How to support parents and carers of children in the youth justice system
Information on working with parents and carers on a voluntary and statutory basis.
Parenting interventions are designed to provide additional support to parents and carers. They aim to:
- strengthen parenting skills to enable parents to develop a positive and consistent relationship with their child
- help parents and carers to promote good behaviour by their child
Parents and carers include:
- parents
- adoptive parents
- guardians and other carers including stepparents
- foster carers
- others undertaking a parenting role
Good parenting interventions also help to build self-confidence and awareness of how important effective parenting is. This is not only to prevent children from becoming involved in the justice system, but so that they may go on to lead productive and successful lives.
Good parenting is vital to a child’s well-being and is a powerful agent for change in a range of social problems including anti-social behaviour and criminal exploitation. It can increase the child’s confidence and resilience and empower parents and carers in addressing complex issues. Parents are important in fostering and promoting a child’s pro-social identity. Parenting support can reassure parents and carers and help them to understand what ‘good enough’ parenting looks like.
Parents and carers should be encouraged and supported to contribute to the AssetPlus assessment. This includes them completing the parents’ self-assessment section, to ensure that all information is shared in assessing parental and family need.
The aims are that:
- the child has the best opportunity to achieve positive outcomes
- the needs of parents and carers are understood
- parents and carers are successfully assisted to negotiate the difficulties they may be facing
The child’s needs must be seen and assessed in the context of their place within their family. As well as engaging with the parents and carers of the child, you should be aware of the needs of siblings and any other significant close family members.
Issues such as mental health, substance misuse, involvement in the justice system or housing insecurity in the wider family will have an impact on the child and may need to be addressed to support the child into a pro-social lifestyle. Your role is to signpost and refer family members to appropriate services, and broker support.
All pre-sentence reports you prepare for court should include consideration of whether guidance for parents or carers is advisable to support the child’s desistance. AssetPlus includes a parents’ self-assessment which should be used to inform this. If you take the view that parenting support is necessary, you should make every effort to engage the parents or carers in voluntary interventions before considering statutory measures.
Some youth justice services (YJSs) have specialised parenting officers, but it is recommended that case managers also develop and maintain good relationships with the parents and carers of the children they are supervising.
In all cases involving children under 16, the court is legally required to consider imposing a Parenting Order when a child is being sentenced. Often it is decided that a Parenting Order is not the most effective way to support a parent or carer, particularly where there are mental health and substance misuse issues; or the parent or carer is already engaging with support. If your assessment shows that such support is not necessary or appropriate, it is important that the pre-sentence report explains why not, to avoid unnecessary criminalisation of the parent or carer.
Although initial work will be to engage the primary carer for each child, you should also engage all those with parental responsibility. Research shows that women provide most of the parental care for children involved in the justice system. As a result, the focus of parenting support (whether voluntary or statutory) is more likely to be on mothers than fathers. You should consider what measures may be necessary to engage fathers (and others undertaking a fathering role) in positive parenting and ensure that services are relevant to them. Where there is more than one parent involved, you should ensure that both are equally engaged and make efforts to ensure there is a proportionate response to the primary care giver to avoid penalising them for undertaking the majority of parenting tasks.
Parenting workers and others who work with parents or carers should proactively contribute to the AssetPlus assessment to ensure that all relevant information is shared and of good quality so that the child has the best opportunity to meet their potential.
YJSs should work with defence solicitors to engage with parents to attend court where possible; or provide the court with statements or information as to why they were unable to attend. This should be done with all children; however, given the disproportionate outcomes experienced by children with a Black or Mixed ethnicity and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, it is of particular importance. Non-attendance at court may result in stereotyped assumptions and unconscious bias in decision making. You should explore potential barriers that might make it more difficult for parents and carers to attend court and provide support where possible to overcome these.
The children that you assess in the justice system are vulnerable to criminal exploitation. When you look at the impact of the parenting provided, you should decide whether assistance would help the parent or carer to improve the guidance and support they give their child. You should first consider:
- offering a voluntary intervention
- referring the parent or carer to services offered by third sector organisations or,
- referring them to other services which may be offered within the local authority such as Early Help
This may be in the form of:
- a parenting programme
- one-to-one sessions with a parenting worker
- sessions with a group of parents or carers in similar circumstances
You should always offer voluntary intervention before you consider making an intervention mandatory through the court.
Parenting work should be strengths based; recognising parents’ existing abilities and working to build on them rather than focusing on problems and shortcomings.
This online resource explains how parenting courses can offer support.
Exploitation is defined as using someone for another person’s advantage. Children in the justice system are often exploited by older people, for activities such as selling drugs, holding weapons or sexual exploitation. Modern Slavery is when children are recruited, moved and coerced for the purpose of exploitation. It is important to note that the child may not recognise or agree that they are being exploited.
All parents should be made aware of the risks, factors and indicators of all forms of exploitation and Modern Slavery. These should be highlighted to improve their understanding of their children’s circumstances and allow them to provide support to help support desistance.
A Parenting Contract is a voluntary agreement entered into by the parent, parents or carers of children who may be vulnerable to exploitation, crime or violence. It is a written agreement between the youth justice service (YJS) and the parent setting out actions which parents have agreed to undertake and any support which will be provided by the YJS or others.
The contracts work alongside voluntary behaviour agreements made with children and are designed to engage the parents or carers to provide the support needed for them to address the needs of their child. They should also be used as a voluntary option prior to consideration of a Parenting Order.
Courts are required to consider issuing a Parenting Order where a child under the age of 16 has been convicted of an offence. The court can also consider an order for 16 and 17-year-olds when:
- your team recommends it, or decides that parenting is a significant contributory factor to negative outcomes for a child; and
- it is necessary to mandate engagement with support to address this
The pre-sentence report must contain enough information about the parents or carers to enable the court to make a balanced judgement. When assessing whether it would be helpful to make a Parenting Order you should consider the level of independence 16 and 17-year-olds have from their parents and carers. Parenting Orders should also be monitored through a diversity lens to ensure that proposals are made in a consistent and proportionate way. For parents with Black, Asian or Mixed ethnicity children or who are from Gypsy, Roma or Traveller backgrounds, youth justice services should consider and take account of circumstances or cultural differences in their decisions to ensure that Parenting Orders are not deployed disproportionately for particular groups, over and above where they are necessary.
Parenting Orders can last up to a maximum of 12 months. Parents and carers do not have to be in court for an order to be issued to them; it can be made in their absence. In these cases, your team must make the absent parent or carer aware that an order has been made.
When the court issues a Parenting Order, in relation to a court order for a child, your team will manage the case. It should be allocated within one week, and contact made with the parent or carer concerned. The case manager should ensure that the parent or carer understands the order including its mandatory nature and should compile a plan (with input from the parent or carer) to meet the requirements of the order. The plan should:
- involve relevant agencies
- be drawn up collaboratively with the parent
- be constructive and future-focused, aiming to strengthen relationships that empower children to fulfil their potential
- ensure that a parenting programme does not last more than three months
- arrange for support sessions at least once every two weeks
- take into account diversity and difference and that every family situation is unique
A Child Safety Order is a court order available to the family court for use with a child under the age of 10 who has:
- committed an act that would be an offence if they were 10 or over (or where it is necessary to prevent them doing so)
- broken a local Child Curfew, or
- engaged in antisocial behaviour
The order can last between three and 12 months. A Child Safety Order contains a set of requirements with which the child should comply. The requirements aim that the child:
- receives appropriate care, protection and support
- is subject to proper control
- does not repeat the behaviour that led to the order, so engagement with the parents or carers is central to success
The order places the child under the supervision of a responsible officer, who can be either a local authority social worker or a member of your team. Supervision should take care to avoid any requirements that may increase criminogenic stigma from contact; or developing a pro-offending identity in the child or family. Breaches of Child Safety Orders can lead to the parent or carer receiving a Parenting Order.
In line with other court orders, you have responsibility for ensuring you engage parents with Parenting Orders. Where you have not been able to engage them, you should use compliance/engagement panels or other local arrangements to investigate the reasons why and what can be done to provide support and address barriers, in the same way as for children. As youth justice service (YJS) police officers have responsibility for breaches of Parenting Orders, it would be helpful to involve them in actions to reduce barriers and encourage parents to access support.
Where the YJS has been unable to engage the family fully, you as case manager should, with the support of the YJS police officer, compile a detailed report so the order may be returned to court under breach proceedings. Unlike orders for children, breach of Parenting Orders must involve a police investigation, to help to determine whether the case should be brought before the court. The court report should contain evidence of the attempts your team has made to engage the parent and how the lack of engagement could affect the child.
A breach should be carefully considered as it indicates a failure to engage the family; and all other methods of engagement should be exhausted before proceedings start. The maximum penalty for non-compliance with an order is a fine of £1,000.
If the parent has had good reason for not engaging you should consider other actions such as applying to the court for the order to be varied or discharged.
Many children involved with the criminal justice system in England and Wales are also parents. Young parents may need assistance in looking after and caring for their children. Part of the assessment for young parents consider how to strengthen their parenting skills and abilities.
Statutory and third sector agencies provide a range of parenting services. Local authority Early Help services work with children and their families who are experiencing difficulties. Early Help can provide parenting support and may run nationally recognised parenting programmes. Other options include using specialist parenting workers and projects within the third sector and community and faith groups which may provide support to parents. Your local authority should be able to provide information about services in your area.
Children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) (England) or Additional Learning Needs (ALN) (Wales) are disadvantaged. Young parents who have SEND or ALN are even more so. The Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years provides further information for organisations working with children who have special education needs or disabilities, including where they are themselves parents.
The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 sets out the requirements for supporting learners in Wales aged 0 to 25 who have special educational needs and learning difficulties and/or disabilities. All children with recognised additional learning needs will have an Individual Development Plan which is reviewed annually. For further information see the Additional learning needs (ALN) transformation programme.
There is more information on additional learning needs on the Welsh Government website.
There are a number of national and internationally recognised parenting programmes, which may operate in your area:
- Positive Parenting Programme (Triple P)
- Strengthening Families
- Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities
Your local authority should be able to provide details on what parenting services are available in your area and how they are accessed. Parenting interventions should be able to meet the needs of families from different cultural, ethnic and other backgrounds. They should be sensitive to the needs of fathers as well as mothers and recognise that family structures, norms and values are unique with their own dynamics and interactions. They should offer suitable and appropriate support and intervention to the parents and carers of boys with Black and Mixed ethnicity. The youth justice service (YJS) should regularly review the uptake and suitability of parenting provision.
You can find additional resources on the Youth Justice Resource Hub.
YJSs should provide or support access to specific parenting interventions that meet the cultural or other diversity needs of parents in your area. The Ministry of Justice has produced a report: ‘Improving Parental Engagement’ on the experiences of parents of Black, Asian and minority ethnic children in the youth justice system. You are encouraged to consider this document as an assurance tool to better understand the needs of parents of children from ethnic minorities in the justice system. You may also consider this guide on the role of family support in resettlement.
Links to family services including the national Supporting Families programme in England can provide a wide range of support for families of children in the youth justice system. Wales has the Families First programme which is administered by the local authority and incorporates the Team Around the Family (TAF), which is a multi-agency approach to supporting children and parents who have a broad range of needs. Integrated Family Support Services (IFSS) supports families who are affected by parental drug and alcohol misuse.
Other resources include Parenting in Wales: Guidance on engagement and support and Parenting: Give it Time.
Wales introduced ‘anti-smacking’ legislation in March 2020 the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act. Ending physical punishment in Wales is a short film produced by the Welsh Government that explains the rationale behind it. Public attitudes to physical punishment of children: baseline survey, 2018 provides more background to the legislation in Wales.
There are also specific programmes where there has been violence from a child against their parent, carer or other family member. Examples include Who’s in Charge? You can see examples of research proven programmes by other YJSs online through the parenting section of the Youth Justice Resource Hub.