1998-2008 10 years of youth justice reform
2008
Legislation and reports
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 passed (8 May 2008)
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act received Royal Assent on Thursday 8 May 2008. The passing of the Act will lead to the most important legislative changes to the youth justice system since 1998, including:
- clarifying the purpose of sentencing for the youth justice system, ensuring prevention is the principal aim
- the introduction of the Youth Rehabilitation Order, Youth Conditional Caution andYouth Default Order
- extending Referral Orders and enabling early discharge for good behaviour
- new anti-social behaviour measures.
Web links:
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (PDF)
Ministry of Justice publish reoffending statistics (9 May 2008)
As part of the drive to tackle prolific and serious crime, the Ministry of Justice launched a new measure to capture information on reoffending more completely. Previously, only whether an offender had reoffended or not was recorded. The new measure focuses on the number of times a young person who has offended reoffends, and shows how many of these offences are classified as serious. It will be used to measure performance against the Public Service Agreement (PSA) indicator for 2005–11 – Make Communities Safer.
In May 2008, existing data for 2000–05, to which the new measure had been applied, was released, showing that the number of offences committed by young people who had previously offended fell by 17.4% during that period.
Data for 2006 was due to be published in September 2008.
Web links:
Download the reoffending statistics
YJB
New youth justice planning framework introduced (2008)
The YJB launched a new youth justice planning framework for both England and Wales. It was based on self-assessment and improvement planning by YOTs, and YJB validation and risk-led support. The new framework consolidated all previous YJB strategic plan and improvement plan requests, such as Effective Practice Quality Assurance (EPQA).
English YOTs were asked to complete the Youth Justice Planning Tool, while YOTs in Wales were asked to complete the Youth Justice Plan Cymru – both were made available in both Access and Word.
Web links:
Youth Justice Planning Framework
Frances Done becomes Chair of the YJB (1 February 2008)
Frances Done was appointed Chair of the YJB in February 2008, taking over from interim chair Graham Robb.
She had previously worked in both the public and private sector, including for the Royal British Legion, the Audit Commission and the Organising Committee of the XVII Commonwealth Games. She has also worked and served in local politics.
Web links:
Third workforce development strategy launched for consultation (May 2008)
Covering the period 2008–11, this strategy sets out how the YJB will support local youth justice services in ensuring that their staff are well-trained and competent, and able to take greater responsibility for assessing their own workforce needs and commissioning appropriate training and development.
It builds on the previous two phases of the strategy, which was first published in 2003, and that sought to ensure effective practice was implemented widely throughout youth justice services.
Web links:
More about workforce development and the strategy document
Youth Crime Prevention in Wales: Strategic Guidance published (June 2008)
Youth Crime Prevention in Wales: Strategic Guidance was jointly produced by the Welsh Assembly Government and the YJB. It set out the YJB and the Welsh Assembly Government's vision for the strategic positioning of targeted youth crime prevention in local authorities in Wales. The guidance promotes a model that uses the Youth Inclusion and Support Panel as the multi-agency hub of prevention activity.
Web links:
Youth Crime Prevention in Wales: Strategic Guidance
Community
Electronic yellow envelope process national implementation successfully completed (10 March 2008)
In March, the Electronic yellow envelope (Eye) process was successfully implemented on schedule across all 157 YOTs in England and Wales.
Since May 2007, Eye had been introduced to YOTs and the secure estate in Wales and across England on a region by region basis; the final regions to go live were the East and West Midlands on 10 March 2008.
This means that all YOTs now send documents – including Asset, post-court reports and pre-sentence reports – via Secure eMail from court to the YJB Placements and Casework Service, who then forward the documentation to the relevant secure establishment.
Web links:
Custody
HMP Cookham Wood becomes young offender institution (2008)
HMP Cookham Wood, an adult women's prison, was converted into a YOI to hold boys and young men under the age of 18.
The project provided 157 extra places to accommodate young men from London and the South East, an area where there has traditionally been a major shortage of places, often leading to young men being held long distances away from home.
In line with the YJB's Strategy for the Secure Estate for Children and Young People, the move has helped alleviate this problem, increasing stability across the secure estate by placing young people from the area closer to their home.
The site was significantly improved to provide suitable facilities, including a fully refurbished workshop and classrooms to improve the range of vocational courses that can be offered.
Web links:
Strategy for the Secure Estate for Children and Young People