Youth justice reforms ‘to be driven by frontline'

Jeremy Wright, who took over as youth justice minister from Crispin Blunt in September, said the current system is in need of change because despite reductions in first-time entrants and numbers in custody, reoffending rates remain stubbornly high.

He told delegates at the YJB convention in Birmingham that newly announced plans to improve the system, outlined by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling earlier this week, require input from those who work on the frontline.

“I want to see a better secure estate, putting education provision at the heart of what we do,” he said. “I want to hear your views on how we can make this a reality.

“It is the people directly delivering services that can really drive improvement,” he continued. “You know what it takes to prevent a potential young offender from joining a gang, picking up a knife or taking drugs. Working together we can make an impact.”

Wright also outlined his desire for youth offending workers to strengthen links with community partners to help deliver the troubled families programme.

And he detailed plans to massively expand the use of restorative justice, using the tool in addition to regular sentencing powers in order that the public did not perceive it as a “soft option”.

“It is an opportunity for the victim and offender to sit across a table from one another and for the offender to understand clearly what the psychological impact on the victim of what they have done is,” he said. “This is not an alternative to sentencing. It is not a soft option or an easy way out.”