Our methods prompted the participants to talk about their relationships with various agencies. Many paid tribute to the practical support, care and fun provided by a variety of statutory and voluntary sector workers. However, several respondents from Glasgow and the islands identified places associated with the police as their \u2018least favourite spaces\u2019. Four islands participants felt targeted by the police. One young woman (16) explained:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m known to them now\u2026they just pick me up instead of anyone else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She also felt that the police were abusive<\/p>\n
They throw you on the floor..they take your blanket and your mattress away..They take your shoes off, take your belt off, take your jumper off, and if you refuse to do it they\u2019ll pin you down, and they\u2019ll actually take your bra off.. they ask you ..\u2018do you harm\u2019, \u2018no\u2019, \u2018have you ever self-harmed?\u2019 \u2018no\u2019 and then they do it anyway.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Similarly a Glasgow participant compared the police unfavourably with secure unit staff:<\/p>\n
[The police] always try and hurt you..they don\u2019t care, they just pure squeeze yer heid down\u2026In here [secure unit]..they try to keep you safe\u2026 They\u2019re putting you down on the ground but they\u2019re placing you down safely and they\u2019re just like that \u2018come on ..just calm down\u2019..and they point out good things to point oot\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jodie (15, children\u2019s unit) and Mackenzie, whose contact with the police came as witnesses to incidents that led\u00a0them into the care system, criticised how they had been left scared, tired, hungry and thirsty in police stations very late at night. Jodie felt as if she were the one in a cell. Mackenzie recalled that<\/p>\n
[the police] called the social work but it took them two hours to do that\u2026and then after that it took about an hour for the taxi to get there, and then another hour to get to the place (emergency house) that I was going, so I was there at about three o\u2019clock in the morning and I had school the next day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She also criticised the police\u2019s response to her contacting them on behalf of a friend who was thinking of committing suicide:<\/p>\n
they said \u2018we\u2019ll call you back\u2019 and I was waiting up until [2.15am] and they still didn\u2019t call me, they\u2019ve still not called me now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Several participants emphasised how they found the physical environment of children\u2019s hearings intimidating, while Daniel (16, foster care) complained that social work arrangements for contact with his birth family members forced him to return regularly to a local shopping centre, associated with drug use, that held bad memories for him. Further, some participants complained of worker turnover and heavy caseloads which prevented social workers and others from providing effective support when they needed it. Others, who were settled in their placements, found the periodic interviews they were required to attend with social workers intrusive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our methods prompted the participants to talk about their relationships with various agencies. Many paid tribute to the practical support, care and fun provided by a variety of statutory and voluntary sector workers. However, several respondents from Glasgow and the islands identified places associated with the police as their \u2018least favourite spaces\u2019. Four islands participants … Continue reading Relationships with significant agencies, especially the police<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":195,"parent":10,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[12,11,15,4,10,13,8,14,3],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.researchunbound.org.uk\/young-people-creating-belonging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}