Youth custody reduction pilot goes ahead despite riots
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A pilot scheme that will give local authorities responsibility for the cost of youth custody will be launched next month despite three of the trial areas being hit by last month's riots, the Youth Justice Board has confirmed.
The Youth Justice Reinvestment Pathfinder Initiative, aimed at drastically lowering youth custody levels, is being launched in Birmingham, east London, west London and West Yorkshire.
Out of these areas, only West Yorkshire was unaffected by public disorder last month. The impact on the other areas has resulted in increased numbers of young people going through the courts and being remanded or sentenced to custody.
It has also stretched youth offending teams, already under pressure from budget cuts, in terms of manpower and additional costs. It is unclear how continuing pressure on staff in the wake of the riots will affect their ability to pursue the necessary projects to reduce custody levels.
But John Drew, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), said next month’s start date has not been pushed back.
"We are working with YOTs to understand the impact of the recent disturbances on the pathfinder project and will look to capture this as part of the evaluation," he said. "We still plan to go live on 1 October."
Drew has previously said that peaks in custody as a result of offences related to rioting will be excluded from the calculations of custody rates for pathfinders.
Under the pilots, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will give groups of YOTs millions of pounds from the central custody budget in return for pledging to cut custody over two years.
Should the authorities fail to reduce their custody levels by the agreed amount, they will have to pay a penalty to the MoJ.
The scheme is due to be officially announced by the YJB this month.
