Justice Social Work Reports (JSWR) Writing for Children and Young People (updated guidance)

Summary:

This Webinar follows the publication of the new Justice Social Work (JSW) Guidance for Justice Social Work Reports (JSWRs) and Court Based JSW Services in June 2026.

Susan Thompson from Scottish Government, who led on the new guidance, will discuss the evolution of the JSWR and reasons for this latest update. Karen Suszek from CYCJ, who updated the guidance on children and young people will, explore changes to this section and how they can better support assessment and decision making for children and young people appearing in court. Keyvan Toghyan from CJS, who leads on the national development and delivery of JSWR training, will then demonstrate how this new guidance can be incorporated into JSWRs in practice.

Speaker bios:

Keyvan’s academic career includes a PG Dip Cert in Social Work and a Degree in Sociology MA. He began his career working in the third sector specialising in homelessness. After qualifying as a Social Worker in 2009, he took up his first statutory Social Work role in Community Care. Since 2011, he has worked in the field of Criminal Justice and has an extensive experience working within Scotland’s justice system where he has fulfilled statutory criminal justice Social Work and Senior Social Work roles. Keyvan joined Community Justice Scotland in 2021 to take up the role of Learning, Development and Innovation Lead and is tasked with driving learning through innovation. Keyvan focuses on the design and delivery of world-class training and professional development in collaboration with justice sector partners and the wider Scottish workforce.

Susan Thompson has been a qualified social worker for more than 30 years working mainly in justice social work. For the past 5 years, she has been seconded to a role as a professional social work adviser based within the Community Justice division in Scottish Government. In addition to providing professional advice to ministers and policy officials, Susan has had a role in reviewing and updating practice guidance; the first of which was the practice guidance for preparation of JSWR’s and Court based social work services. The guidance and revised report template were published in 2023 following a successful 6 month pilot but it was agreed that an update would be required to take into account specific changes relating to the implementation of the Care and Justice Act and UNCRC. The updated guidance which includes a section from CYCJ covering specific matters to be addressed when compiling reports for children in the justice system was published earlier this year and Susan has now moved on to working on and publishing an updated version of the National Practice Standards for JSW.

Karen Suszek is a Practice Development Advisor at CYCJ, leading on their children’s rights work, and a particular interest in promoting the rights of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. Karen has a key role in developing rights-respecting practice for children and young people appearing in court and contributed to the new JSWR guidance section on children and young people.

Karen is a qualified social worker and before joining CYCJ in 2023 worked in Children and Families and Youth Justice teams. She previously held various third sector community and residential roles with care experienced children and young people and those with addiction issues and served as a Children’s Hearing panel member.

Related links:

JSW Guidance for JSWR and Court Based JSW Services

Important Info:

This webinar will be recorded and shared on the CYCJ website. Cameras and mics will be switched off to all attendees, only the speakers and organisers of the event will have their cameras on. If you have any questions throughout the webinar you will be able to add them into the chat and the speakers will try to answer as many as possible at the end.

All registered attendees will be contacted with teams link 24 hours before each session. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact cycj@strath.ac.uk.

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