Policy paper

Government response to the independent review: delivering the best for girls in custody

Published 11 November 2025

Ministerial foreword

Delivering real change for girls in the face of complexity

As Minister for Youth Justice, I welcome Susannah Hancock’s independent review into the care of girls in the youth justice secure estate. This report shines a vital light on the experiences of some of the most vulnerable children in our justice system and sets out a clear path for reform.

Girls in custody often face complex challenges. Many are victims of trauma and abuse – and girls are five times more likely than boys to be victims of sexual assault. As the review highlights, despite making up less than 2% of the youth custodial population, girls account for over half of self-harm incidents. This is a stark reminder that the system must evolve to meet girls’ needs.

Over the past several months, we have thoroughly reviewed the recommendations to ensure that any changes we implement are practical and will make an impact. The government immediately acted on the review’s first recommendation, which means girls will no longer be placed in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs).^{[footnote 1]} This marks a significant and overdue shift in ensuring girls receive the right support in custody.

In the longer term, we are determined to improve the care of girls in youth custody. This begins with makings sure children are placed in appropriate accommodation, which is why we are piloting a new placement protocol for children who we identify as suitable for Secure Children Homes. We are also developing training and guidance for staff to ensure they are equipped to meet the most complex needs and girls receive both the care and support they deserve. I will chair a newly established Girls in Youth Justice Advisory Board and have appointed a Girls Strategic Lead in Ministry of Justice to ensure that we continue to shape improvements for girls across the youth justice system.

We also know the importance of alternative community provision for children who are at risk of entering custody. We want to increase the availability of specialist youth justice intensive fostering and are investing in innovative community alternatives to custodial remand in high remand areas, to keep girls out of custody wherever possible. We know that our most vulnerable girls often move between the justice, welfare and healthcare systems. Our response is clear that any investment in new community placements or new support pathways must help to close the gaps between these systems that girls can too often fall through.

We remain fully committed to the underlying principles: ensuring we have appropriate community alternatives to custody, and for those that do need to be placed into secure settings, we can place them in the most appropriate placement with staff equipped to meet their needs. Where we have not accepted a recommendation in full, we have set out our reasoning transparently and we will continue to work to improve experiences and outcomes for girls.

I want to thank Susannah Hancock for her thorough and compassionate work. Most importantly, I want to put on record my gratitude to the many girls, professionals, and stakeholders who contributed to this review. Their voices have shaped a vision for a more just and supportive system. One that recognises the unique needs of girls and strives to help them thrive.

This is not the end of the journey, but a critical step forward. We will continue to work across government, with local authorities and youth justice services, to ensure that every girl in the youth justice system receives the care, dignity, and opportunity she deserves.

Jake Richards MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

Responses to recommendations

Below we have set out what we are committed to achieving in response to each recommendation. Our commitments have been made possible through close collaboration with partners across government and the wider sector. In particular, we have worked alongside NHS England, the Department for Education, and the Youth Custody Service to design and deliver these initiatives.

As policies concerning health, social care, and education are devolved to Wales, the majority of the work described below is being undertaken in England.

Recommendation 1:

End the use of Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) for girls with immediate effect

The Government took immediate action to cease the placement of girls into YOIs as of March 2025. This means girls will now be placed into settings that can better meet their needs.

Recommendation 2:

End the use of Secure Training Centres (STCs) for girls by the end of the contract with Oakhill STC in 2029

We fully support the core principle of Recommendation 2: that every placement decision – whether for boys or girls – must be based on the child’s individual needs, safety, and best interests, in line with the highest standards of child-centred care.

The Youth Custody Service (YCS) has a statutory duty to place children in custody when they have been remanded or sentenced by the courts. Following the Government’s acceptance of Recommendation 1, girls are now able to be placed in one of three custodial sectors: the Secure School, a Secure Children’s Home (SCH), or a Secure Training Centre (STC).

An essential safeguarding principle of the children’s homes regulatory regime is that a registered manager must only accept a referral where they are satisfied that they can safely accommodate the child, taking in to account the home’s statement of purpose and the needs of all residents in the home. As such, there may be instances where a manager of a secure children’s home concludes they cannot accept the referral for a particular child.

Removing the STC as a placement option for girls could result in the YCS being unable to meet its duty to place a child in custody, as directed by the judiciary. For this reason, we are unable to accept this recommendation.

We acknowledge that Oakhill STC has recently received an Urgent Notification. In collaboration with G4S, we developed and published an action plan on 28 August 2025 to support improvements at Oakhill STC. In addition, we are actively reviewing and strengthening the support available for girls at Oakhill to mitigate the risks and issues raised in the review. This includes enhanced oversight, staff training, and targeted interventions to ensure that the care provided meets the specific needs of girls in custody and aligns with our commitment to child-centred, trauma-informed practice.

Recommendation 3:

Government policy should move to a position where all girls on remand or sentenced should be placed in Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs) or the Secure School, as that is the most appropriate placement for them.

We remain firmly committed to ensuring that every placement decision – regardless of gender – is based on the individual needs, safety, and best interests of the child, in line with the highest standards of child-centred care.

As outlined in our response to Recommendation 2, it is not currently possible to guarantee that all girls will be placed in SCH or Secure School settings. Placement decisions will continue to be made in the best interest of the child, on a case-by-case basis and reflecting their unique circumstances and needs.

Recommendation 4:

To achieve this [recommendation 3], the Youth Custody Service (YCS), working with the Department for Education (DfE) and the National Health Service England (NHSE) should work with a small, dedicated group of SCHs and the Secure School to create a ‘Girls Consortia’ who are supported and resourced to work together, in a coordinated way, to provide placements for all girls. The consortia should be run as a pilot period initiative initially, with evaluation throughout. It should include work with the placements team to test new ways of improving processes. Based on the insights gained, it can then transition into standard practice. This could be formalised through a protocol and / or contractual arrangements. Additional funding should be identified to provide resources to the consortia to support them with girls with very complex needs.

We agree with establishing an additional mechanism to improve the placement process for girls and have carefully explored what this could look like. In shaping our response, we engaged extensively with Registered Managers of SCHs that offer justice beds for girls. Through this engagement, we gathered insight into what would best support them in providing placement opportunities for vulnerable children. There was broad consensus that peer support, information sharing, and collective problem-solving would be the most effective enablers. These insights have been central to informing our approach.

As a result, we are piloting an enhanced placement protocol. This protocol will be triggered when a child – regardless of gender – is identified by the Youth Custody Service (YCS) as suitable for SCH placement but has had a referral declined. In practice, this will provide of a forum where Registered Managers can share information, expertise, and advice on the care and management of the child in question.

Children assessed as suitable and appropriate for placement to a SCH or Secure School will be referred to these sectors in line with current policy and practise. Should registered managers from these sectors consider that they cannot safely accept a referral either as a transfer application or directly from court, the placements team may need to place the child into alternative secure accommodation such as Oakhill STC as an initial temporary lodge. This allows us to meet our statutory duty to serve the courts and ensures children can access a bed rather than endure a prolonged stay in court cells, sometimes very late in the day. At the earliest possible opportunity, the Placements team will bring Registered Managers together to explore placement possibilities in their homes. Where possible we may be able to do so on the same day to prevent placement in a lodge site.

While the original recommendation focused on enabling placements for girls in SCH settings, feedback from Registered Managers highlighted that placement challenges extend across boys as well as girls. We have therefore broadened the scope of the protocol to ensure that all children assessed as suitable for placement in the SCH and Secure School sectors benefit from this enhanced approach. We anticipate that this protocol will improve placement outcomes for girls while also strengthening decision-making and support for all children with particularly complex needs. The pilot will run for one year, beginning in January 2026. It will be continuously reviewed throughout its duration, with the design iterating in response to timely feedback from Registered Managers and the YCS Placement Team. An internal review will also assess the protocol’s effectiveness against its stated aims. This will be an iterative process, helping us refine how we measure its impact and benefits.

Registered Managers will retain their statutory duty to only accept a referral when it is safe to do so, and YCS will continue to require a guaranteed placement option outside the SCH and Secure School sectors. However, we are confident that this enhanced, collaborative approach will lead to better outcomes when we have assessed SCHs as the most suitable sector.

This pilot will not alter the current YCS Placements Policy. Instead, it will introduce an additional step to support the placement process – aiming to place children in settings that best meet their individual needs.

Recommendation 5:

A national pathway for girls should be developed in line with the evidence base, which defines the gender-responsive, trauma-informed services that girls in secure accommodation need and the commissioning required across departments to meet those needs. This should include justice and welfare girls in secure accommodation, given that many of them are the same group. The pathway should include the training and support requirements needed by professionals working with girls in secure environments. It can link with the wider work being taken forward through the YCS Critical Care Pathway. The girl’s pathway will provide professionals, settings and commissioners with clear, national guidance on meeting the needs of girls in secure settings.

A national pathway for girls in custody in England currently exists. However, we recognise that this does not fully meet the needs of all girls – particularly those with highly complex needs. To address this, we will undertake a focused period of work to identify where the existing pathway requires enhancement to support these girls.

Through the process of development of these resources, we will work collaboratively to enhance the pathway, ensuring it better supports the placement, management, and care of all girls in secure settings. This work will be informed by evidence and best practice and will be developed in partnership with experts – including Registered Managers, clinical advisors, young people, and practitioners, to test the most appropriate model of care. It will include awareness training for the wider system, and specific training for those working with girls to better address their needs, including on self-harm.

This work will be completed alongside the current project in England to sustain the implementation of the Framework for Integrated Care in the Children and Young People Secure Estate. This project will be developed and delivered through sector-wide collaboration.

Recommendation 6:

Building on national research and guidance, the YCS and NHS England should work with the girls’ consortia to ensure greater consistency of good practice in responding to girls who self-harm, so staff in secure settings are clear on when and how to intervene and de-escalate and are supported and trained to do so. This should include work to ensure restraint is used safely and adequately when responding to self-harm, with appropriate monitoring in place centrally to review this.

Insights gained from the enhanced placement protocol (recommendation 4) will feed into project outlined in response to recommendation 5. This project will include developing training and tools to ensure staff in secure settings are equipped to intervene, de-escalate and respond to self-harm in a gender responsive way, captured as part of the work detailed in response to recommendation 5.

Recommendation 7:

Wales: Girls from Wales should be placed in the Wales SCH wherever possible. If provision is not available, the wider girls’ consortia should assist. In the longer term, provision for girls should be addressed through the Wales Youth Justice (YJ) Blueprint. Wales Government has stated that they want to see youth justice devolved and work to a place where no children are in custody.

The Youth Custody Service (YCS) is committed to placing Welsh girls into secure accommodation that best meets their individual needs. Wherever possible, it aims to place girls from Wales in the Secure Children’s Home (SCH) located in Wales. All registered managers of an SCH have a duty only accept a placement of a child if they determine that their home can safely or appropriately meet the needs of the child and the wider resident group. This safeguard is a core part of the statutory framework governing SCHs.

Going forward, any placement where a Registered Manager states that they cannot accept a child, this will trigger the new Enhanced Placement Process, as set out in our response to Recommendation 2. If a placement is ultimately deemed as unsuitable by the Welsh SCH the YCS will be compelled to seek placement in an SCH in England or, if no SCH can accept the placement, in the Secure Training Centre (STC).

This highlights the ongoing challenge of ensuring Welsh girls can remain close to home and within the Welsh system, particularly given the limited number of secure placements available in Wales and its location in South Wales making it challenging for girls, and their families, from North Wales. Placement protocol for Welsh children, especially those placed outside of Wales should consider Welsh cultural, language, social and learning needs.

We will continue to engage and work closely with the Welsh Government on the manifesto commitment relating to youth justice.

Recommendation 8:

A Girls Justice Strategic Board should be established to oversee the development and delivery of a strategy for girls across the youth justice system, including girls in the community and in the secure estate. This should link closely with the new Women’s Justice Board. The terms of reference for the Girls Justice Board should be published.

Recognising the need for dedicated and strategic oversight of girls’ experiences in the youth justice system, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has established the Girls in Youth Justice Advisory Board (GYJAB) The Panel’s Terms of Reference will be published alongside this response to ensure transparency and clarity of purpose for all stakeholders.

The GYJAB brings together senior leaders from the MoJ, Youth Custody Service (YCS), Department of Health and Social Care/NHS England, and independent advisors representing the Youth Justice Board (YJB), National Children’s Bureau, Alliance for Youth Justice, Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, and – critically – voices with lived experience.

The Board will:

• Discuss the delivery of government commitments in response to the girls’ review.
• Champion the experiences and needs of girls in the Children and Young People Secure Estate (CYPSE), identifying barriers and promoting effective, gender-responsive practices.
• Share emerging research and insights about girls in the community – particularly those with special educational needs, complex needs, experiences of exclusion, or looked-after status – to inform and improve policy and practice.

By establishing the GYJAB, we are embedding a culture of continuous improvement and strategic focus on girls’ experiences in justice. The Board’s first meeting, scheduled in December 2025, marks a significant milestone in our commitment to driving meaningful and lasting change for girls - both in the community and in secure settings.

Recommendation 9:

A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) strategic lead should be appointed, working with DfE, DHSC, NHS, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and across government departments and wider partners, to drive forward the work with girls in the Youth Justice System (YJS), including the development of the consortia and the girls pathway, ensuring that there is strategic buy-in, and that momentum is maintained.

The Ministry of Justice has appointed the Deputy Director of the Youth Justice Policy Unit as the strategic lead for girls. The strategic lead will attend the GYJAB and will be responsible for maintaining progress and ensuring that the perspectives of girls are considered system-wide and with external partners when developing future policies and enhancing the youth justice system.

Recommendation 10:

An action plan responding to the recommendations from this review should be published within 6 months of this report being published. This should include timescales for action.

Alongside this response, we have developed an internal high-level action plan which sets out our timescales for action, and against which we will provide updates on progress to the GYJAB (recommendation 8).

We were unfortunately unable to publish our response in line with the timeframe set out in the recommendation given our commitment to delivering a comprehensive and holistic cross-government response to the review.

Recommendation 11:

The MoJ, DfE and DHSC should use the opportunities presented by the new Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to develop new ‘community secure’ provision, which could deliver a system change for welfare and justice girls – and indeed all children in secure settings. Once introduced, the Bill will provide a statutory framework to place children in new types of accommodation, including developing and testing new models of care and providing more flexible provision that is better able to respond to children’s needs. MoJ should work closely with DfE, DHSC, NHS E, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and local authorities as the bill progresses, to ensure that the new legislation delivers the step change needed for girls in justice and welfare secure settings.

This government is fully committed to reforming help for families and children’s social care. This comes with both significant investment and legislation proposed through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. We recognise that girls (and boys) can be at risk of being placed in secure accommodation for criminal justice as well as on welfare grounds and often have similar characteristics and overlapping needs; sometimes they are the exact same children re-entering placements through different pathways. Secure accommodation should always be a last resort for children, but there is sometimes a lack of suitable residential or family-based alternatives that can accommodate girls with the most complex needs, to divert them away from secure accommodation.

In England, we are investing £541m into the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme this year to begin transformation. This funding will increase next year. The FFP programme will support the national rollout of family help, multi-agency child protection teams and family group decision making. Together these reforms will provide more coordinated help and support for children and families ensuring they receive the right support at the right time, making a real, tangible difference to their lives, and prevent issues escalating. Safeguarding partnerships (local government, police, health and education) are working together to design early support around families’ needs, helping to break the cycle of late intervention so more children are supported in the right way and families can stay together safely.

This government is also committed to fundamentally improving support for those that need a care placement. Wherever possible children needing care should be placed in a family setting. This work includes a significant focus on driving up the number of foster carers. We will provide an additional £25m over 2 years (beginning in 2026/27 and 2027/28) for foster care as part of Children’s Social Care Reform, to help recruit hundreds more fostering families, provide better peer to peer support for foster carers, and ensure more children in care have stability through ensuring a foster care placement is available to them when needed.

In response to a steep rise in the number of children – and in particular, looked after children deprived of their liberty under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court, the proposed changes to Section 25, via the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, will provide a statutory framework to authorise the deprivation of liberty of children in provision other than a secure children’s home. These changes will provide clearer criteria and mandatory review points to ensure that these children are not deprived of their liberty longer than they require it and are placed in registered accommodation that can best meet their needs.

New accommodation options which will be able to be developed following the passage of the Bill will provide placement alternatives for children involved with the youth justice system, including girls with the most complex needs. These placements will be Ofsted-registered, open children’s homes that provide care and treatment while also being capable of being used to deprive a child of their liberty, where required, under the amended section 25. As with any open children’s home, there will be no legislative barrier to a child being placed into this provision on a remand to local authority accommodation order, Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) with local authority residence requirement or when they are resettling post-custody and are not yet able to return to their family home – as long as the setting meets their needs (the child requires the treatment and care that these homes will provide), and the court decides that it is an appropriate setting for the child to protect the public (in the case of remand or YRO). It is also important that placement decisions will remain the responsibility of children’s home managers and local authorities, and unless there is a relevant court order under section 25 Children Act 1989 authorising a deprivation of liberty, it will not be possible for a child residing in this accommodation to be deprived of their liberty.

Further to this, we are taking a whole system approach to provide the models of care and treatment for children in complex situations, who are or are at risk of being deprived of their liberty. DfE has recently published detailed research on this and are funding the first testing of a multi-disciplinary commissioning team, drawing on a range of disciplines from across social care, justice and health, in 25/26, working directly with the South East Regional Care Co-operative to test integrated assessment, commissioning and delivery, with input from justice, health and children’s social care professionals.

This Government recognises that a lack of suitable provision can result in looked-after children being placed in unsuitable and often unregistered placements and children being remanded into custody where they could instead be remanded into the care of the local authority. To address this, we are looking to diversify the children’s homes market to drive up quality of provision and reduce placement costs. One of the ways we are doing this is by investing significant capital funding to reform the children’s social care system and create more local authority owned provision through a multi-year package which includes £90 million for 2025-26 and £560 million for 2026-27 to 2029-30. This funding will support the creation of over 600 additional secure and open residential placements, including 75 secure welfare placements and 10 step-down placements in parts of the country where they are most needed, including two brand new secure homes in London and West Midlands regions that currently have no secure provision. This will support local areas to provide high quality, safe homes for children and young people with complex multiple needs.

This programme of work is part of the biggest overhaul to children’s social care in a generation to ensure opportunity for all children and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is a key step towards delivering the government’s Opportunity Mission to break the link between young people’s background and their future success.

Wales

The Welsh Government continues to invest in the development of therapeutic residential accommodation for children and young people with complex needs through the Regional Partnership Boards (RPBs), via capital funding streams such as the Housing with Care Fund (HCF) or the Integration and Rebalancing Capital Fund (IRCF), and revenue funding from the Regional Integration Fund or the Eliminate Profit from Care Fund.

Children with complex needs are a priority group served by the HCF with an indicative HCF budget of £60.5m in 2026-27. The IRCF has an annual budget of £70m per year until 2026-27. The fund has three funding priorities, one of which is to support projects that will eliminate profit from the care of children looked after and support the growth of not-for-profit children’s residential care provision.

Local Authorities Children’s Services tell us care-experienced children appear to have more complex presentations than ever before. Due to insufficiency issues, these children have often been cared for out of area or out of Wales in expensive private provision. Therefore, RPBs are prioritising the development of accommodation for children with complex needs, which in practice also supports the eliminate profit agenda and will ensure children are cared for closer to home.

In addition, The Health and Social Care Regional Integration Fund (the RIF) is a 5-year fund worth £146.8m to deliver a programme of change through the Regional Partnership Boards until March 2027. This aims to develop integrated care models, including ‘Supporting families to stay together safely and therapeutic support for care experienced children with complex needs’.  We invested nearly £23m last year in this model of care and we are expecting the level of spend for the current and next year to be similar. This funding helps to support around 6,500 children per year, by providing a range of services.

Recommendation 12:

Linked to the above, the Government should consider designating alternative provision (i.e. multi-dimensional, intensive fostering placements) as approved places of detention for girls. This already exists in legislation but is rarely if ever used. This could be an effective and cost-effective means to provide a safe, supportive and diversionary (away from custody) environment for some girls

Intensive fostering can already be used for children on Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YROs) who meet the custody threshold under the Sentencing Act, and for children on Remand to Local Authority Accommodation as an alternative to custodial remand. However, in practice, intensive fostering is rarely used as a youth justice placement, primarily due to a lack of this provision, so we fully recognise the importance of improving availability of these alternatives to custody for girls – particularly those with complex needs who would benefit from safe, supportive, and therapeutic environments. There are currently no plans to legislate for foster placements to be designated as places of detention but we are committing to a renewed, targeted focus on expanding specialist youth justice intensive fostering, working with local authorities to develop remand fostering programmes and, where appropriate, using regional recruitment hubs to support this work. This will help ensure that intensive fostering is more widely available to girls who are at risk of entering custody.

More broadly, foster carers play a vital role in the wider children’s social care system and will be at the heart of this Government’s thinking as the system is re-focused to provide earlier support and greater stability for children. We must take urgent action to substantially increase foster care numbers creating more suitable and accessible options, ensuring young people are supported to have lifelong and loving relationships.

As part of the Chancellor’s Transformation Fund announced in the Spring Statement, we will provide an additional £25m over 2 years (beginning in 2026/27 and 2027/28) for foster care as part of Children’s Social Care Reform in England. We expect this funding to help recruit hundreds more fostering families, provide better peer to peer support for foster carers, and ensure more children in care have stability through ensuring a foster care placement is available to them when needed. This is additional to the £15m of fostering investment that was announced in the Autumn Budget, to cover investment taking place in 2025/26.

Recommendation 13:

To ensure that custody is only used as a last resort for girls, MoJ should work with YJB, DfE, DHSC, NHS England and local authorities to develop wider supported accommodation provision in the community as alternatives for girls. This could build on learning from existing pilots and models such as the London Accommodation Pathfinder (LAP) and the Hope Street women’s hub. Funding could be secured through channels including the remand budget, with the potential for additional investment from philanthropic bodies and charitable trusts.

We continue to learn from innovative models of community provision such as the London Accommodation Pathfinder and Hope Street. We are investing in new community alternatives to custodial remand pilots this year in West Yorkshire and Kent, supporting these regions to develop plans for future community remand and bail provisions. The West Yorkshire remand pilot is trialling new approaches in the region to divert children from custodial remand by improving placement sufficiency, enhancing family engagement, and increasing regional collaboration across local authorities to develop supported accommodation, children’s homes, and fostering options. While Kent County Council is focusing on early identification of children who may be at risk of custodial remand and using the ‘Family Group Conferencing’ model to develop robust bail packages.

We continued to fund the Greater Manchester remand pilot that commenced in October 2023 and is testing whether pooling remand funding regionally supports the development of more robust community alternatives to custodial remand. In January 2025 the pilot opened a small, supported accommodation for remanded children, which is providing rich learnings regarding remand residential provision. The pilot has also shown that dedicated accommodation is not a complete solution to diverting children away from custodial remand. There has been a notable positive cultural shift in the region regarding the use of Remand to Local Authority Accommodation and Bail ISS, due to improved multi-agency working throughout the remand process, and corresponding with a reduction in the number of children being remanded to custody.

We are also exploring opportunities to strategically support investment into innovative residential care models for this cohort. In March this year, we hosted a Youth Justice Remand Roundtable, bringing together local authorities, third sector organisations, social investors, and philanthropic stakeholders to explore the potential of community-based accommodation to divert children from custodial remand and support their resettlement post-custody. We will continue to work with stakeholders to strengthen the evidence base around community alternatives to custodial remand, to help attract investment into this sector.

Conclusion and next steps

1. This response sets out our clear direction for improving the experiences and outcomes of girls in the youth justice system. Building on the insights of Susannah Hancock’s review, we have taken decisive steps to address longstanding challenges, including ending the use of Young Offender Institutions for girls and investing in new, community-based alternatives to custody.

2. Our approach is rooted in collaboration, evidence, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Through innovative pilots, enhanced placement protocols, and the creation of a gender-responsive national pathway, we are working to ensure that every girl receives care tailored to her individual needs. The establishment of the Girls in Youth Justice Advisory Board will help us maintain momentum, providing ongoing oversight and ensuring that the voices of girls and those who support them remain at the heart of future policy and practice.

3. As we move forward, we will continue to monitor progress, learn from what works, and adapt our approach in response to new evidence and feedback. Our ambition is to create a youth justice system where custody is only ever a last resort, and where every girl is supported to thrive, both in custody and in the community. We remain committed to transparency, partnership, and delivering meaningful change for some of the most vulnerable young people in our society.

Contact details

Youth Justice and Offender Policy
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

Email: Correspondence-YJPU@Justice.gov.uk

1. Government no longer places girls in Young Offender Institutions - GOV.UK ↩