Sharp rise in deaths of young offenders in the community

13 June 2011 1 min read Neil Puffett Youth Justice Community sentencing and restorative justice

Almost the same number of young people under youth offending team (YOT) supervision died in the community in the first four months of 2011 as for the whole of 2010, CYP Now has learned.

Statistics released by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) show that therewere 13 deaths between 1 January and 30 April 2011 compared with 14 forthe whole of 2010.

Twelve of the deaths so far this year were attributed incidents such asdrug overdoses and road accidents. One young person was the victim of amurder.

Impact of cuts

Gareth Jones, vice-chair of the Association of Youth Offending TeamManagers, said it is difficult to spot trends in the statistics withoutdelving deeper but added that cuts have definitely impacted onsafeguarding.

A survey of YOT managers earlier this month by CYP Now found that 90 percent had faced cuts.

"YOTs are being butchered left, right and centre across the country,"said Jones. "Some YOTs have proposed not to have a social worker and myYOT is one of them."

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