by Lauren Revans
A consensus appears to be emerging from Westminster over the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – namely that there is plenty of room for improvement.
By lumping youth justice together with other aspects of the criminal justice and immigration systems (rather than affording the subject its own dedicated bill as promised), fears of corners being cut and opportunities being missed now appear to be in real danger of being realised.
One area that could certainly do with a bit of more attention is that of the support on offer for young people who leave custody with nowhere to go. This was an issue raised by the 2006 Court of Appeal ruling against Sutton Council, after it tried to wriggle out of providing a 17-year-old homeless ex-offender the same level of support it would offer a care leaver.
The ramifications of this case are now being considered by councils up and down the country, with youth offending teams celebrating the idea of better services for this group of vulnerable young people while those holding the purse-strings fret about the additional costs involved.
Councils are now awaiting further court rulings to check just how big a deal this really is. But some might say clarification of the issue in a bill aimed at improving the youth justice system might also make sense! Oh, and extra funding to help youth offending teams and leaving care teams meet these important obligations wouldn’t go amiss either…..
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