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Youth Justice

How do we best support arrested children to prevent them becoming involved in violence?

Systems guidance for arrested children

The Youth Endowment Fund is a charity with a mission that matters. We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We think any credible plan to reduce violence has to recognise that children rely on seven essential sectors to be safe, one of which is youth justice. We plan to work with delivery organisations and system leaders to better understand and deliver on the changes most likely to reduce violence. 

Why are we focusing on youth justice?

There are three key reasons why we are focusing on youth justice: 

  1. Improving the way we support children means less victims and better lives for children 

    At least one in three children who are arrested and then convicted or cautioned go on to commit further offences. There is clear evidence that improving the way we respond to these children can reduce crime – this means less victims, more people feeling safe and better lives for children. 
  1.  Better evidence-based support to children who are diverted means less victims in future 

    Diverting children to effective services is a big opportunity to reduce re-offending. Evidence from many rigorous reviews, summarised in the YEF Toolkit, shows that approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy, mentoring or sport programmes can reduce offending. Conversely, approaches such as prison awareness programmes are known to be ineffective, or can even increase the chances of re-offending. Faster referrals to more effective services have the potential to improve outcomes for children. 
  1.  Improvements can be made to the way we respond to arrested children. 

    Although the use of diversion has increased over the last 20 years, there is insufficient awareness of what effective diversion looks like. The funding formula for youth justice services does not reflect local levels of need or properly recognise diversionary work. Vulnerabilities such as child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation are too often missed at the point of arrest. Referrals to support can be slow, particularly for key therapeutic interventions. 

Toolkit evidence

See below evidence from the YEF Toolkit about approaches to reducing violence that are often used in the youth justice sector:

Estimated impact approaches evidence quality
HIGH
(30%+ less violence)
 Sports programmes
1 2 3 4 5
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
1 2 3 4 5
MODERATE
(10%-30% less violence)
 Pre-court diversion
1 2 3 4 5
Restorative justice
1 2 3 4 5
Mentoring
1 2 3 4 5
NO CLEAR EVIDENCE
 Knife crime education programmes
1 2 3 4 5
Arts Programmes
1 2 3 4 5
Trauma-informed training and service redesign
1 2 3 4 5
HARMFUL
(increased violence)
 Prison awareness programmes
1 2 3 4 5
Boot camps
1 2 3 4 5

Explore more approaches on YEF’s Toolkit summarising the best available research evidence on preventing children and young people’s involvement in violence.

Changing systems

How we are supporting change across the youth justice sector

In December 2023, we published our Systems Guidance: Arrested Children: how to keep children safe and reduce reoffending. The report summarises evidence of what works, the experiences of practitioners and young people, and provides a set of recommendations to improve practices, policies and systems. 

  • Systems Guidance

    Report:Systems Guidance: Arrested Children

    The Youth Endowment Fund exists to prevent children from becoming involved in violence. One of the ways we seek to achieve this mission is improving support for children when they are arrested. This includes diverting them from formal youth justice processes like appearing at court. This is a critical moment where effective support can change…

Our Strategic Advisory Group for Youth Justice

We brought together a Strategic Advisory Board to help ensure its recommendations are actionable, worthwhile and make significant improvements for children who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Please see below for further details. 

Claire Parmenter
Deputy Chief Constable / Dyfed-Powys Police

Claire joined Dyfed-Powys Police in 1993, and has served in a variety of uniform roles across the force area. Her career to date has included a national role supporting the implementation of Neighbourhood Policing across the UK, time as the Joint Emergency Services Lead for Wales, supporting resilience across the four Welsh forces, Welsh Fire and Rescue Services and the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust, and a secondment to the local authority, developing the joint community strategy.   

Claire has led on a number of change programmes within Dyfed-Powys Police, and has also worked in Avon and Somerset Constabulary on secondment. Claire has been awarded the Stonewall Workplace Champion award for her work supporting diversity across Wales. She is an accredited strategic firearms and gold public order commander.

Claire is the Welsh Chief Officer lead for both Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and School Community Police Officers (SCPOs). She was appointed temporary Assistant Chief Constable in 2017, and promoted to Deputy Chief Constable in August 2019. Claire was subsequently appointed as Temporary Chief Constable in March 2021, and is the NPCC national portfolio lead for Neighbourhood Policing.

Festus Akinbusoye
Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner / Office of the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner

Festus was elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire in May 2021. 

He has lived in Bedfordshire for ten years. Before being elected as Bedfordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, he completed 400hrs of service as a Special Constable with Bedfordshire Police, including frontline response duties as an officer.

Festus is a director on the board of a YMCA where he and colleagues oversaw the delivery of housing, and other support services, to vulnerable young people. This included a £20m housing construction project providing supported accommodation to nearly 200 young people.

​​He also served as link-governor for the Offender Learning and Skills Services team, delivering training and education in prisons.

​​He is a former Parish Councillor and – following rising anti-social behaviour, especially at night – he got the unanimous buy-in of his colleagues for the Council to fully fund a Youth Club, staffed by a professional Youth Worker.

“Supporting and protecting our young people are key priorities of mine as Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, which is why I am delighted to be part of the Strategic Diversion Group (SDG), led by the Youth Endowment Fund.

“Preventing our young people from coming in contact with the criminal justice system is vital, and so is the need to ensure the right pathways are made available to them in the event of them being arrested or charged with a crime.  The work of the SDG, will help deliver these objectives for our future generation.”

Grace Strong
Strategic Director / Leicestershire’s Violence Reduction Network (VRN)

Grace has spent the majority of her career working in probation services as a practitioner, manager, and senior leader in a variety of settings. She has led the design and implementation of a range of cross-sector, multi-agency projects and programmes including Integrated Offender Management schemes, a specialist young adult diversion service, and a community resettlement project providing housing and holistic support. She also held the thematic leads for trauma-informed practice, young adults, and service user involvement.

In 2019, Grace left the probation service to lead the establishment of Leicestershire’s VRN.  She continues to lead the Network overseeing the co-design and delivery of multiple projects across community, education, early help, health, and criminal justice settings.

Jacqui Belfield-Smith
Head of Youth Justice & Targeted Youth Support / Stockport Council

Jacqui has significant leadership and management experience in Youth Justice in the Greater Manchester area, having worked in Youth Justice for over 20 years; most recently as ‘Head of Youth Justice, Serious Violence Reduction & Targeted Youth Support Services’ for Stockport Council, a role she has held since 2005. The post involves close collaboration across the 10 GM authorities, including leading on the ‘Children in Police Custody’ workstream for GM. She holds a national position as the Chair of the The Association of Youth Offending Team Managers (AYM), where she also holds portfolios for Policing and ASB as well as being the AYM rep on the ‘Youth Justice Sector Improvement Board’ (YJSIP).

“AYM are pleased to be working alongside YEF and welcome the research findings within the ‘Children, Violence & Vulnerability report 2022’ and support the wider principles of the Diversion Project. As a member of the YEF ‘Strategic Diversion Group’ the AYM Chair aims to represent the youth justice sector at this forum.“

Justin Russell
Chief Inspector / HM Inspectorate of Probation

Justin joined Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation as Chief Inspector in June 2019 and will serve in this role until May 2024. Justin’s previous role, from 2016 to the beginning of 2019, was as Director General, Justice Analysis and Offender Policy at the Ministry of Justice. Justin started his career as a social researcher in the Home Office and has worked on a wide range of criminal justice issues including as a Senior Policy Adviser on home affairs in the No.10 Policy Unit and as Head of the Violent Crime Unit in the Home Office where he led the Ending Gang and Youth Violence Programme and the government’s strategy on ending violence against women and girls.

Paul Marshall
Strategic Director of Children and Education Services / Manchester City Council

“As the Director for Children and Education Services in Manchester and actively working on the ADCS national portfolio for Youth Justice, the research is clear, children once involved in the criminal justice system tend to experience less positive outcomes than their counterparts.   I am therefore keen to share key insights about how the system can work better with children who find themselves arrested but not charged.   

Being part of this diversionary strategic advisory group means I’ll contribute to this work being undertaken by the Youth Endowment Fund bringing national perspective in this area.

I am confident this work provides a very real potential to improve the experience of children across England and Wales who are on the edge and/or involved of the criminal justice pathway.“

Dame Rachel de Souza
Children’s Commissioner for England / Children’s Commission

Children’s Commissioner, Rachel de Souza promotes and protects the rights of children, especially the most vulnerable, and stands up for their views and interests.

“As Children’s Commissioner I take on a crucial role, sitting at the heart of Government, delivering for children, and championing their voices and needs. As an educationalist, working directly with children in schools throughout my career, I have seen first-hand how passionate and compassionate children are. This is an ambitious generation who want to succeed in life, but who also want to play their part in improving the world around them. They need us, as adults, to listen to them and ensure they get the right help to fulfil their true potential.”

Serena Kennedy
Chief Constable / Merseyside Police

In April 2021, Serena became the first female Chief Constable to lead Merseyside Police.

As Chief Constable her force strategy includes tackling serious & organised crime, inclusion, community engagement, wellbeing, preventative policing and protecting vulnerable people.

She has been the national lead for drones and Response Policing and she has recently been appointed as Chair of the newly formed National Prevention Coordination Committee.

“I’m very much looking forward to being part of this diversion strategic group and bringing a Policing perspective to the conversation.”

Steph Roberts-Bibby
CEO / Youth Justice Board

Steph Roberts-Bibby’s previous roles include:

  • June 2023 to date, Interim Chief Executive Officer (SCS 2), Youth Justice Board
  • April 2023 to date, Interim Accounting Officer, Youth Justice Board
  • April 2021 to June 2021, Interim Chief Executive (SCS 2) and Accounting Officer, Youth Justice Board
  • September 2018 to current date, Chief Operating Officer (SCS 1), Youth Justice Board
  • August 2016 to September 2018, Governor, HMP and YOI Winchester
  • May 2016 to August 2016, Design Lead for New Prison Operating Model
  • June 2014 to May 2016, Through the Gate Implementation and Transformation Lead
  • February 2012 to June 2014 Governor, HMP Hewell
  • February 2010 to February 2012, Governor, HMP and YOI Brinsford
  • July 2007 to February 2010, Deputy Governor, HMP Woodhill

Find out how you can get involved with YEF

You are invited to join our events specifically for the youth justice sector, to see how we can collectively tackle violence prevention for young people.

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