Youth Justice

Tuesday March 9th 2010, Victoria Park Plaza, London, 08:30 - 16:05

The Youth Justice System: Effective, Transparent, Justice for All

“What I have found interesting is that many, many government policy makers have trod this road before, in particular over the last ten years – their ambitions have been right but they have not achieved the full extent of the changes needed. So the key test is not just identifying what needs to change, but making it happen. That will be difficult. In many cases it means being willing to rethink assumptions and settled ways of doing things which have been in place for decades."

Louise Casey, Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime, Executive Summary, p4, June 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?

The 2007-2008 Home Office annual crime report showed that crime has fallen 48% since 1995 while the British Crime Survey (BCS) for 2008/09 showed that there was no change in most crime types compared with the 2007/08 BCS.

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 2008/09 BCS shows that the proportion of people that perceive an increase in crime nationally is higher than those that perceive an increase in crime locally. However, the proportion of people who think that the CJS as a whole is effective has remained stable at 38%.

Despite the levels of investment in the CJS and YJS since 2000 and long-term figures recording a fall in crime, have the ‘triple track’ approaches of the Youth Crime Action Plan introduced in July 2008 and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 worked?

Agenda

With an impending election, this forum will examine the effectiveness of current government policies and possible alternative strategies to cut youth offending and re-offending rates, and the way in which our society perceives, values, cares for and educates young people.

08:30	Coffee and Registration
09:05	Opening Remarks by Chair Graham Beech, Director, Reo Red (CONFIRMED)
09:10	Tackling Youth Crime Through Partnership Rebalancing the justice system: understanding the needs of victims of crime making greater use of community sentences, restorative justice and citizen panels Youth Crime Action Plan – early intervention protecting the public reducing youth re-offending rates further through the coordinated, cross-government provision of services to meet our obligations under Every Child Matters Youth Taskforce Action Plan - ‘Triple track’ enforcement Local involvement: positive activities for young people grant Parenting Early Intervention Projects Tackling Gangs Action Programme Education and training programmes Helen Judge, Director for Criminal Law, Sentencing and Youth Justice Policy, Ministry of Justice (CONFIRMED)
09:30	Breaking the Cycle of Crime Through Early Intervention Developing effective partnership working in every area to identify, target and address early warning signals Strengthening support for children at risk of offending Alternatives to school expulsions and custodial sentencing Ian Brady, Head of the Youth Taskforce, Department for Children, Schools and Families (CONFIRMED)
09:50	Questions and Answers Session
10:00	Reducing Re-offending in Sunderland through Positive Steps to Education, Training and Employment Development of tailored interventions for young people to help them get back into work Improving the skills of ex-offenders through unpaid work placements Creation of specific methods to deal with the most difficult cases, such as Difficult to Place panels Getting young ex-offenders to give something back to the community through The Big Recycle Cutting re-offending by improving quality of information through new IT and system management results so far Alan Scott, Operations Manager, Sunderland Youth Offending Service (CONFIRMED)
10:20	Reducing Youth Reoffending Rates of reoffending: a clearer picture Comparative analysis: who’s doing what where? Wiring-up youth justice: how has this strategy assisted planning, strategy and implementation? 2008-2011 strategy to reduce reoffending: alternatives to custody Susannah Hancock, Head of Performance, Youth Justice Board (CONFIRMED)
10:40	Questions and Answers Session
10:50	Coffee and Networking
11:15	Rethinking Alternatives to Prison Rising number of young people brought before the courts: Are prison and detention centres working? A new approach to our juvenile and youth justice systems How, where, when and what: approaches to juvenile and youth justice systems by countries in Europe and the US Case study: Finland Rob Allen, Director, International Centre for Prison Studies, King’s College London (CONFIRMED)
11:35	Creating a New System of Primary Justice Creation of a new system of primary justice Local control: moving the control of prisons and other supporting services away from Whitehall to the local level Financing a devolved primary justice system Partnering and commissioning organisations to assist ex-offenders to secure employment and resettle into the community Clive Betts MP, Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary Local Government Group (CONFIRMED)
11:55	Questions and Answers Session
12:05	Working in Partnership with Young People - Metropolitan Police Every Child Matters – Specialist, Targeted and Universal services Safer Schools Partnerships Youth Partnerships – Voluntary Sector MPS youth strategy – Met Track, Princes Trust and Kickz Volunteer Police Cadets: Engagement between police and young people Adrian Rabot, Superintendent, MPS Youth Team Policy Lead, Metropolitan Police (CONFIRMED)
12:25	Policies to Reduce Youth Crime Joining up youth justice services Youth Crime Action Plan: a missed opportunity? Beyond 2011: financing our youth justice plans The use of custodial sentences to reduce youth offending Leadership, information and incentives: ensure all organisations work in partnership to reduce youth offending Early intervention is the key: East Potential providing David Burrowes MP, Shadow Minister for Justice (CONFIRMED)
12:45	Reducing Future Offending by Effective Resettlement Building on Successes in Custody Working Effectively with Families Making Local Authorities Accountable? Are Short Custodial Sentences Effective? Improving Outcomes by Effective Resettlement Plans Paul Cook, Managing Director, G4S (CONFIRMED)
13:00	Questions and Answers Session
13:15	Lunch and Networking
14:15	Reducing Youth Re-offending Through Early Intervention Programmes Strengthening multi-agency working: key to reduce reoffending 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 Lorna Hadley, Vice Chair, Association of Youth Offending Team Managers (CONFIRMED)
14:35	Pre-Court and Avoiding Criminalisation Gravity Matrix Pre-court panels Children’s tribunals: the way forward Sandra Beeton, Chair, Association of Panel Members (CONFIRMED)
14:55	Coffee and Networking
15:15	Changing Lives, Fulfilling Potential Enthusiasm: our mission Regenerating communities from within: working with local organisation Reducing offending behaviour through our comprehensive service offering: Providing information, guidance, mentoring and support Residential and mentoring services; Interventions, youth clubs and activities Learning, skills and employment services Evaluation: our work in with young people and communities Joseph Russo, Chief Executive and Founder, Enthusiasm (CONFIRMED)
15:35	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? What are the best ways to rehabilitate offenders? What reforms need to be made to make the system more effective? What can the Magistrates Courts do to improve the situation? Chris Stanley, Senior Magistrate, Magistrates Association (CONFIRMED)
15:55	Questions and Answers Session
16:05	Chairs Summary and Conclusions
16:10	Close

*programme subject to change without notice

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Exhibitors

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.