CYP Now - Help young people learn the right three Rs

There are always attempts at slick alliteration in the policy field, such as the four Ps that inform The Children's Plan. And there are plenty of alternatives to the traditional three Rs. Two sets are currently pertinent: the Responsibility, Restoration and Re-integration that has framed youth justice over the past decade; and the Respect, Revenge and Revenue that are sometimes used to explain the rise of gang culture and the use of knives and guns. They are not quite mirror images but they are, arguably, close.

Youth justice has taken a hammering in recent weeks, with the assertions by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies that New Labour's reforms have failed, and a similar assessment made in a leaked briefing prepared jointly by the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. These two departments are joint sponsors of the Youth Justice Board.

The two predominant concerns among most commentators on that system have been the excessive use of custody and, on the other hand, the abject failure to enlist sufficient support for young offenders from broader domains of policy: namely education, health and housing.

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