Volume 1: “Crime is a symptom of something else”: An exploration of educational and child psychologists’ contributions to youth justice services in England Volume 2: A collection of four professional practice reports

Rayfield, Louise Elizabeth (2022). Volume 1: “Crime is a symptom of something else”: An exploration of educational and child psychologists’ contributions to youth justice services in England Volume 2: A collection of four professional practice reports. University of Birmingham. Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

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Abstract

Volume 1:
Children and young people (CYP) known to youth justice services (YJSs), also known as youth offending teams or youth offending services (YOTs/YOSs), represent a vulnerable group of CYP. There is a growing interest in youth justice work, with increasing numbers of educational and child psychologists (ECPs) working in this area. However, there is an underdeveloped body of research investigating ECPs’ practice with YJSs; therefore, this research utilised individual semi-structured interviews to explore six ECPs’ contributions to YJSs across five local authorities (LAs) in England. The findings provide a unique contribution to the limited knowledge base in this area.

Data were analysed inductively using Thematic Analysis (TA; Braun and Clarke, 2006) that illuminated six main themes from ECPs’ accounts. Key findings related to ECPs’ roles in identifying CYP’s special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEN/D), problem-solving, and training and empowering youth justice professionals. Findings also illustrated ECPs’ roles in providing links between YJSs and education services, which included their involvement in supporting resettlement from custody into the community. These are reportedly important contributions in the literature given the high rates of recidivism amongst CYP not in education, training or employment (NEET), and the role of education as a protective factor from offending.

It is anticipated that the findings will contribute to the emerging understanding of ECPs’ work with YJSs. Implications for ECP practice are discussed, including ethical considerations, opportunities for ECP practice in youth justice contexts, recommendations for professional development on doctoral training courses, and considerations for establishing YJS partnerships and service delivery models. The findings and implications are also considered within Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model, highlighting ECPs’ contributions to YJSs at various levels that can impact proximal and distal factors involved in CYP’s offending.

Volume 2:
The following thesis is formed of four discrete papers detailing research undertaken during my second and third year of supervised professional practice placements as a trainee educational and child psychologist (ECP) in an educational psychology service. The first paper outlines the successful adaptation of an anxiety-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) intervention to support an eight-year- old boy with learning difficulties in a mainstream primary school. The second paper explored a youth justice operational manager’s (YJM) perspective regarding the contributions ECPs make in their youth justice service (YJS). The third paper used Activity Theory to explore staff and pupils’ experiences of a secondary school’s transition process. The fourth and final paper includes a reflective account using Gibbs’ reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) to consider my professional practice in a primary school, delivering an emotion-focused workshop based on Emotion Coaching principles for a year 4 class. Each professional practice report is provided below, preceded by an abstract to provide an overview of the individual paper.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

Supervisor(s):