Annex 1
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE YOUTH JUSTICE SYSTEM
The YJB has sought to provide co-ordination
to a complex system developing partnerships across government,
helping to set and drive priorities for services. We have supported
locally-managed services to meet basic standards while encouraging
innovation and new approaches to meet local needs. There is now
more coherence to the secure estate sector and to the placement
of children and young people sentenced or remanded to custody.
Key developments have included:
— The successful piloting and then
rollout of the Youth Offending Team (YOT) model across England
and Wales. YJB has provided guidance and support to these arrangements.
Alongside work to improve enforcement and compliance with orders
there has been a significant focus on access to services to address
underlying causes of offending. YOTs have involved community volunteers
in their work (including in the region of 5,000 trained volunteers
for Youth Offender Panels) and proved successful in developing
skills to engage some of the hardest to work with young people
in our communities.
— National standards for youth justice
have been introduced and the YJB has overseen performance management
arrangements and supported local youth justice planning. YJB has
provided consultancy support to YOTs who are performing poorly.
Priorities set by the YJB for YOTs have not only included criminal
justice requirements but engaging young people in key services
including education, substance misuse and mental health depending
on their assessed needs.
— New youth justice services have been
introduced including:
— targeted prevention programmes.
Multi-agency referral processes focused on children and young
people at high risk of offending. Third sector and voluntary organisations
are now involved in the delivery of many of these programmes.
The YJB has been involved in the delivery and management of Safer
Schools Partnerships. A government commitment to increase Youth
Inclusion Programmes (YIPs) and Youth Inclusion and Support Panels
(YISPs) by 50% has now been exceeded.
— Parenting interventions. There
are now around 11,000 interventions per year delivered in the
youth justice system. The YJB is continuing to work closely with
government departments on developing parenting services.
— Restorative justice and victim
involvement. While there remains significant scope for improvement,
the YJB has provided guidance and support to encourage work with
victims. Victims involved in these processes report high levels
of satisfaction.
— Intensive supervision and surveillance
programme. The YJB established across England and Wales the
most robust form of community penalty, ensuring higher levels
of contact for serious and persistent young offenders. We are
also piloting Intensive Fostering as an alternative to custody.
— New standard assessment tools for
young people have been introduced for use across the system including
assessment of the range of risks and needs established in research
as being associated with offending and reoffending.
— Improved ICT arrangements including
that all YOTs use electronic case recording and management and
a similar system is being deployed within secure establishments.
This will enable key processes within the youth justice to be
conducted electronically. This has been developed as part of a
wider YJB led youth justice ICT programme, Wiring Up Youth Justice.
— The YJB supported work to meet the
government pledge to halve the time from arrest to sentence for
persistent young offenders. YOTs contributed, through the submission
of pre-sentence reports within prescribed timescales, to cross
agency work on the pledge.
— The YJB established a national approach
to training for both youth justice managers and practitioners.
YJB has developed with the Open University a youth justice qualifications
framework.
— There has been significant investment
in research and evaluation of projects and approaches to improve
understanding of how to reduce offending and reoffending. This
has been used to inform the YJB's Effective Practice guidance
to YOTs.
— There has been significant reform
of secure accommodation for children and young people. Progress
towards a distinct youth justice estate for children and young
people separate from adults has been achieved with improved standards
of care. There has been investment in the priority areas of education
and training and substance misuse. Other developments include
new dedicated facilities for girls, improved safeguarding arrangements
including the use of independent advocates, the establishment
of a national placement system, improvements in staff training
and the development of information systems between the community,
custody and YJB.
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