This second report from the Young Advocates Project presents findings from engagement with 90 children and young people across England and Wales, and focuses on the three priority topics of criminalisation, policing, and intervention and diversion. The aim was to explore the routes into the justice system for young people, as compared to pathways out and away from it.

AYJ comment on HMI Prisons’ inspection report on Wetherby Young Offender Institution (YOI)

AYJ comment on HMI Prisons’ annual Children in Custody report and an inspection report on Werrington YOI, exposing deeply concerning conditions within the secure estate for children

The AYJ has responded to a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation on youth remand funding arrangements. The response summarises discussions that took place in a meeting convened between expert AYJ members and the MoJ remand consultation team to feed in their views.

The AYJ has submitted evidence to a Justice Select Committee inquiry into the future prison population and estate capacity, in order to draw the Committee’s attention to how the Ministry of Justice's current strategy for managing the adult prison population is impacting children and young people in the children’s secure estate.

A new policy framework sets out that staff in the children’s secure estate are no longer permitted to use techniques to restrain children which deliberately cause pain.

Over 30 organisations working with & on behalf of children and young adults in criminal justice system have called on Youth Justice Minister Damian Hinds to act over the appalling treatment of children in the secure estate.

AYJ Policy Manager Millie Harris reflects on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)’s report on the UK’s performance on it’s international obligations on children’s rights, which calls out the Government for a lack of progress on youth justice.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has published its Concluding Observations on the UK, setting out its concerns and recommendations regarding children’s rights

AYJ comment on Urgent Notification process invoked for Cookham Wood Young Offenders Institution

We’ve published an Evidence Review providing a comprehensive overview of the policy context and existing literature surrounding the experiences of young people in transition in the criminal justice system, as part of our research project funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust.

This evidence review, part of a three-year project on transition into adulthood funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust, summarises the policy context and existing evidence on young people turning 18 in the criminal justice system.

The AYJ has responded to a consultation on a new Policy Framework and supporting guidance on safeguarding and child protection for secure settings in the Youth Custody Service.

Today, the final civil society report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as part of its examination of the UK, has been published. 97 children’s charities from across England have warned that critical children’s rights issues must be urgently addressed by the UK Government to prevent worsening impacts on the most vulnerable children.

AYJ comment on HM Inspectorate of Prisons progress report on HMYOI Wetherby and the Keppel unit. The report has highlighted a lack of improvement and continued uncertainty about Keppel’s role

The AYJ has responded to the Children’s Rights Alliance for England’s (CRAE) call for written evidence to inform the Civil Society Alternative Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2022.

Comment from AYJ Interim Chief Executive Saqib Deshmukh following the publication of HMIP’s thematic review of outcomes for girls in custody.

This briefing presents the significant challenges for the children’s secure estate that lie ahead in the wake of the pandemic. It examines existing failures pre-pandemic, the significant risk of harm to children in custody as a result of experiences during the pandemic, failures in strategy for the children’s secure estate, and the government projection that the number of children in custody will steeply rise in coming years.

Today, AYJ publishes the third of three policy briefings for our ‘Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Justice’ research project, examining the significant challenges for the children’s secure estate that lie ahead in the wake of the pandemic.

Dr Anne-Marie Day, Lecturer in Criminology at Keele University, discusses the right for children to be treated as children in custody and calls for a higher standard of care for these children, most of whom go into the harmful and abusive custody environment when they are at crisis point.