AYJ and Young Advocates engage with Ministry of Justice on the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care
This August, the AYJ hosted a meeting between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and AYJ members, to inform the MoJ’s response to recommendations made in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. A parallel meeting between the MoJ and the Young Advocates also took place, to ensure that the MoJ were taking into consideration both the expertise and insight of our members, and of children and young people with lived experience of the youth justice system.
The following views belong to the AYJ and the Young Advocates.
Making systemic changes towards child-focussed youth justice.
One of the recommendations of the review was that responsibility for youth justice policy be moved from the Ministry of Justice to the Department of Education.
The Young Advocates were concerned that this move would not meaningfully alter the people making the decisions, or the ‘not my problem’ approach of those who make decisions about Youth Justice- many of whom do not have lived experience of the justice system. Members agreed that youth justice policy should not sit separately from children’s policy more broadly, and recommended a Cabinet-level Minister especially for children and families, and consideration of larger structural governmental changes, such as a UN Convention on the Rights of the Child governmental department, as the best means of improving the focus of child policy. Members also highlighted that the current age of criminal responsibility - 10 - is inhumane, and undermines a child-focused approach.
Closure of Young Offenders Institutes and Secure Training Centres.
Members and the Young Advocatess welcomed the Care Review’s recommendation that YOIs and STCs are “wholly unsuitable” and should be closed within 10 years. The Young Advocates highlighted that the best means of supporting children onto a path away from the justice system is to lower the number of children in the secure estate, and increase freedom and opportunities, alongside closing facilities that are not fit for purpose.
Plans for secure schools – which will be opened as an alternative to YOIs and STCs – received mixed responses amongst members and the Young Advocates. Members flagged their concerns about delays, that the government had significantly increased funds for its construction and running, and the lack of a plan for the secure estate. Young Advocates weren’t sure a school environment would sit well with children who have often had negative experiences of education.
Preventing criminalisation of children with care experience.
Members raised that tackling the disproportionate criminalisation of children with care experience required continuity and consistency of services, necessitating a joined-up approach with good communications between different services and locations. Both members and Young Advocates agreed on the importance of staff retention; children need a low turnover of long-term professionals to feel genuinely supported, and social workers require a low caseload to be able to spend quality time with each child.
Members highlighted that staff training of those in care should also focus on welfare, instead of ‘risk’ aversion. Young Advocates added that the ‘over-criminalisation’ risk-focus enacted against children in care for engaging in adolescent behaviours that wouldn’t usually involve the police stigmatised them in the Youth Justice context and eroded their access to a real fresh start.
Regional Care Collectives
There were hopes amongst members that Regional Care Collectives – new bodies the review recommends to run and set up residential care, fostering and secure care within a specific region - would help localise services and potentially increase secure fostering. The member consensus was that although RCCs were a good idea in theory - and should include justice commissioning - they would require the transfer of Youth Justice to the Department of Education to be feasible. It was also raised that their initiation could further desensitise local authorities from moving children from their local area, and that they are not the solution to wholesale privatisation of the care system.
Integrating AssetPlus and CiN
The review recommended that AssetPlus – the youth offending service system - and children in need assessments be integrated to “simplify the experiences of children in the youth justice system”, after successful pilots of the integrated services three local authorities. Members shared concerns that assessments should focus on welfare instead of risk, and about magistrates having a lot of information and placing conditions on children under the guise of ‘supportive intervention’. Members raised that the assessment should also require the local authority to assess its own actions in supporting the child, similarly to Serious Case Reviews.
The Young Advocates spoke about what the assessment process for children should look like, feeding back that assessments should feel like conversations, not box-ticking, and should focus on risks to the child, not risks the child might pose. They also highlighted that children should be involved in the process, and should be able to read what’s written about them, and invited to challenge it.
The insight gathered during these meetings will help the MoJ advise Ministers about the recommendations in the Independent Care Review. We look forward to our continued engagement with the Ministry of Justice.