Government pledges to improve rehousing for young offenders

In a bid to address factors behind reoffending, the government haspledged to take steps to help find young offenders suitableaccommodation on leaving custody.

These include encouraging closer working between youth offending teams(YOTs) and housing authorities, exploring the idea of temporary releasefrom prison to aid resettlement and treating homeless 16- and17-year-olds as children in need under the Children Act 1989.

Funding will also be available for additional resettlement supportschemes, while current aftercare provision will continue.

Details of the proposals are in the government's YCAP Consultation:Summary of Responses, which coincides with the first anniversary of theYCAP this month.

Rod Morgan, former chair of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), said theannouncement "sounds promising".

"We all know what the problems are in terms of children who can't returnto the parental home," he said.

"Children are being released into bed and breakfast accommodation, whichis a recipe for disaster in terms of reoffending. One thing that can bedone to increase continuity between what's done in custody and provisionon release is to address the need for suitable accommodation.

"We need much better provision and if that means closer links betweenhousing authorities and YOTs or the granting of temporary licences, thatis something I absolutely welcome."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "The government is clear thatyoung people leaving custody are less likely to reoffend if they haveaccess to services that help rebuild their lives.

"This will include help with accommodation."

Meanwhile, it has emerged that YOT funding from the Probation Service isto remain static this year (2009/10), which represents a decrease inreal terms.

Last month it was revealed that the YJB allocation to YOTs fell from117m in 2007/08 to 115m in 2008/09, the first cut infunding since 2000.