06/12/2021
Police Oracle
Work with offenders on a new policy paper from leading stakeholders
Last week a coalition of service, strategic and political leaders in local government published a joint policy position paper on youth justice, calling for a move towards a more localised, responsive and child-centred system in the future. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), Association of Youth Offending Team Mangers (AYM) and the Local Government Association (LGA) came together to push for a change in direction in youth justice policy.
The joint Youth Justice Policy Position Paper acknowledges that huge progress has been made in recent years in reducing numbers of children in contact with the youth justice system, but says that significant challenges in both policy and practice remain. They point out that children in care, children from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds and with special educational needs are increasingly overrepresented in the system. The paper calls for urgent action to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children who are in custody and a greater focus on prevention efforts in the community is needed so that more children can be diverted away from the system.
Secure Training Centres
The ADCS, AYM and the LGA say that the Panorama investigation exposing unacceptable staff behaviours and inappropriate restraint at Medway Secure Training Centre in 2016 should have been a turning point, but this turned out not to be the case. In the last five years, there have been major concerns about all three of our Secure Training Centres. Medway has been closed and the government announced only yesterday that the contract with MTC to run Rainsbrook STC has been formally ended with the government looking at “options” in terms of how to use the facility in the future. The remaining Secure Training Centre, Oakhill, is currently under scrutiny with no new referrals being accepted because of the unacceptable treatment of children there.
The three organisations point out that multiple reviews, inquiries and reports have been undertaken in the last five years generating hundreds of recommendations for change, yet many issues remain or have worsened during the pandemic. They complain that regulation, frameworks and guidance for youth justice services continue to focus heavily on risk and offences rather than children’s needs and outcomes and national governance and oversight arrangements continue to be a concern. The organisations say that the time for diagnosis is over and that action is urgently required. They call for a redesign of the current youth justice arrangements in order to truly pursue ‘Child First’ approaches whilst supporting the needs of victims and their families.
A public health approach
The paper sets out the case for a new approach, drawing on issues and challenges as well as opportunities for meaningful change, not least the ongoing reviews into special educational needs and children’s social care in addition to the ongoing pandemic recovery planning. The Paper identifies a series of quick wins to improve children’s experiences and outcomes; these include:
The fundamental purpose of the paper is to advocate for government to adopt a public health approach to youth justice and childhood vulnerability, focussing on the journey of the child rather than departmental boundaries in order to prevent children falling through the gaps.
Readers can access the policy paper themselves here.