News

Rod Morgan

The chair of the Youth Justice Board has expressed concern at the rise of juvenile court appearances over the last decade, writes Maria Ahmed in Liverpool.

Speaking at the Association of Chief Police Officers annual youth justice conference, Rod Morgan said the rising numbers of minor, low-risk young offenders being brought to court "mirrored" the trend in adult courts.

He told delegates in Liverpool that it was a "waste of resources" for the youth justice system and called for greater investment in pre-court intervention work. Morgan said the trend was a "strategically critical issue" and proposed the introduction of prevention performance targets for Youth Offending Teams to reduce court appearances for low-risk young offenders.

His comments came as part of a wider call to balance welfare and justice in the Children Bill.

Morgan called for greater emphasis on early intervention to reduce offending rates and confirmed that measures such as Youth Inclusion Programmes and the Safer Schools Initiatives would get more funding.

He also raised concerns that Yots were not being informed about antisocial behaviour order proceedings early enough, leaving them unable to engage in prevention work with young offender. He said Yots needed to undertake comprehensive assessments of needs before any action was taken in the form of an asbo.

However, some delegates said partnership working between the police and Yots was made difficult by conflicting performance targets.

One police representative said the pressures to reach asbo targets from the community and managers made it hard to plan preventative work.