Children Webmag - APPG News

The All Party Parliamentary Group
for Children

by Alison Linsey

The Current Youth Justice System

On 22 March the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) heard from Paul Goggins MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office. The Minister has responsibility for correctional services and reducing re-offending, and for Home Office input into policy on young people and families.

The Minister spoke about the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which established the current youth justice system, including the creation of the Youth Justice Board and multi-disciplinary Youth Offending Teams (YOTs). The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 established the current sentencing system for young offenders:
o Reprimands and final warnings – clarified the warning and cautions system that did not provide a clear progress of sanctions
o Referral Orders – for young people pleading guilty to a first offence, this provides for referral to a Youth Offender Panel made up of professionals and volunteers from the local community, which works out a programme specific to that young person
o Intensive Supervision and Surveillance programmes - provides 25 hours per week of intensive supervision, which is usually accompanied by tagging
o Detention and Training Orders (DTO) – custody used as a last resort, and usually through a DTO where there is a period in custody followed by a period of supervision in the community

The Minister also spoke about preventative work including parenting programmes, Youth Inclusion Programmes, mentoring and Positive Activities for Young People. These programmes are operated by YOTs to divert young people away from crime.

In 2003, Youth Justice: the next steps was published as a companion document to Every Child Matters. This fleshed out the Government’s future thoughts on what is needed in the youth justice system. The document sets out that prevention should be embedded as the key principle of sentencing, although there are other principles as well. Youth Justice: the next steps also proposes to simplify community sentences, in the same way as is being done for adults through the community order with attached conditions.

It is also proposed that the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme be turned into a freestanding order as an alternative to custody. Custody should always be a measure of last resort. The Minister said that this kind of thinking is going into the Draft Youth Justice Bill (which was not published in the last session of Parliament despite being in the Queen’s Speech setting out the legislative programme for the year). The Government is also looking at the Referral Order with the intention of providing a more flexible approach, for example if the young person does not plead guilty.

The Minister spoke about custody, and that the numbers of young people in custody need to be reduced. This would enable more money to be spent on preventative work. The Minister said that there is an improved level of safeguarding in custodial institutions. However there is a need to meet mental health problems, for example to prevent the deaths of the three young people who died in custodial institutions. The Minister also said that it is important to assess vulnerable young people and treat them appropriately, and to reduce opportunities for self-harm and suicide.

Following the Minister’s presentation, Parliamentarians, and professionals from the voluntary and statutory sector participated in a Q&A session. An interesting point arose from research into ChildLine’s phonecalls. The phrase ‘anti-social behaviour’ first came up in a call last November. Although ChildLine get a very small percentage of calls mentioning this issue (and it is not the main reason the young person has called) they are able to look at the calls and see what the young person’s concern has been. One boy called because he had been physically abused, but because he was subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) he didn’t want to go to the police. This raises concern about troubled young people’s awareness of the legal distinction between civil and criminal sanctions.

At this meeting the APPGC also said goodbye and thank you to Hilton Dawson MP who co-chaired the Group since 2001, but has stood down from Parliament at this General Election.

Future meetings
Parliament has been dissolved prior to the General Election on 5 May, and will return following the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen’s Speech setting out the legislation for the year on 17 May. The APPGC will start meeting again from early June, and our first meeting is likely to focus on children and young people who display sexually harmful behaviour.

Please contact Alison Linsey, Clerk to the Group (email: alinsey@ncb.org.uk):

• To be added to the email mailing list to receive minutes and notices of meetings
• For copies of minutes from any of the meetings
• For a free copy of the Group’s report ‘Commitment to Children’
• For any further information about the Group