Youth Justice

Last week saw BANES PCF join the Youth Justice Partnership Board. The Partnership Board acts as a critical friend to the BANES Youth Justice Service, offering a combination of support and advice, as well as accountability. (Its full responsibilities are written into the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.) It comprises of five statutory members – Police, Probation Service, Health, Education and Social Care, as well as non-statutory members from across many services and agencies within BANES. The Parent Carer Forum has joined the board in order to raise the voices of SEND families and add lived expertise to conversations around the experiences of children and young people.

The Board holds four quarterly meetings and an annual development day. Each meeting looks at a performance dashboard of the latest figures relating to first time entrants, custody and reoffending rates, as well as a range of other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including mental health, wellbeing, education and SEND. The Police report on figures relating to arrests, time in custody, police bail, stop and search and timescales for disposals (the amount of time between arrest and conclusion of cases). There are presentations from practitioners – this week heard from CAMHS Inreach Team about the prevalence of and trends seen in incidents of Harmful Sexual Behaviour both nationally and locally. A case study is presented each time, which acts as a useful reminder of the stories and individuals behind the data. It also offers an invaluable opportunity for discussion and input from across the services.

The Youth Justice Service (YJS) has identified its top strategic priority is to tackle and reduce disproportionality within the groups and backgrounds represented by the children and young people are involved in the youth justice system. In BANES the most over-represented groups are children with Special Educational Needs and children from certain ethnicities.

Of all the children working with the YJS, 79% had an identified learning need*

“The most common special needs for our children are ADHD, ASD and SEMH. These presenting needs are nearly always an underlying factor in offending behaviour as well as in children struggling to engage with education.” Explains Carla Cooper, Interim Head of the Youth Justice Service. “We have high numbers who have had a previous Permanent Exclusion and high numbers in an Alternative Learning Provision or Special schools.”

Just 16% of the children on YJS programmes were learning in a mainstream school setting*

(* for the period April 2024 – April 2025, need being identified as an EHCP, SEND or Individual Development Plan. Source, Youth Justice Plan 2024-5)

The YJS is already working heavily in this area to improve outcomes, contributing to the EHCP process, working in partnership with education providers, supporting children facing post 16 transitions and transitions into adulthood, but these statistics underline the extreme challenges children with additional needs can face and the important role that inclusion in education plays.

As well as inputting to all future Partnership Board meetings, the PCF will be working closely with the YJS over the coming months to explore possibilities for supporting the families they work with, to advocate for members experiences and look at strategic opportunities for joint working.

If you have experience of the YJS that you would like to share or if you would like additional information and support in this area, please contact our support line via or 01761 502 515.