PUBLICATIONS

The AYJ Annual Report and Financial Statements 2025 sets out the Alliance for Youth Justice’s work, impact, and financial review for the year 2025.

Read about how the feedback of our members, Young Advocates alumni, partners and key stakeholders has informed our new strategic approach. This strategy wasn't built in a vacuum; it is the result of deep listening, honest challenge, and a shared commitment to the children and young people we serve.

AYJ Response: College of Policing consultation on updated Authorised Preofessional Practice guidance on Stop and Search.

To ensure consistency across all published materials, this guide sets out clear communication standards for our team. Grounded in our core values, this guide aims to ensure that the language we use is rights based, child centred and challenges systemic inequality. We are sharing this resource in the hope that it proves useful for members own communications.

AYJ response to the Justice Select Committee inquiry into childrena nd young adults in the secure estate.

The AYJ has responded to a Department for Education consultation on establishing a new Child Protection Authority in England. The response summarises views gathered from AYJ members on strengthening national child protection systems, recognising children in the youth justice system as a priority safeguarding group, and ensuring youth justice data and expertise are included in the authority’s work.

The AYJ has responded to a Crown Prosecution Service consultation on its guidance on “gang” related offences and the use of musical expression as evidence. The response summarises views gathered from AYJ members on the use of the term “gang”, racial disproportionality, and the need for separate guidance on musical expression in evidence.

The 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.

Our submission to the Justice Select Committee highlights the urgent need to improve conditions in the children’s secure estate, ensure custody is only ever a last resort, and address racial disparities in reoffending rates.

This briefing calls on the government to protect and promote a child centred children’s secure estate, with custody only ever a last resort. It also calls for developing a distinct approach to custody for young adults.

In response to the development of a Youth Custody Service (YCS) Youth Custody Strategy, this paper sets out AYJ positions on the essential elements of a strategic approach to the children’s secure estate.