Youth Justice

Thursday February 26th 2009, Guoman Charing Cross Hotel, London, 09:10 - 16:05

The Youth Crime Action Plan: Tackling Youth Crime Through Partnership

The Government alone cannot tackle youth crime effectively, parents, citizens and communities must play their part. We will improve the support we offer to young people and parents to deal with problems – setting clear boundaries but offering help to those who stay on the right side of the line and make the effort to turn things around.

We will use every method available and work widely across Government, the third sector and society as a whole to support the majority, while also being tough on the minority who persistently cause problems for others."

Rt. Hon Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, Youth Crime Action Plan, July 2008

Overview

Are the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and, in particular, the Youth Justice System (YJS) delivering justice for all? Is the YJS operating as effectively as it might to prevent youth offending and to rehabilitate young prisoners to reduce re-offending? Furthermore, following the Minister of Justice, David Hansen’s announcement in July that youth re-offending rates for the period 2005 – 2011are reduced by 10% by 2011, how, if at all, are the provisions related to youth justice in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, which became law in July 2008, assisting this process?

The latest crime figures indicate that not only are the government’s crime and justice policies working but that both the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and the Youth Justice System (YJS) are working effectively. The 2007-2008 Home Office annual crime report shows that crime has fallen 48% since 1995 and, the latest police-recorded crime figures for England and Wales show a fall of 9% on the previous year.

However, despite this very welcome news regarding annual and long-term crime trends in the UK, a series of fatal knife attacks in London, anti-social behaviour; prison overcrowding and, the use of curfews in some of our towns and cities has triggered a national debate about: sentencing policies; youth violence; the development of effective, comprehensive and coordinated strategies that cut-across government department boundaries to prevent young people from offending or re-offending; and, how our society perceives, values, cares for and educates young people.

The purpose of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act is to make sentencing decisions clearer and to provide courts with new powers to provide community-based alternatives to custody such as the generic community sentence, the Youth Rehabilitation Order as well as the Youth Conditional Caution and, Referral and Youth Default Orders.

Despite the levels of investment in the CJS and YJS since 2000 and official crime figures recording a fall in crime, the fear of crime is increasing.

Agenda

This forum will examine the contribution the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act to crime reduction, the development of effective policies and, comprehensive and coordinated strategies to cut youth offending and re-offending rates and, the way in which we our society perceives, values, cares for and educates young people.

09:10	Registration and Coffee
09:50	Chair’s Opening Remarks Graham Beech, Director of marketing and communications, Catch22
10:00	Tackling Youth Crime - The Government's Youth Crime Action Plan Diana Luchford, Head, Joint Youth Justice Unit, Department for Children Schools and Families/Ministry of Justice
10:20	Reducing Youth Offending Young People who offend Assessing and responding - triage Problem solving - restorative approaches Youth Crime Prevention the role of schools Safer schools Partenrships Youth justice services wiring up youth justice to share information secure estate strategy Resettlement meeting personal needs Graham Robb, Board Member, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales
10:50	Working in Partnership to Reduce Re-offending Offender management: where and how the government can do more to assist offenders Key success factors to reduce re-offending Facilitation services: understanding the needs and aspirations of offenders and their families Providing support services: Equipping offenders with key life-skills Housing and support services to explain how the welfare and social care systems work Household economics: improving cooking skills and budget-management Providing and improving parenting skills Offering education and skills training Dr. Jackie Worrall, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, NACRO
11:20	Coffee Break and Networking
11:45	Questions and Answers Session
12:30	Lunch and Networking
13:40	Reducing Youth Re-offending Through Early Intervention Programmes Strengthening multi-agency working: key to reduce re-offending: Intensive in-reach and out-reach work with persistent offenders and their families Working with local authorities, police, schools and other agencies to prevent first-time offenders become persistent offenders Preventing anti-social behaviour by engaging with young people Comparative analysis: strategies used to tackle youth re-offending in other European countries Future directions and the Youth Crime Action Plan Rushanara Ali, Associate Director, The Young Foundation
14:15	Sentencing Policy and Youth Offender Management Strategy Custodial sentences: rethinking the alternative Implementation is key: early intervention programmes require better managed and coordinated action Reducing re-offending rates: providing, structured, tailored rehabilitation programmes to meet specific education, health and recreational requirements of each client Penelope Gibbs, Director of Strategy to Reduce Child and Youth Imprisonment, Prison Reform Trust
14:35	Youth Offenders and the Magistrates Courts How and, to what degree are custodial sentences effective means of changing the behavior of young offenders? Sentencing guidelines: what are the alternatives to a custodial sentencing?: How effective are they? Have they received widespread support from professionals? What are the best ways to rehabilitate offenders? Chris Stanley, senior magistrate, Chair, East Kent Youth Court, and Chair, Kent Magistrates Association
14:55	Rebuilding Confidence in the Criminal Justice System Andrew Morley will speak about activity in London intended to improve the criminal justice response to youth crime and the Board’s ambition to develop arrangements that aim to keep the public safe, prevent offending and help that young person realise a positive future. This includes: working with local authority partners to better identify young people at risk of offending or victimisation and intervening speeding up the justice process and making it more responsive and understandable to young defendants and victims testing new arrangements to support young people returning from custody Andrew Morley, Chief Executive, London Criminal Justice Board
15:20	Questions and Answers Session
16:00	Chair's Summary and Conclusions
16:05	Close

*programme subject to change without notice

Audience

Delegates will include Youth Offending Team managers, solicitors from the public and private sectors, elected members, Police, probation officers, youth and community workers, managers of youth offender institutions, police authority members, housing officers, children’s services managers, truancy liaison officers, teachers, policy and strategy officers, local criminal justice board members, members of chambers of commerce, architects, planners, PCT representatives, careers advisors, trade unions representatives and think-tanks.