YJB review calls for 'swift and dramatic' improvements

The independent review Safeguarding the Future: A Review of the Youth Justice Board's Governance and Operating Arrangements, makes a total of 23 recommendations for how the Youth Justice Board should be run in the future.

These include publicising the role of the YJB to increase public confidence, using legal powers to hold local authorities and providers of community and custodial sentences to account, and introducing joint inspections of secure training centres and young offender institutions by the Prisons Inspectorate and Ofsted.

The review, announced last September, was carried out by Dame Sue Street alongside YJB chair Frances Done. Street has given each recommendation a timeframe based on whether it can be achieved immediately, in the medium-term (three to six months) or the longer term (within two years).

Street said there is room for "swift and dramatic improvement" in the way the YJB and relevant departments conduct their responsibilities. "With public protection at the heart of the system and a better grip on what works, including early intervention with high-risk groups, much more could be achieved for less cost," she said.

"I hope that the government will implement all the recommendations without delay, so that the public, and young offenders, are given a fair chance to further reduce youth crime," Street added.

The government has said it accepts many of the review's recommendations and will immediately begin work with the YJB on a number of them. These include providing clearer direction to frontline staff, including a closer focus on monitoring and raising standards across the agencies who deal with young offenders on a daily basis.

It will also move to ensure the cost of the YJB comes down, in line with the downward trend in the numbers of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time.

Meanwhile, more emphasis will be placed on strong partnership working between the YJB and central government, including the Home Office having a greater involvement in the partnership working of the YJB. And the YJB will be encouraged to further emphasise and publicise its role to protect the public from youth crime.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said: "The review is clear that more attention must be focused on monitoring and raising standards in local areas, on holding local providers of youth justice to account and on sharing best practice more widely.

"We accept that and will immediately work the YJB to ensure that happens."

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "Improving the YJB's service will further boost the government's ambition to help all young people achieve their potential."

Done said: "The review's recommendations provide us with considered advice on how to deliver further improvement in the next phase of the YJB's existence, including the achievement of better value for money.

"In addressing the recommendations we intend to work closely with partners both national and local, strengthening our relationship with local services beyond Youth Offending Teams, especially children's services to achieve better outcomes for young people and make local communities safer."

In-depth proposals for putting into practice the review's recommendations will now be developed, with a detailed government response to be published in the summer.