YJB chair hits out at scathing report
Alison Bennett
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The chair of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), Frances Done, has defended its work following a scathing report on its performance.
In May, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies published Ten Years of Labour's Youth Justice Reforms: An Independent Audit. It concluded that despite record levels of spending on youth justice, no significant reduction in crime has been made, and suggested it may be time reconsider the future of the present youth justice system (CYP Now 21-27 May).
Done wrote to Richard Garside, director of the CCJS, on 26 June to express her concern over the fact that Garside’s report does not offer a fair representation of the achievements, and the challenges, of the past decade.
She said that as the report focuses on what has not been achieved, it does not consider what progress has been made.
"I feel strongly that any analysis of the youth justice reforms which does not take account of achievements not associated with a numerical target is bound to be incomplete and therefore flawed," she said.
Garside said: "Our report has been widely welcomed by senior politicians and experts in youth justice and young people's issues. I do not accept Frances Done's central allegation that the report was flawed or incomplete, and I will be writing to her setting out my reasons in more detail."
