LATEST NEWS

Our latest briefing draws from an evidence review; a consultation session bringing together professionals from the youth and adult criminal justice sector, voluntary and community sector, legal practitioners, and academia. It also draws from meetings and interviews with practitioners, subject matter experts, and civil servants.

This blog looks at the VASA panel in the London boroughs of Richmond and Kingston. The panel brings together local services – social care, housing, health, education, police, and the voluntary sector – to review cases of 18–25-year-olds at risk of exploitation or violence.

This blog, in conversation with a youth worker for The Children’s Society (TCS) in Nottinghamshire, examines how TCS helps children and young adults affected by child criminal exploitation.

This blog, in conversation with Adam Elliott, a former AYJ Young Advocate and the founder of The Long Game, explores how child criminal exploitation works and looks at the role of peer-led youth work in the sector.

In our latest comment, we respond to the inspection of HMYOI Feltham A, where violence remains the highest of any prison, and children face long lock-ups and disrupted education. Despite small improvements at the institution, we warn that these findings reflect a wider crisis in safety across the youth estate.

AYJ comment on removal of children from Oasis Restore secure school, highlighting serious safety failings and warning against transfers to unsafe YOIs and STCs, reiterating calls for custody to be a last resort and delivered only in small, local, welfare-based settings with high standards of care and safety.

AYJ comment on urgent notification for Oakhill STC and inspection of HMYOI Werrington, warning of institutional failure across the youth secure estate and calling for STCs and YOIs to be replaced with small, local, Child First environments rooted in care, wellbeing and safety.

This blog, in conversation with two frontline practitioners at Abianda, explores how Abianda builds trust with young women and girls affected by child criminal exploitation.

This blog captures reflections from Abianda’s Young Women’s Advisory Group,  exploring what meaningful support should look like. Their insights highlight how services can shift power, build trust, and take a trauma-informed, participatory approach that supports girls and young women affected by exploitation as they move into adulthood.

In this blog, we speak to Zahbia Yousuf at Maslaha — a grassroots organisation new to AYJ membership. Maslaha work to challenge the root causes of Islamophobia. Zahbia reflects on how the education system fails to meet the needs of racialised young people, the importance of creative, culturally responsive spaces, and why change must be shaped by those most affected.

The AYJ is delighted to welcome five new trustees to our board, appointed at our 2025 Annual General Meeting. They bring a wealth of experience across youth justice, governance, finance, and influencing.