Interview: Steph Roberts-Bibby, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board

Last November, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) confirmed Steph Roberts-Bibby as its new chief executive, taking over from Claudia Sturt who quit in January 2023 after just two years.

Roberts-Bibby, who had held the post on an interim basis for six months after stepping up from her role of chief operating officer last summer, was appointed through a “competitive” recruitment process.

Roberts-Bibby has a background in prison reform, with 21 years’ experience as a prison governor at institutions including Winchester Prison after starting her career as prison officer at Feltham young offenders institution (YOI) where her work with teenagers sparked a passion for justice reform.

You’ve been at the YJB for five years. What have your impressions of the organisation been during that time?

We’ve got a fantastic group of experts working to make a real difference to the lives of children – that’s what comes out in every interaction I’ve had with our staff. They ooze passion and drive to make a difference.

I joined the YJB off the back of the creation of the youth custody service and the creation of the youth justice policy unit. I joined at what felt like a time when we needed to be clear about who we were and there was a very strong strategic intent that we influence through our statutory function of sharing and replicating best practice and the creation of small, targeted funding projects. Over time, I think we’ve got into a space that I feel happier with, which is much closer to frontline delivery, in terms of youth justice services and providing significant leadership through our standards for justice.

What have your key learnings been during your time with the YJB so far?

I’ve been impressed with the strategic partnerships that we’ve got across the sector and we nurture those because they’re critical to driving continuous improvement.

The depth and quality of our evidence has evolved over the last few years, particularly in relation to racial disparity, which is an area we’ve got to do more in.

What have been your key areas of focus as chief executive?

We spent the last year doing an internal reorganisation, so that we could get much closer to the sector and published reports around how we’ll have oversight of the system and youth justice services to drive improvements. Bringing that to life to understand performance and drive it up is my ambition for this year.

I want to continue to have positive relationships with the Ministry of Justice and ministers to help them to realise their ambitions for reducing offending by children. To do that they need us to be able to advise them on what it’s like for both children and practitioners in the system and where improvements can be made.

We need to know what works and use that evidence and then apply it so that we can deliver improved outcomes for children through better accommodation, more appropriate education and making sure they’re getting access to advice and mental health services in the community and custody.

At the same time, I want to make sure that investment in the YJB – this year we’ve seen £92million worth of grants – is giving the best value that it can.

And what about looking more long-term?

Going forward, I want to make sure that we have a multi-year grant. Services can’t keep operating hand-to-mouth on this year-to-year basis.

I also want to influence a grant funding formula review. Our grant funding formula is out of date and we could make sure that money goes to the services that need it most.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Inclusive, collaborative and open.

I’m interested in people and what drives them. You’re going to make a bigger impact if you come at your work from a relational perspective. If people don’t care and don’t listen, things don’t change.

I like to treat and engage with people how I would want to be treated myself.

What impact is the cost-of-living crisis having on the youth justice system?

We’re working in a time that I’ve never worked in during my adult career and we cannot be complacent.

Despite the positive gains that we’ve achieved in youth justice, in areas like reducing first-time entrants to the system, we’re getting to a bit of a post-pandemic juncture and we’re starting to see the early impact of that.

We have seen a greater move to digital in our day-to-day lives and that worries me for children. There’s a sense of detachment from reality and there is still a gap around what that looks like for serious youth violence as well as other online harms that children are facing.

The way children lived their lives during the pandemic did stifle development and has clearly impacted on wellbeing, mental health and access to education – particularly for those children who’ve got the speech, language and communication difficulties or are neurodiverse – contributing to high levels of absence and some children not enjoying the experience of learning.

The cost-of-living crisis and social deprivation makes children much more vulnerable to exploitation. We need to be very mindful of that and think about how we respond. It is ultimately our responsibility to prevent children offending.

The youth secure estate has received criticism over the treatment of children, particularly since the pandemic – what needs to be done to improve this?

We all know that safety in custody needs to be improved. We need smaller units and a better physical environment. Those YOIs and secure training centres (STCs) are prison environments. We wouldn’t want any of our children to be locked in those environments.

I’m not criticising staff in those sites at all but you need to give [them] the skills they need to be able to work with children with the most complex needs.

There’s something about smaller, closer-to-home, geographically dispersed units, replicating the model for the secure school with staff who are trained in children services.

What is the latest on the new secure school?

The intention is still to open in the spring. I visited recently and I was impressed with the environment. It felt like a university campus in terms of considering the needs of children and what they need from their environment. The offer sounds outstanding in terms of trying to make sure that children’s needs are fully met.

Opening any new provision is always a challenge – and we stand ready to continue to support both the youth custody service and Oasis in opening the secure school. We should remain committed to that because we want to see more secure schools and other alternative secure provision – the outcomes we get from YOIs, STCs and to a lesser extent secure children’s homes aren’t good enough.

How will you work to tackle disproportionality within the youth justice system?

This is a key focus for me. There is a huge problem and I get frustrated when people say we need more data because we’ve got the evidence.

The depth and quality of our evidence has really evolved over the last few years, particularly in relation to racial disparity, but we’ve all got to do more in that area.

We’re working with ministers and the Crown Prosecution Service to support their work in reducing racial disproportionality in custody and for children on remand. No child should be at a higher risk of being in custody, especially when they shouldn’t be there, because of the colour of their skin.

Can you tell us about the current state of the youth justice workforce?

People leaving the workforce is one of the biggest risks facing the youth justice system, and something we are seeing across all public services.

We need to think about what our workforce will need to look like in five years because we have got people retiring and leaving and we need a plan for how we retain that expertise.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could have staff who have been in mainstream social work, progress into youth justice in the community and then work in a secure setting? I think part of encouraging recruitment and retention is looking at what wraparound packages people want in terms of continuing professional development and pay.

It’s not a sector where people could work from home and then be in the office two days a week, considering the context of people’s lives post-pandemic we need to look at what else we are offering.

High proportions of children in youth custody are on remand – what is the YJB doing to tackle this?

Some 45 per cent of children in youth custody are on remand and three quarters of those don’t go on to get a custodial sentence which is just shocking.

We are disrupting children’s lives, criminalising them, when they don’t need to be there.

One of the things that we want to do is to make sure we’re supporting services to divert children away from custody through supportive packages that are addressing their needs.

We are pleased with the results of the London Accommodation Pathfinder – accommodation in Barnet which is used as an alternative to children on remand. This was due to be expanded across London [but] we were a bit aspirational with timescales. We’d like to get four [settings open] and need to see how we can get there with remand funding. There is a project in Greater Manchester working to replicate the London project through pooling remand funding.

We hope that would provide an alternative to remand going forward.

Steph Roberts-Bibby - CV:

• November 2023 – present: Chief executive, Youth Justice Board

• July 2023 – November 2023: Interim chief executive, Youth Justice Board

• September 2018 – July 2023: Chief operating officer, Youth Justice Board

• September 1997 – September 2018: Governor, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services