Playing the Long Game

Who hasn't heard of this book -#Upstream by Dan Heath?

Who actually knows what that means and how to do it? #Prevention is a thorny subject. How do you solve problems before they happen and how do you know you have? Evidencing our prevention activity? Why aren't we better at it? Given the focus on Scotland from the Christie Commission https://www.gov.scot/publications/commission-future-delivery-public-services/ , the work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit ; our collective understanding of #trauma - why are we still waiting for people to fall into the water before heading upstream to make the changes that will prevent them falling in?

These (and others) were the questions I and a bunch of leaders were pondering over during the #LongGame retreat - superbly put together by Zahra Hedges and her team at Winning Scotland and facilitated by the extremely talented Jess Gildener and Keira Oliver .

In a kinda 9 go adventuring in Glenshee way, we spent 48 hours together in a super location Cray House really giving these questions and our role in the prevention space a huge amount of thought. What's different about that, I hear you say? For me , it was the spectrum of Scottish civil society leaders, all with skin in the game, coming together to collectively put aside our egos, sharing our experiences and frustrations and (interspersed with some real personal, soul searching stuff), considering what needs to happen to take forward this agenda.

For the Scottish Community Safety Network , tasked with supporting partnerships and stakeholders #prevent #crime and #fearofcrime, it was essential activity. For me, as Co-chair of the Independent Working Group on Anti-social Behaviour, https://www.gov.scot/groups/independent-working-group-on-antisocial-behaviour/#:~:text=Overview,understanding%20and%20preventing%20antisocial%20behaviour. it really set the size of the challenge out in simple terms -

• poverty is the single biggest hurdle we face in creating a level playing field for people to thrive
• we must focus on Equity over Equality
• much of this is generational, attitudinal and societal and this is the size of the challenge
• Our services across Scotland are (mostly) about fighting fires
• We must bring the wider public into this discussion. Media tells us that we should put 'thugs in jail' - As we again debate early release from prisons https://www.itv.com/watch/news/criminals-could-be-released-two-months-early-in-attempt-to-ease-pressure-on-overcrowded-prisons/3ns9jzw - what have we done to help the public understand this?
• Scotland's Vision for Justice https://www.gov.scot/publications/vision-justice-scotland-three-year-delivery-plan/ will hang on #prevention - are we doing enough yet?
• to prevent something happening, we must first understand why it's happening - we don't spend nearly enough time on this. .https://www.safercommunitiesscotland.org/2023/10/10/why-why-is-the-new-so-what/

The group of people in the pic above have committed to be in this for the #longgame and I'll update you when I can.

Meanwhile, think about this - why are people behaving *antisocially? Why are our care experienced young people achieving the outcomes they are? Why are so few #autistic people in employment? Why don't we value the role of #carers?

I'd love to know your thoughts and solutions?

• and what even is anti-social behaviour - for another day...

Zahra Hedges Tim Frew Judith Turbyne Clair Thomson @dianestockton Catherine McWilliam Dr Kristy Docherty