• 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.

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.

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.

SCYJ welcomes the government’s commitment to tackling serious violence, and the strategy’s acknowledgment of the importance of early intervention and a whole-system approach. However, we have concerns that the proposals do not go far enough, and that the criminal justice measures risk increasing the number of children (under 18-years-old) in custody.

SCYJ is calling on the government to gather evidence on effective interventions and adopt a public health approach that sees resources directed towards preventative services that will have a long-term impact on violent crime.

Read our full response here.

SCYJ has made a submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights who are carrying out a consultation on child rights.

In it we referred to the right of privacy at all stages in criminal proceedings in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Our submission can be accessed here.