Youth Justice Board For England Wales
Achievements
Id like to pay my own tribute to these achievements before I go on to talk about some of the challenges were facing and what the future might look like for youth justice.
First of all, weve heard from other about the strength of the partnership, and that is absolutely right. Whether you call it the jewel in the crown like Lord McNally or the critical beauty like Charlie Taylor, multi-disciplinary teams are the backbone of the success of youth justice services and I am 100% committed to protecting and encouraging that element. I know were still a way off but I am really excited by the opportunity to use new KPIs to hold partners to account and ensure the children and communities youre supporting have the benefit of each partners expertise and resources.
Although we can all recognise that we could always do more with more money, we should acknowledge that this time last year government announced 300m being invested over three years in youth justice. It was described as the largest youth justice funding boost in a generation. At a time when there are a great number of areas in need of funds, we can be proud that youth justice has successfully made the case for investment. Part of that investment, of course, has meant vast changes to the YJBs operating model to provide the level of performance oversight that is demanded of such an investment in services, and I would like to thank you for your patience and support of our change programme so far.
So onto the numbers
In the latest annual figures, around 8000 children entered the criminal justice system for the first time. This is more than 100,000 fewer children than 2006, where the highest first-time entrant figure was recorded.
Its not possible to accurately predict what these number would look like without that drive to keep children out of the system. Very crudely (and certainly not with the approval of our stats team) one could argue that if rates continued at 2006 levels there would be up to 1.2million more first-time entrants in the system.
Custodial sentences have seen an equally impressive reduction going from 7,485 to 553 over 20 years. I was pleased to hear many of the previous Chairs highlight this achievement as one to be proud of. We all know the custodial estate in its current form is not the right place for complex, traumatised children to heal, change and develop a pro-social identity and its in the face of this realisation that this reduction is all the more important.
Again, its not possible to apply the what-if comparison accurately, but I think what we can say for sure is that there are many more children, and adults, in our communities today who are doing amazing things and reaching their potential because they were not held back by a criminal record, or traumatised by time in prison, or stigmatised by a court appearance, and, perhaps for the first time, they had a caring adult ensure they had the support they so desperately needed. And much of that success is down to many of you in the room. Thank you.
The final two of the system indicators that we have been using up until now look at reoffending.
We have 15 years of data in this area and as you can see, reoffending rates and frequency rates havent dropped in the same way as first time entrants and custodial sentences. As the number of first-time entrants has rightly reduced, we all recognise that the statutory caseload for youth justice services is made up of children whose needs and backgrounds are almost always incredibly complex and require long term support.
The future
So, given all these achievements over the last 25 years, what does the future look like?
Over the next few years there are some key milestones and challenges for us to be aware of:
Central government policy decisions
We know there will be an election at some point in the next two years. For those of you who have been following politics and justice for as long as I have you will know that there are many pressures to side-line the evidence of what works in favour of more short-term and potentially punitive approaches which can more quickly appease public anxiety but that dont actually solve the issue. This is something I hope we will all work together to guard against.
The government will need to respond to the latest report from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. I dont think this government is willing to move on the age of criminal responsibility but there are areas where there is an appetite and progress is already being made, such as around early intervention.
When questioned last week by YJB senior leaders on the use of prevention and diversion I was pleased to hear the Lord Chancellors response which said we must continue to support and divert children, be led by the evidence and data as, in his works, there is treasure in the heart of every child.
Another big decision that will need to surface again is the grant funding formula. The YJB is still committed to change and a fairer system of funding which directs funding to those children and communities that need it most, and we will continue to raise the need to revisit this in subsequent financial years.
Another area where policy will have ramifications for the immediate and longer-term future is around the transition to young adulthood. For many years the evidence has been clear on brain maturity and the argument for a more bespoke system for young adults has been made, but it is not for that reason entirely that we have seen an increase in 18-year-olds reach the caseload of youth justice services (YJSs).
As the prison population swells, I am aware of the pressure that is being leaked into the youth secure estate and onto YJSs. This is, of course, exacerbated by probation service recruitment issues. You will soon receive a letter which outlines these issues and what the probation service is doing to improve the situation. We should remain unapologetic about our focus on the needs of children, so while there are challenges in the rest of the system, our role is to push for the best outcomes for children.
As always, wed welcome the views of services on what a long term and realistic solution looks like to probation support.
We are already seeing the effects of the police uplift, not that there are simply more officers, but also the reality of the challenge of having a less experienced police service where a third of officers have less than 5 years of service.
In some areas we are concerned that this may lead to more children being drawn into the youth justice system. In itself, this will not improve community safety and may, in the longer term, be ineffective as we know that children who become involved in the criminal justice system are more likely to commit offences as adults.
From my own experience, there are some positives to having new officers, such as fresh ideas and perspectives, but at this volume it can make prioritising prevention and diversion a bigger challenge so we need to think carefully about how we support the police to use the evidence we have about what works in youth justice, so they use their additional resources in a smart way, whilst balancing protecting the public.
In conjunction with this we also have longer sentences available through the PCSC Act and court backlogs being worked through which point towards more children in the system and in custody.
Local / regional decisions
There are also decisions being grappled with outside of central government which will have wide ranging ramifications for the shape of the system
The Commission on the UKs Future, commissioned by Labour, recommends that, if in power, Labour should grant new powers to the Senedd and Welsh Governments, including embarking upon new powers over youth justice and the probation service.
Localism continues to offer opportunities to make more economic decisions locally and discussions around regional delegation in areas like Manchester and the West Midlands provide us with both risks and opportunities to consider.
As local authorities struggle to balance budgets against rising costs, Im sure many will consider which services could be integrated to save costs. I am in no way opposed to childrens services and youth justice being intertwined, in fact, we all know that seamless partnership is important for many reasons, but youth justice is a necessary specialism with skills that are not ubiquitous in childrens services. And I would strongly guard against integration on the basis of cost saving alone.
Workforce challenges, although perhaps enviable to the challenges in adult probation, should not be played down. Youth justice has benefited greatly from the corporate knowledge of those who have dedicated many years to the cause and we should be thinking about the effects of some of those leaders coming up to retirement alongside how we maintain a pipeline of staff of all different levels and backgrounds into the profession. And, we must ensure we have diversity at the top, in particular ensuring talented Black and ethnic minority staff are being supported to reach their potential within our organisations.
Evidence and data
On data first of all, there has been a huge shift in the data we are asking youth justice services to collect. It recognises the need to have more data on the breadth of work you are doing to prevent and divert children from the system and also the need to understand how the full partnership is or isnt contributing to childrens outcomes.
As first-time ent