AYJ Quarterly Members’ Meeting: October 2023
On 24th October we hosted our Quarterly Members’ Meeting, which featured a presentation from Alan Webster, Head of the Youth Justice Policy Unit at the Ministry of Justice, and a Q&A where members were able to share their concerns and ask Alan questions about his team’s priorities and actions.
Keynote speaker:
Alan highlighted the team’s focus on long-term changes, and their priority of pushing for early intervention wherever possible. He gave updates on progress made in funding distributed as part of the Turnaround scheme, and on their focus on improving consistency in the use of Out of Court Disposals (OOCDs). He discussed trends in youth justice, including remand statistics, and shared details of the Ministry of Justice’s current consultation on potential changes to how remand funding is given to local authorities and youth justice services.
On custody, Alan shared information about work underway pushing for better oversight around family and professional visits to children in the secure estate; about the department’s thoughts on the underuse of Release on Temporary License (ROTL); and on recruitment activity for the secure school in Medway.
Member Q&As:
Actions being taken by the Ministry of Justice to reduce racial disparity: Alan set out that the Youth Justice Policy Unit is treating racial disparity as a symptom of wider systemic issues, so whilst there are no work plans aimed explicitly at reducing racial disparity in the youth justice system, it is considered to be encompassed by the department’s work at large. For example, the department hopes that action taken to reduce the number of children remanded to custody will result in a reduction of racially minoritised children in custody, given racial disproportionality in remand.
Homicides committed by children: In response to Alan sharing that there appears to be an upwards trend in the number of homicides involving children, including children not previously formally involved in the justice system, he was urged to centrally pull together and analyse Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews. He highlighted work the YJB has been asked to do reviewing serious notifications.
The future of the interim policy to keep 18 year olds in youth custody: Alan confirmed this isn’t intended to be a permanent change, but a reflection of strain on the adult estate. There is currently “no evidence” that those over 18 are more likely to be involved in violence in custody, however there are many considerations around impacts for both the under and over 18s.
Appropriate Adults: Alan affirmed his belief that appropriate adults could help advance the Ministry of Justice’s pilot – implemented in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police – of children having to opt out of receiving legal advice, rather than opt in.
Organisational updates:
Pippa Goodfellow, AYJ CEO, has returned to her role after taking a sabbatical to complete her PhD. This was the final Members’ Meeting of the AYJ’s Interim CEO Saqib Deshmukh; he departs his role at the end of October: read his blog reflecting on his time in the role here.
We shared information about our engagement with parliamentarians and policymakers from the previous quarter, and shared policy updates with members.
Member Updates:
The National Children’s Bureau’s research team has been commissioned by the Sussex Violence Reduction partnership to evaluate programmes delivered “on behalf of the Violence Reduction Partnership in East Sussex (Habitual Knife Carriers) and West Sussex (School Exclusion)”.
JENGbA has obtained data from the Crown Prosecution Service surrounding joint enterprise charging decisions.
National Appropriate Adult Network is working with HMI Probation to explore the inclusion of appropriate adult services in its inspection framework.