Click to download and read Barriers to Engagement from our publications section. This is a summary of research that was commissioned by the YJB to examine the engagement of young people in education, training and employment (ETE) and consider the barriers to such engagement faced by those in the youth justice system. The full report is also available. A summary, as well as the full version, of the research on the Entry to Employment Programme, is also available.
Click to access the May 2004 Home Office report The Role of Education in Enhancing Life Chances and Preventing Offending [opens in new window].
The research evidence supporting the links between education and offending is clear and compelling. Risk and Protective Factors (2005) sets out the educational factors involved in quantifying risk associated with offending. By the same token, there are educational protective factors such as pre-school interventions, the development of literacy, and the prevention of truancy and exclusion.
The YJB also commissioned an Audit of Education Provision within the secure estate to understand more fully the educational issues affecting children and young people in the youth justice system. This report demonstrated that early disengagement from school, lack of attainment and failure of the system to re-engage the young person are all risk factors for offending. From this starting point the YJB developed a strategy to ensure that more was done to focus on this high-risk group, get them back into education and to use any opportunities presented by close supervision to re-engage them with learning.
The YJB has funded a number of education and developmental programmes that have provided a good understanding of how offending can be reduced. Click to view the education, training and employment research summary.
The role of the YOT education worker is crucial in delivring succesful outcomes for young people. This hybrid role, which carries high expectations around forming strong links at local level between the YOT, the LEA and the wide variety of post-16 education and training providers in the area. In order to understand more fully how this role was developing and with what degree of success in, the YJB in 2004 commissioned research into the role of YOT education and health workers.
The output of these research projects and evaluations has been integrated into Key Elements of Effective Practice – Education, Training and Employment to provide guidance to practitioners and enable them to be effective in re-engaging young people into learning.