Lecture by John Swinney MSP
Apex’s Annual Lecture is known as a key date in the Justice calendar and we were delighted that this year Deputy First Minister, John Swinney MSP, agreed to speak about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their consequences, a subject which is rapidly becoming a building block for thinking on preventive/community justice and indeed on approaches to criminal justice.
Apex has always reflected the need to understand that people are individuals and that people we work with may have experienced one or many traumatic experiences in their journey to us, and any programme or service for them has to be unique and based upon their specific needs. You can learn more about this in our Annual Report.
In his lecture Mr Swinney considered the evidence for improving our recognition of adverse childhood experiences and how this links into justice and safer community policy thinking. At this time when a range of issues relating to youth justice are going through parliament, and when there is much public attention upon education and its impact on wider society, there can be few more topical and challenging subjects.
You can find the full transcript of the lecture here. A video of the full event, including the question and answer session with Mr Swinney, can be found here.
If you are interested in being invited to future Apex lectures please let us know.