AYJ comment: £300 million funding for youth justice announcement
The government announced today (20 May 2022) a £300 million funding package for youth justice over the next 3 years, ‘to support every single council across England and Wales in catching and preventing youth offending earlier than ever, helping to stop these children and teenagers from moving on to further, more serious offending.’
The announcement includes the ‘Turnaround’ scheme, ‘a new early intervention scheme backed by £60 million, local Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) will be given extra funding to connect children and teenagers to targeted, wraparound support to stop them going down a path of criminality.’ The package also includes an uplift in core funding for YOTs, such that together with Turnaround funding, central government funding for YOTs will be around £100m a year, compared to around £75m currently.
The announcement follows our recent publication of A perfect storm for children at risk? Preventing a post-pandemic surge in the criminalisation of children, which warned of the significant risk of an increase in the number of children drawn into the justice system following the pandemic, and made recommendations to address the critical need for more preventative support and early intervention, and to ensure YOTs are fully-funded to be able to provide and focus on diversion work. A critical juncture for youth justice: Learning lessons and future directions for a post-pandemic youth justice system, also highlighted the challenges ahead for YOTs under significant strain, responding to the impacts of the pandemic in the context of reduced and uncertain funding.
Commenting on the announcement, Pippa Goodfellow, Chief Executive of the Alliance for Youth Justice said:
“The funding announced today is a welcome boost for YOTs that have been facing increasing pressures to support children outside the formal justice system, and meet the needs of increasingly vulnerable children. It is a warmly welcome investment to ensure that the criminalisation of children can, and must, be avoided, and could not be more critical as the effects of the pandemic on children and the justice system continue to be realised.
This additional funding also offers an important opportunity to ensure that children from historically marginalised backgrounds have enhanced access to specialist support that is tailored to meet their needs. Opportunities to utilise this funding to address racial disparity at the front end of the justice system must be a priority, including engagement with specialist, grassroots organisations - rooted in local communities.”