AYJ Comment: Foundations for a Modern Youth Justice System: A Step Toward Ambitious Reform?

The Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) welcomes the government’s policy statement, A Modern Youth Justice System: Foundations Fit for the Future. This announcement unlocks the possibility of the ambitious fundamental reform we have championed for years. 

In acknowledging the systemic failures that lead children into the justice system, and the profoundly inadequate conditions they endure in custody—particularly the unjust, disproportionate, and wasteful reliance on remand for children who ultimately do not receive custodial sentences—the government signals a critical and long‑overdue shift in the right direction.  

The commitment to more stable funding for youth justice services in the community is also welcome. However, we must sound a note of caution regarding the transfer of key functions of the Youth Justice Board to the Ministry of Justice, which reduces oversight and scrutiny and risks further diluting child-centred policy making.  

We look forward to the announcement of further ambitious reform in the spring and are heartened to see the government consider the potential for a further reduction in the overall youth custody population through improved diversion and a re-examination of the children’s sentencing framework – as we have been calling for. 

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly highlighted that the UK is failing in its international obligations to only use custody for children as a last resort. Now is the time to correct this. The government must be ambitious and aim to reduce the children’s custodial population sufficiently to close failing Young Offender Institutions by ensuring that custody for children is only available for the most serious crimes where there is no way of managing risk in the community.

Recognition of systemic failure and race inequality 

Importantly, the government acknowledge that children in the justice system have often been failed by the state and wider society long before they enter a courtroom and that those sentenced to custody continue to be failed by volatile and violent institutions unable to meet their needs. We welcome the explicit recognition of racial disparities—particularly the overrepresentation of Black and Mixed Heritage children on remand—and the admission that youth custody, in its current form, is failing to provide safety or rehabilitation.

Secure funding for local youth justice services 

We are pleased to see the government provide much-needed financial certainty for local youth justice services. The allocation of £281m for the youth justice grant and £46m for the Turnaround programme over the next three years provides significant security. Moving away from annual cycles to three-year grant awards will allow local services to plan more effectively and invest in the long-term interventions that children truly need.  

A condition of this grant will be a focus on knife possession with mandatory referrals to youth justice services for all children found in possession of a knife. While it is important for children in these circumstances to receive support, it is also vital that this policy does not further widen the net of children in contact with the justice system, and so this support must seek to divert children away from the system at the earliest point possible. 

Concerns over the future of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) 

While we understand the need for efficiency, we are concerned by plans to transfer key functions of the development of youth justice standards, monitoring of YJS performance, and strategic oversight and policy advice for the youth justice system from the YJB to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). 

• The risk of an ‘adult lens’: The YJB is currently the only agency within the justice system with a specific focus on children. Transferring the development of youth justice standards and oversight and policy advice to the MoJ risks these standards and policy being viewed through a framework designed for adults, rather than one built around the unique rights and needs of children.  

• Marking their own homework: Moving the monitoring of YJS performance and strategic oversight into the MoJ removes a vital layer of scrutiny. At a time when the system is facing what the Lord Chancellor calls a “crisis of complexity,” we need more independent oversight, not less.  

Custody as a last resort 

The use of remand

We strongly support the recognition that children are being unnecessarily remanded to custody and measures to address this through incentivisation and funding for community alternatives to remand.  

We particularly welcome the commitment to explore all other options for reducing the remand population in future, including legislative change to raise the eligibility threshold. It is an injustice that 44% of children in custody are there on remand, yet only 38% of those children go on to receive a custodial sentence. Taking children away from their homes and support structures, disrupting their education, and placing them in failing and violent institutions for no reason at all must end. 

Improving outcomes in custody

It is welcome to hear the government acknowledge the ‘dismaying’ conditions for children in custody and, in particular, that YOIs, where the majority of children are held, are not environments set up to meet the needs of children. 

While we support the aims of increasing the time children spend out of their rooms and improving safeguarding, education, support and release plans, as well as staff training and recruitment, we must be clear that a new youth custody performance oversight board and a panel to review safeguarding are not enough to solve these systemic issues. These are the latest in a long series of reviews, roadmaps and improvement plans that fall short of the fundamental change required.  

Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) and the last remaining Secure Training Centre (STC) are beyond reform. As the policy statement sets out, they are austere and unsafe environments that were never designed for children and continue to trap them in a vicious cycle of violence and isolation, and they must be closed. 

The government must be ambitious and aim to reduce the children’s custodial population sufficiently to close these failing establishments by ensuring that custody for children is only available for the most serious crimes, where there is no way of managing risk in the community. 

We therefore warmly welcome the fact that the government is not shying away from the potential of shrinking the youth custody estate in the future. This is exactly what is needed to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and the communities they will ultimately return to. 

We look forward to engaging with the Ministry of Justice on the "clear, bold and practical vision" promised for the spring to ensure a modern youth justice system that truly protects the rights and futures of all children. 

Jess Mullen, Chief Executive of the Alliance for Youth Justice, said:

"It is heartening to see the government recognise that custodial conditions for children are ‘dismaying’ and that these environments are fundamentally unsuitable for the therapeutic support vulnerable children require. However, after repeated reports, reviews and improvement plans, we know that Young Offender Institutions and the last remaining Secure Training Centre are beyond reform. The ‘bold vision’ promised for this spring must be truly ambitious: it must outline a clear plan for ensuring that custody for children becomes a genuine last resort, so that the custodial population is reduced, allowing these failing institutions to be closed for good."