• The principle that custody should only ever be used as a last resort for children is enshrined in domestic law and international human rights conventions, but is not currently applied as such.
• As the number of children in custody has declined over the past decade, the overrepresentation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children has worsened, such that 2019 saw more BAME children in custody than white children for the first time.
• This paper sets out proposals for new legislation to ensure that custody for children is only ever used as a genuine last resort.
• Distinct and tightened legal restrictions would apply more equitably to all children and minimise the influence of a range of biases, that can see disproportionately negative outcomes for BAME children and those in local authority care.
• The suggested legislative criteria would ensure that custody is only available for the most serious crimes, where the child poses a serious and continuing risk to the public, and where there is genuinely no way of managing that risk in the community.

These proposals would be a vital tool in stemming the flow of children who are sentenced and remanded to custody. The report has been submitted to the Justice Select Committee as part of its inquiries into youth justice.

Read the report here.

Following my studies, I was looking for a role that was truly impactful –at both the interpersonal and policy level. Furthermore, to me it was vitally important to be part of a team and organisation that understood the significance of lived experience, whilst recognising the complexities of youth involvement in crime and the responses that follow. I was attracted to the SCYJ as a result of the emphasis on putting children first when it comes to criminal processes and the aims to address issues across the prevention, policing, custody and resettlement stages. The organisation’s priority areas, proactive approach to policy reform and eagerness to incorporate youth participation really excited me!

I have five years of mainly youth and community engagement work, having planned and delivered workshops and youth engagement events with a number of organisations. My belief in the need for scrutiny of the police lead me to work with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) as a young advisor, where I facilitated discussions across the country. I also presented these findings to various stakeholders including the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) 2020 ‘Child-Centred Policing’ conference. I also guest edited Issue 37 of the IOPC’s publication ‘Learning the Lessons’ – the ‘Young People’ issue. With the Scouts Association I worked to widen participation of young people in skills-based activities in deprived areas in what I believe was invaluable, non-punitive, preventative work. Additionally, with Leaders Unlocked I have worked on youth co-production projects relating to school exclusion, the welfare state, looked-after children and others in frequent contact with the CJS. Having benefited directly from amazing volunteer mentors over the years, I know some of my most important work was mentoring inner-city (elementary-high school) children in America and being trained for a similar 1-1 mentoring role at Leeds Youth Offending Service.

My knowledge of many member organisations only strengthened the weight and credibility of the SCYJ’s aims and abilities to make meaningful long-term change in the area of youth justice, in my eyes. In keeping with this, learning more about the work of those I was not previously aware of demonstrated the undeniable value of having a means to consolidate ideas and experiences of frontline work – as there is so much good stuff going on! I cannot wait to get to meet and work with you all more closely in the near future.”

Amania will be working for us Tuesday-Thursday on all things policy and engagement, but specifically with our upcoming youth participation project and producing the youth justice bulletin. If you have any ideas regarding policy and engagement (or would like to say hello!) you can get in touch with her at amania@scyj.org.uk

The SCYJ would like to extend huge thanks and appreciation to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for their generosity, investing in our team and making this fantastic appointment possible.

There will be implications for all children and young people in our communities, particular challenges for those in the youth justice system, and exceptionally critical risks for children in custody.

Over the past few weeks, we have been working with our members to gather information and insight, enabling us to highlight issues and make practical suggestions, outlined in this paper.

The paper makes a number of recommendations around safeguarding children in the community; children under the supervision of YOTs; minimising throughput of children into the youth justice system and custody; children in custody; and coordinating the safe release of children from prison.

Key areas for consideration include:

• Specific communications directed at young people about the importance of social distancing and isolation measures.
• The balance of public health risks alongside other risks to safeguarding children and young people from harm.
• The role of frontline youth workers with flexible emergency funding, personal protective equipment and antibody testing.
• Support, guidance and advice for youth offending services and community partners.
• Guidance for policing children and young people and minimising arrests.
• Maximising diversion from the youth justice system and penal custody.
• Managing the planned release of children from prisons.
• Longer-term considerations for children in the youth justice system.

Read more here.

Our priorities include:

• Increasing the minimum age of criminal responsibility
• Maximising diversion and minimising contact with the criminal justice system
• Investment in community-based, child-centred responses to children in trouble with the law
• Reducing the number of children deprived of their liberty and the closure of all penal custodial establishments
• Reforming childhood criminal records and anonymity law to promote reintegration
• Ensuring courts are child-centred and promote understanding and participation

Read the full briefing here.

The purposes of the job are:

• To be a champion of the rights and wellbeing of all children and young people involved with the youth justice system
• To bring ideas and creative communications skills to SCYJ’s policy and communications work
• To engage with our members and the wider sector, including children and young people themselves, to inform our work and share practice
• To help SCYJ stay up to date with policies and practices that affect children involved with the justice system
• To be part of the SCYJ team and collaborate with the SCYJ Board and members

We welcome applications from people who have:

• Commitment to social justice and bringing about positive change for children and young people
• A genuine interest and understanding of the issues affecting children involved in the youth justice system
• Good interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage with people from a range of backgrounds and develop collaborative working relationships
• Persuasive and creative written and visual communications skills, and experience of producing written materials for different audiences 
• Familiar with digital media, including using social media channels and ability to produce content for website and use survey software
• Experience in MS Office including Outlook, Word and Excel
• Ability to explore and understand large amounts of information
• Strong administrative, organisational, time management and prioritisation skills

Further details about the SCYJ and the role can be found in the recruitment pack, available here.

To apply, please complete the application form, available here, and send to policy@scyj.org.uk by midnight on Sunday 8th March 2020.

You are welcome to attach a CV to your application if you wish, but this is not a requirement of the application process. Applications will not be considered without a completed application form.

We will invite successful candidates for interviews on Friday 20th March 2020 in central London. We hope the new appointee will start in early April, though we can be flexible on start date.

The two-year ‘Young Women’s Justice’ project will engage with girls and young adult women, front-line practitioners, and other experts to:

• build a strong and credible evidence base about the needs of girls and young women in contact with the CJS;
• influence government policy and strategies to take account of younger women, with a focus on Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and care experienced girls and young women;
• enable the development of effective practice through more gender and age-informed policy;
• empower girls and young women as advocates to safely share their experiences and use their voices to make change.

Read more here.

Our response covers a range of topics including custody as a last resort; Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children in custody; the harm of the secure estate; staffing; restraint; placements; and resettlement.

Read our full response here.

We worked closely with the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) and a cross-sector alliance during the parliamentary stages of the Offensive Weapons Bill to assist parliamentarians on scrutiny of the bill’s provisions. Our work helped to secure the consultation on the guidance on KCPOs as well as the piloting of KCPOs, with a report on the pilot to be laid before Parliament prior to the further roll out of the orders.

We have consulted widely with our members to ensure that the breadth and depth of their expertise informs our submission to the consultation. Our full response can be found here

Our key comments on the draft guidance are as follows:

• We strongly recommend that that Home Office publishes separate and distinct KCPO guidance for children.
• Safeguarding of children and young people must be of paramount importance. There must be more clearly stated guidance around how local multi-agency safeguarding partnerships should inform the KCPO process, in order to protect children from harm.
• As the organisations with the necessary expertise, the assessment and views of the local Youth Offending Service and children’s services must be considered at every stage of the process and clearly represented to the court.
• Guidance should make clear that attempts to engage a young person in preventative and diversionary activities on a voluntary basis must be fully explored prior to an application for a KCPO being considered- opportunities for diversion should be continuously explored.
• Further clarity is needed on the evidence base required for the imposition of an order, given it can be imposed on a balance of probabilities.
• More clarification is needed for ‘relevant organisations and community groups’ – particularly given their concerns about the introduction of KCPOs and the roles that they might be expected to play in their implementation.

Responding to the draft guidance, Director of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, Pippa Goodfellow, said:

“Serious concerns remain about the destructive impact that KCPOs will have on vulnerable young people. Lessons from ASBOs have clearly not been learned; the same mistakes are being made that will lead to young people being criminalised at a disproportionate rate.

“Where are the voices of those who are most likely to be directly impacted by the orders?  Young people who are affected by violence need to have a say and be listened to when developing ‘solutions’ to issues that affect them.

“It is hard to see how these orders can be badged as preventative, when the guidance doesn’t make clear that attempts to engage a young person in preventative and diversionary activities on a voluntary basis must be fully explored prior to an application for a KCPO being considered.“

Mark Day, Head of Policy and Communications at the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“Far from being the preventative interventions which the government promised, these punitive “knife-crime ASBOs” threaten to be a back door to custody for thousands of children and young people. How can sending a child as young as 12 to prison for breaching a civil order imposed on the balance of probabilities be considered an effective, fair or proportionate response to the complex problem of knife carrying?”

There are also major concerns from the organisations that might be expected to provide and oversee ‘positive requirements’:

Andy Peaden, Chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, said:

“The legislation and guidance appear to regard children as mini-adults, failing to acknowledge their very different developmental stage of life. As a result, it fails to regard potential child subjects as ‘children first and offenders second’.

“We feel that the government needs to invest much more around prevention and universal early-years interventions. This would more closely constitute a genuine public health approach, ensuring children of all ages are provided with the support they need to stay away from serious violence, as well as helping to eliminate the climate in which violence breeds.

Lisa Capper, Director of Education and Skills at Nacro, said:

“Nacro would like to see less reliance on the KCPO mechanism as a panacea for knife crime and more resourcing of preventative proactive programmes for young people at risk, commissioned locally and led by expert grass-roots organisations.

“Nacro provides further education for over 4,300 young people and adults who are at risk in some shape or form. Young people have told us that access to education in a safe place and learning to stay safe from others is a large part of the solution – more supervisory orders are not.”

For more information or interview requests, please contact:

Pippa Goodfellow on:pippa.goodfellow@scyj.org.uk

Notes:

1. The Standing Committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ) is an alliance of over 60 non-profit organisations working together for a better youth justice system. More information about the SCYJ is available here. 
2. The orders have not been subject to any kind of meaningful public consultation, up to this point. Key stakeholders, including the Youth Justice Board, the Children’s Commissioner, the prison service, magistrates, local government and children’s services were not given any kind of input on the development of KCPOs prior to their introduction to the Offensive Weapons Bill. KCPOs were also not included as part of the government’s serious violence strategy.
3. In August 2019, the Home Office opened a consultation on guidance in relation to the operation of, and application for, new Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs) which have been introduced through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. Details of the consultation on the draft guidance is available here.
4. The full SCYJ response to the consultation is available here.
5. An independent evaluation of ASBOs, commissioned by the Youth Justice Board, suggests several ways in which strategies to address problematic behaviour might be refined or further developed. A summary of the evaluation is available here.

SCYJ responded to the consultations setting out our position and recommendations around priority areas of the youth justice system.

In particular, SCYJ would like to see:

• The minimum age of criminal responsibility significantly increased
• A commitment to maximise diversion and minimise contact with the criminal justice system, in lieu of welfare-based service provision
• Investment in community-based, child-centred responses to children in trouble with the law
• A significant reduction in numbers of children deprived of their liberty, and the closure of all penal custodial establishments
• Criminal records and anonymity law reformed to promote reintegration
• Child-centred courts that promote understanding and participation

Read our full response here.

We have submitted a statement to Charlie Taylor’s independent review of pain-inducing restraint, urging the Ministry of Justice and the Youth Custody Service to prohibit the use of pain-inducing techniques on children and across child custody as a whole. We join a wide range of bodies and organisations that have called for a ban.

The deliberate infliction of pain on children breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The deliberate use of pain is damaging to children and causes unnecessary harm. It is also a fundamentally flawed model of how to resolve conflict and develop trusted relationships between staff and children.

Read our full statement here.