IN CONTROL OF NOW

When the sole preserve of a young person is a change in behaviour, the role of services and others is to create a conducive environment.

What is iCoN?

The iCoN programme is a specialist approach to trauma-informed and attachment-based practices for young people between the ages of ten to twenty-five years. The programme is designed to provide bespoke solutions that meet the needs and contexts of commissioning bodies, to provide young people with an introduction and understanding of traumatic histories, as well as attachment theory and the impact that both elements have on behaviour and help-seeking.

Following the design and development of the programme with Birmingham Youth Offending Service 9 years ago, the programme was originally adopted by twelve London boroughs and has since become mainstream for most of London’s 32 borough Youth Justice teams – work which involved crafting and implementing whole team changes to become trauma-informed youth justice teams from panel members to youth offender institutes.

iCoN has further been adopted and applied to Early Help provision, Children’s Centres, Targeted Youth Services throughout various London boroughs. Moreover, with Community Safety teams especially in respect of practitioners who engage with individuals, families and groups that are considered “hard to reach”. Such programme extensions illustrates the programmes flexibility as a context-based preventative approach, as well as early detection and remediation.

The programme is founded on the bio-psycho-social theoretical platform and relies on a work-based iterative bricolage approach in its delivery.