The AYJ is delighted to announce that we have received a new five-year core grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, made through the latest round of their Backbone Fund.

The Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) is delighted to announce the appointment of Jess Mullen as its new Chief Executive, who will be joining the organisation in May.

This briefing, part of a project funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust, explores how racially minoritised young people experience particularly destabilising transitions to adulthood due to deficits in support before and after turning 18. It highlights the crucial role the ‘by and for’ voluntary and community sector plays in addressing these shortfalls.

The AYJ has published a report calling for reforms to ensure that as racially minoritised young people in the criminal justice system turn 18, the ‘by and for’ voluntary and community sector is there to support them.

Longford prize winners Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) share a quest blog as a new AYJ member, about the harms of joint enterprise and the change needed

On 24th January we hosted our Quarterly Members’ Meeting, which featured a presentation from Steph Roberts-Bibby, Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB).

As part of our project exploring the experiences of young people transitioning into adulthood whilst in the justice system, the AYJ team visited the Youth to Adult Hub in Newham, London, to learn about the pilot approach to probation

The AYJ has joined over 100 other organisations to support the #ChildrenAtTheTable campaign, calling on the next Government to make good childhoods a national priority and be a champion of all children, including those affected by crime and the justice system.

For our project exploring the experiences of young people transitioning into adulthood while in the justice system, we spoke to Sammy, founder of Wipers Youth CIC, about the organisation’s critical work with children and young people

As part of the Young Women’s Justice Project, Agenda Alliance and AYJ have published a new briefing paper spotlighting the severe mental health problems facing young women in our prisons.

The government has introduced the Sentencing Bill to Parliament. Here, we summarise proposals which will impact children in the youth justice system

The government has introduced the Criminal justice Bill to Parliament. We explain proposals which if passed into law will impact children in, or at risk of entering, the youth justice system

AYJ comment on HMI Prisons’ annual Children in Custody report and an inspection report on Werrington YOI, exposing deeply concerning conditions within the secure estate for children

The AYJ has responded to a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation on youth remand funding arrangements. The response summarises discussions that took place in a meeting convened between expert AYJ members and the MoJ remand consultation team to feed in their views.

At the end of October, the Young Advocates attended their first residential!

The AYJ has submitted evidence to a Justice Select Committee inquiry into the future prison population and estate capacity, in order to draw the Committee’s attention to how the Ministry of Justice's current strategy for managing the adult prison population is impacting children and young people in the children’s secure estate.

Saqib Deshmukh reflects on all that he’s learned and enjoyed this year as he departs from his role as AYJ’s Interim CEO.

Find out what we’ve been up to in the month of September!

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.

In August, two of the Young Advocates attended a session, led by AYJ member the National Appropriate Adult Network (NAAN), to learn about appropriate adults, the training that NAAN provides to its members, and to share their experiences of police custody.