Fears cuts to YOTs will trigger youth custody rise

As part of proposals to deal with emergency in-year cuts imposed by the Ministry of Justice, the Youth Justice Board wants to cut youth offending team spending by £9m for 2015/16.

Responding to a consultation on the cuts, the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that the move will be counterproductive and end up costing the public purse more due to the increased likelihood of more entrants into the youth justice system.

It pointed to the fact that numbers of first time entrants to the youth justice system have dropped by 75 per cent over the past decade, from 88,403 in 2003/04 to 22,393 in 2013/14.

Meanwhile, the number of under-18s in custody has fallen by more than 2,000 in the last seven years from 3,006 in July 2008 to 1,003 in July this year.

Roy Perry, chair of the LGA's children and young people board, said: "Youth offending teams are widely recognised to be the most successful part of the criminal justice system, working closely with young people to prevent first time offenders and reduce the overall numbers in custody.

“They have achieved these successes in spite of regular funding reductions over a number of years, bringing about significant savings for successive governments by preventing young people getting into trouble in the first place.
    
"With the increase in the types of violent incidents young people are involved in, YOTs are more important than ever to local communities and are an effective way of addressing youth crime and youth violence.

"A further £9m funding reduction is likely to be counterproductive and will undoubtedly have a major effect on the amount of diversionary and vital preventive work that has enabled YOTs to bring down the number of first time entrants to the youth justice system and lower reoffending rates.”

Perry said that with the average cost of a young person in custody estimated at £100,000 per year, it would only take 90 individuals to enter the youth justice system for one year to “wipe out” any planned savings.

"The danger of imposing such a reduction is that any short term savings could well be outweighed by the long term costs of an increased number of young people being involved in crime and at a later date, these same individuals remaining within the criminal justice system on reaching adulthood,” he said.

"If a young person spends five years in the youth justice system they will have already cost the taxpayer more than half a million pounds.

"If you then add to this the cost of that individual being unable to work, perhaps claiming benefits or being involved in crime as an adult, the future costs begin to spiral making the attempted £9m savings seem very short-sighted."

Last week it emerged that one in three young people in custody are in the care system.