How a nationwide project is helping young offenders to stand up for their legal rights

Project U R Boss

Funding A five-year, £2.6m grant from the Big Lottery Fund

Purpose To promote the interests of children and young people in the criminal justice system, ensuring that they can access information on their legal rights and entitlements

Background Young offenders are among the most vulnerable young people in the country, and yet for some it can still be a struggle to access the support to which they are entitled. In 2002, the Howard League for Penal Reform established a legal service aimed at children and young people in custody. Three years ago the charity successfully applied for lottery funding allowing it to expand the scheme under the U R Boss banner.

Action U R Boss is aimed at young people aged 10 to 24 who have been in the criminal justice system. Young advisers have been integral to shaping the project.

All young people in custody can access the Howard League’s free, legal helpline. The eight-strong legal team provides advice and takes on cases.

The team gets about 10 to 15 calls each week, with the most common problems being about
resettlement. Many young offenders have been through the care system and may need legal help to ensure their local authority provides the support they require and are entitled to upon release.

"Social services may have let them down before they went into custody, which may be part of the reason they have ended up there," says solicitor Sinead McCann.

"In other cases a young person may have had support, but once they entered custody, social services washed their hands of them. A lot of our work is about getting social services to acknowledge they have a duty of care."

The U R Boss approach aims to address all the needs of young people so it helps with access to support beyond just the legal case, involving professionals across other agencies.

Outcome Between July 2010 and July 2011 the team worked on 283 cases for 105 new and existing clients, including 28 young people with disabilities or mental health issues. Of those 283 cases, 64 involved resettlement issues and planning, and 39 dealt with sentence planning. Other cases covered segregation, discrimination and mistreatment by staff.

The helpline took 450 calls from young people and 118 from professionals. An interim evaluation by De Montfort University concluded it was "providing an outstanding level of support to young people, which both addresses their legal needs and goes well beyond this, delivering continuing support and empowering young people facing difficult challenges".

A survey of young clients found 100 per cent were positive about the support they had received and only one out of 24 was not satisfied with the outcome of their case.

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