of the current provision and its failures. The review concluded that YOIs are not appropriate places for children and recommended that, where liberty must be restricted, it must only be done when other options have been fully explored, for the shortest time possible and in small, secure, safe and trauma-informed environments. The review called for diversion of children from the criminal justice system through a further raising of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. It also highlighted the disproportionate criminalisation of children in care, despite no evidence that care-experienced children engage in more offending behaviour than their peers, and recommended that Scotland reduce this disproportionality by supporting the workforce to behave and treat children in a way that is relational rather than procedural and process driven.82 The Scottish Government has made a commitment to progress the recommendations of the review, and the review team and supporters continue to campaign for change under the banner #KeepThePromise. The Care Inspectorate took part in the review and is now considering its own contribution to such change, including implementing new 82 83 84 30 standards for secure care and scrutinising the decisions and transitions that lead children in and out of secure care (which is currently beyond its remit). Further key reports on children and young people in Scotland included the recommendations of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Task Force, published in July 2019, and the Youth Commission on Mental Health Services report, published in May 2019.83 Reviews into secure care for children and young people in Northern Ireland Work on the integration of care and justice settings providing secure accommodation for children in Northern Ireland continues. In 2018 a report was published by the Department of Health which recommended establishing a joint care and justice campus on the Lakewood and Woodlands sites, as well as broader reforms.84 A trigger for the review was growing concern that children and young people in care, often with the most complex needs, were spending periods of time within each of the facilities, sometimes experiencing repeat admissions and moving from one to the other. A single therapeutic framework model will also be adopted across the campuses. Independent Care Review, February 2020, The Promise, https://www.carereview.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ThePromise_v7.pdf [accessed 24/08/2020] Scottish Government, (webpage) Mental Health: Children and Young People, https://www.gov.scot/policies/mentalhealth/children-and-young-people/ [accessed 24/08/2020] Northern Ireland Executive, December 2018, Proposals for new specialist children’s campus to be developed, https://www. northernireland.gov.uk/node/36325 [accessed 24/08/2020]