Professionals accused of abdicating responsibility

Professionals have been accused of “abdicating responsibility” for young offenders by the chief executive of the Youth Justice Board.

Speaking at Community Care Live Children and Families in Manchester Ellie Roy said: “We find that there is a struggle to access mainstream services. In some areas we see an abdication of responsibilities. They [young offenders] are passed to Yots.”

She added that young offenders needed to be “bolted back into mainstream services” such as health and education.

Director of the Prison Reform Trust Juliet Lyon agreed, adding that it was easy for schools, for example, not to teach some children and health services were able to refuse admission to services.

She said the lot of young offenders had improved in the last five years but there had been “major disappointments,” including the continuous movement of young offenders around the juvenile estate.

Many young people spent just days in one place before being moved on.

Lyon also raised fears that the introduction later this year of Custody Plus, a scheme whereby offenders spend a short time in custody and then serve the rest of their sentence in the community, would lead to a huge increases in the numbers of people in custody.

She said the scheme, for those aged 18 and over, was “potentially disastrous” and could lead to people being given custodial sentences for minor offences.