Our second parliamentary reception took place earlier this week, marking ten years of youth justice reform.
There was an impressive turnout from our partners, MPs and peers, including Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw and Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls, who both addressed the reception.
Above: Jack Straw (L) and Ed Balls (R) at the YJB's parliamentary reception
Straw reflected on the work he and Norman Warner, the YJB’s first chair, had done to prepare for the reforms introduced by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 [opens in new window].
He reminded the audience of how driven by processes the youth justice system had been before the reforms, with little attention being paid to outcomes. He celebrated the fact that, under the YJB’s stewardship:
- lack of co-ordination within the system had been tackled
- time from arrest to sentence had been halved, and that the persistent young offender pledge had been met
- through prevention, children at risk of offending were having their problems tackled earlier rather than their being allowed to take root
- communities were becoming more engaged in tackling youth crime – particularly evidenced by volunteers outnumbering workers in the system
- quality of custodial places had improved, and there had been a transformation in young offender institutions.
Straw ended by thanking our Chief Executive Ellie Roy, who is due to leave the YJB this month, for her distinguished contribution to youth justice, saying:
“May the next 100 years of the YJB be even better than the last 10.”
Ed Balls described how he had been able to see, first-hand, the work being done by dedicated staff in the secure estate to tackle young people’s offending behaviour, and that the work done with young people was more effective and sophisticated because of the changes in the system that the YJB had helped bring about.
Balls emphasised the following for the forthcoming Youth Crime Action Plan:
- enforcement and early intervention
- safety and social justice
- protection and community safety.
He said he did not see a conflict between enforcement and welfare:
“Communities are entitled to feel safe, and children need places to go and things to do.”
Balls ended by saying that it was a time of big change and huge challenges, and that he and Jack Straw were determined that this would be how they would continue to go forward together.