The Child Minder

I had flashbacks yesterday to the world created in George Orwell’s book, 1984, when I heard about the Ministry of Justice’s plan to pilot Peer Justice Centres, run by and for children, in England.

By Clare Jerrom

Thank god Staffordshire Council are investigating child protection concerns at Werrington Young Offender Institution .

By maria.ahmed@rbi.co.uk

It started a few weeks ago with an anonymous phone call to the Community Care news desk, telling me about “potential failings within the whole child protection and welfare arena” in Jersey.

I never thought I’d agree with justice secretary Jack Straw and fortunately, judging by his comments last week, I’m not going to start now. On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme – which my radio alarm clock is tuned to, good journalist that I am – he said the “continuing problem” of gang violence is due to the absence of fathers in black communities.

I hate to admit it but for once I think David Cameron has had a good idea. I am of course talking about his call for courts to use a power, which unbeknown to practically everyone they already have, to ban young offenders from having or applying for a driving licence.

Cameron said that punishments need to "hit young offenders where it hurts: in their lifestyle and their aspirations". I couldn't agree more.

Blair's war on yobs (remember that?) has backfired spectacularly. His drive to whack
more kids in jail to show he was "doing something" about hoodies on the streets has just led the Youth Justice Board into a crisis.

The sight of an Old Etonian pitying poor kids may seem a throwback to the Victorian age but it happened just days ago. That was the sight of Tory leader David "call me Dave" Cameron wandering through a backdrop of "deprived" youngsters in south London on the day his party published their social justice report, Breakthrough Britain. The report promoted marriage as the solution to a lot of social ills, but it merely skirted around the edges of what is one of the most blatant factors in keeping poor kids poor: education.

The coroner in the recent inquest of 14-year-old Adam Rickwood, the youngest person to die in custody, called for an urgent review into the use of restraint on children held in secure training centres.

Just three days after the Hollywood heiress Paris Hilton started her supposedly 23-day prison sentence for driving on a suspended licence, she was back at home, tucked up in the safety and comfort of her own bed.

News that the Home Office is set to split represents an opportunity for young offenders and asylum-seeking children that should not - but, sadly, probably will - be missed.

With everything changing, the government should grab the chance to move these most vulnerable of children to the department responsible for all other vulnerable children: the Department for Education and Skills.

Moving responsibility for the youth justice system to a new Ministry of Justice is potentially preferable to current arrangements. But it would still make more sense to place young offenders alongside care leavers, given their often similar needs and the significant overlap between these two populations.

Moving responsibility for unaccompanied minors to a new Home Office devoted entirely to tackling terrorism and immigration, meanwhile, can only be bad news. The recent paper on reforming services for unaccompanied minors has already revealed that, for as long as they remain within the Home Office's remit, these children will receive a second-class service and be seen as a problem to remove rather than children to help.

If the government genuinely wants to make every child matter, it must grab with both hands this opportunity to put young offenders and asylum-seeking children on an equal footing with all other children.

The prime minister is keen for Respect tsar Louise Casey to become new chair of the Youth Justice Board, according to a report in today's Guardian. Campaigners who feared the appointment of a "government patsy" following Rod Morgan's departure may be pondering on their prediction this morning.
Casey criticised the Youth Justice Board last year at a conference organised by the board.

A few days ago, the Home Office published the new Offender Management Bill. Clause 25 proposes that young offenders given a Detention and Training Order could spend the custodial element of their order in a children's home.

But, while the idea of young offenders living in a more nurturing setting is a welcome one - particularly given that it is coming from the Home Office - there are some fundamental problems with the detail.

Firstly, children's homes are the homes of children in care. To make them also the place of detention for young offenders would unfairly stigmatise looked after children and potentially place them at increased risk.

Tony Blair has let young offenders down. In what was undoubtedly his last opportunity to place youth justice reform on the legislative agenda, he has opted instead for yet more bills bringing in powers and duties to tackle antisocial behaviour and ignored a two-year-old promise of legislation to overhaul the youth justice system.

The only reference to young offenders in this week's Queen's Speech was the introduction of a "generic communty sentence" to deal with them. However, it is not yet clear what this will mean in practice. Any attempt to impose a blunt one-size-fits-all response would clearly be totally inappropriate.