Rob Allen, director of the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College London, and a board member since 1998, believes the Home Office is now too focused on protecting the public, rather than offering support to young offenders.
In a report to be published after Allen leaves the YJB next month, he will argue that the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) is well positioned to introduce policies that will improve youth justice.
"While I'm happy with aspects of the YJB's work, I think there are some fundamental problems with some of the directions the youth justice system has taken," he said. "I'm recommending that the YJB should continue, but be subsumed by the DfES."
In his report, Allen will argue that placing youth justice within the DfES would ensure closer co-operation between children's services and youth justice agencies locally. A lack of co-operation was one of the problems identified in the 1996 Audit Commission report, Misspent Youth, which led to the founding of the YJB.
Allen's report will also argue for more alternatives to prosecution, better custodial provision for young offenders, and more mainstream preventive services that address the factors that lead young people to become involved in crime.
"Unless we develop policies to deal with the fundamental needs of the young as they are growing up, then the youth justice system will always be left picking up the pieces," he said.
