Two thirds of police and crime commissioners pledge to consult young people

In total, 27 out of the 41 elected PCCs signed one or both of two youth pledges organised by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services and the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The NCVYS youth charter was signed by 17 successful candidates prior to last week’s elections.

Meanwhile 23 successful candidates, including 13 who also signed the NCVYS charter, pledged to consult young people as part of a campaign run by the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Lucy Russell, senior campaigns co-ordinator at the Howard League, said: “We are absolutely delighted that so many supportive candidates are in post.

“It is very important that PCCs work with young people who have been in contact with the criminal justice system because they are so often marginalised and silenced.”

A breakdown of signatories of the NCVYS youth charter reveals that two of the 16 Conservative commissioners signed. This compares to eight of the 12 independent commissioners, and seven out of 13 Labour commissioners.

By signing the NCVYS youth charter, candidates pledged to make themselves accessible to young people through face-to-face surgeries, social media, or e-petitions, to treat all young people as citizens, and to provide an equal platform for all members of the community, including minorities and those who are marginalised.

They also pledged to use their influence to support the police to engage positively with all young people and to establish a way of representing young people’s views by creating a youth PCC role or a youth advisory panel.

NCVYS has said it will monitor PCC efforts to engage young people. Faiza Khan, deputy chief executive and director of policy and communications, said NCVYS will be writing to all of the elected PCCs, and London mayor Boris Johnson, offering to help them in meeting their duty to engage with young people.

“We will be working with partners in the sector to guide PCCs in involving young people with direct experience of police and the justice system,” she said. “We hope that the youth charter will be seen as a minimum expectation of PCCs.

“Since the youth charter was written by young people, those who have signed it should be answerable to young people for meeting its pledges, and we intend to develop a model of measuring how well PCCs are meeting their commitment.”