'Problem-solving' courts for young offenders to be trialled

Problem-solving courts, which are currently only used in adult settings, aim to address offending behaviour through the co-ordination of services, including and beyond those provided by youth offending teams (YOTs), to reduce crime and improve wider outcomes for children, victims, and families.

The Centre for Justice Innovation has been given funding to trial the approach for two years and is looking for court sites who are interested in setting up or improving their youth courts to take part.

The centre's team will offer support during the pilot, which will include extensive evaluation with the aim of helping youth courts across England and Wales adopt the model, which has a strong focus on rehabilitation and addressing the root causes of criminal activity.

Ben Estep, the centre's youth justice programme manager, said the model could be particularly important in youth justice, where the number of cases has fallen in recent years but young people remaining in the system tend to have more complex and challenging needs.

"The kinds of cases coming before youth courts have changed a lot over the last five years," he said.

"There are substantially fewer cases but there's an increasing concentration of complexity among those cases. That calls for a response to how youth courts deal with those cases and an opportunity for courts to look more closely at underlying causes."