Mike Thomas, chair, Association of Youth Offending Team Managers
The Children's Plan was generally accepted as a positive development across the youth justice sector, not least because it provided for the continuation of the prevention grant to youth offending teams for a further three years. The government also promised to publish the Youth Crime Action Plan, which would take a fundamental look at the way the criminal justice system operates for young people. However, while it is encouraging that this document sits within The Children's Plan, it has failed to live up to its advance billing.
The Youth Crime Action Plan failed to address several issues in The Children's Plan. In particular, the action plan does little to address the high use of custody or focus on the treatment of 10- to 15-year-olds within the criminal justice system. And, sadly, the promised resettlement green paper addressing how services might be improved for young people once they leave custody on the supervision of a youth offending team also failed to materialise.
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