They also want a reformed system in place to better support young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and tackle racial disparity within youth justice.
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers (AYM) have made the call in a jointly published youth justice policy paper.
Among their recommendations is for the Ministry of Justice to review the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales and increase it from its current threshold of 10 years old to 14.
The current rate is “out of step with other domestic minimum ages and international standards” and contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, say the sector leaders.
They are also concerned about the “growing racial disparities” in the youth justice system as well as an over-representation of children with special educational needs and children with experience of the care system.
Their report cites latest Youth Justice Board figures that show that more than seven in ten sentenced children have speech, language and communication needs. The same proportion have mental health concerns.
Further research looking at a sample of 80 youth offending team cases found nine in ten were known to children’s social care, eight in ten had a known or suspected health issue and seven in ten were known or suspected to have lived with domestic violence.
Other research in their white paper details that as of May 2020 more than half of all children in custody were from black or ethnic minority groups, yet the general population of 10- to 17-year-olds is 82 per cent white.
Black young people are nine times more likely than their white peers to be searched by the police. This rises to 19 times more likely in London.
We’ve just published a joint policy position paper on child centred youth justice with @LGAChildren and @AssnYOTmanagers, in it we set out the case for fundamental change, read it here https://t.co/LEJsxYtU17 pic.twitter.com/MaTsVCM6v0
— 🌈Updates from ADCS (@ADCStweets) November 25, 2021
Conditions in the youth secure estate are also raised as a concern in the report. This includes noting “multiple reviews, inquiries and reports” over the last five years into poor outcomes, increasing violence and a lack of support in youth custody.
Earlier this month inspectors criticised Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution, after it recorded a dramatic rise in violence over the last two years.
This follows the removal of all children from Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC) and a pause on new entrants at Oakhill STC.
“We simply cannot carry on as we are,” said ADCS president Charlotte Ramsden.
“Children who are in conflict with the law continue to be treated very differently to other vulnerable groups even though they have similarly complex needs.
“Many have been exposed to repeated and extended trauma, such as bereavement and family breakdown.
“A growing number of children are being groomed, coerced and exploited by criminal gangs yet the youth justice system works with children as ‘offenders’.
“The shocking deterioration in both conditions and performance in parts of the custodial estate evidenced in consecutive inspection reports is perhaps the starkest illustration of the disconnect between a ‘child first’ rhetoric and reality.”
She added: “We need to work differently with children, their families and communities, and agencies, including government departments must work differently too, under the banner of a single, cross cutting strategy.
“We must improve the experiences and outcomes of children who are already in the system whilst acting on the reasons why children are more susceptible to crime, such as poverty and deprivation.”
LGA children and young people board chair Anntoinette Bramble said there needs to be “significant changes in the existing system”.
“Rapid action is required to change those aspects of the system that are not working and which are having a significant impact on the outcomes of some of the most vulnerable children and young people,” she said.
Meanwhile, AYM chair Hazel Williamson hoped the organisations’ white paper provides politicians with “a good foundation” to “improve outcomes for children to prevent them entering the criminal justice arena”.
