Youth justice must form part of wider social agenda, says Blunt
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Youth justice must sit as part of a wider social justice agenda linking with initiatives such as David Cameron's plan to tackle 120,000 problem families, youth justice minister Crispin Blunt has said.
Speaking at the annual youth justice convention in Brighton, Blunt said progress on offending and numbers in custody will be difficult to achieve unless change is embraced.
"We know that the system must be reformed if it is to meet the challenges ahead," he said.
"It will be very difficult to simply hold performance at current levels in this economic environment and the associated social environment in the short to medium term."
Blunt, who has previously called for a shift to an early intervention approach in youth justice, said the government’s vision for the youth justice system is one that prevents "today’s troubled young people and children becoming tomorrow’s hardened criminal class".
"The ultimate test for our youth justice system is that it must improve outcomes for children and young people," he said. "But youth justice does not sit in isolation. It is a key part of a wider social justice agenda."
Plans to tackle 120,000 problem families, headed up by Louise Casey, were highlighted as an example of a fresh "holistic" approach.
"The aim of the new cross-government approach is to identify and really get to grips with the people who are most problematic, not just treat them as a series of separate ‘issues’," he said.
And reaffirming the government’s commitment to localism, Blunt stated that that "decisions should be made at a local level and paid for at local level".
"This is why we are planning to delegate the remand budget to local authorities," he said. "This will free up innovation at a local level. There are potential risks with this approach.
"Decision-makers could make poor decisions. But if they do, they must face the consequences from their electorate."
Meanwhile, he said action is being taken to "empower" frontline staff to "focus on what matters – working with young offenders".
"I have already halved the number of performance indicators, allowing frontline staff to spend more time getting on with their job.
"We are also working to reduce the number of national standards applying to the youth justice system, reducing the level of central prescription and freeing up local practitioners to use their professional expertise."
Blunt also indicated that a risk-based youth offending team (YOT) inspection system, focusing on YOTs and issues where there are performance concerns, is expected to be launched in May.