Keith Fraser speaks at the National Violence Reduction Units (VRU) Conference
Keith Fraser, Chair of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), speaks at the National Violence Reduction Units (VRU) Conference.
Introduction
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Good morning, I’m very pleased to be here today to speak to you about the work of the Youth Justice Board and our vision for a Child First youth justice system.
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For those who don’t know who I am, I joined the YJB back in January 2018 as a Board member and in April last year I was appointed as the Chair.
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I joined the YJB after a long career in the police where I worked my way through various positions, from police constable to Superintendent, with periods working in the Met and the West Midlands. I have been Chair of a youth offending team (YOT) Management Board, served as Strategic Police Lead for the Prince’s Trust in the West Midlands and worked directly and indirectly with children over the last 30 years.
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The Youth Justice Board has oversight of the entire youth justice system, and we provide independent, evidence-based advice and leadership to drive improvements that increase children’s positive outcomes and prevent offending.
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Being an advocate for children in our system, especially those who are vulnerable, is incredibly important to me.
YJB and Preventing Harm
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It is one of our key objectives at the YJB to prevent harm caused by exploitation.
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We are working to develop understanding of the drivers of serious youth violence; enhance ways to assist YOTs in their response to serious youth violence; broaden our understanding of children exploited for criminal purposes and develop our approach on how best to support our partners; and influence wider partners and policy development with evidence-based advice.
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Responding to the harm caused by exploitation of children remains a key focus for YJB. Harm is caused, not only to the community and victims but also to the children who are exploited and as a result become drawn into criminal activity. We continue to try and understand the drivers of this, and how we can support our partners to address children’s needs.
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We are also reviewing our guidance on how to manage extremism and responding to increasing concerns around extremism and radicalisation including increases in online exploitation following COVID-19 measures. And, we’re supporting other government departments and wider partners to consider how to prevent harm caused by exploitation using the most up to date evidence.
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Police officers are important players in this. They are the people who come into contact with children at the initial point and they play a vital role in how a child engages with the youth justice system - whether through arrest or diverting to other services and support. They also have a vital role in identifying vulnerability exploitation too.
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Police do a lot in the wider space of helping, preventing and signposting and we want to work with you to achieve the best outcomes for children.
Child First
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At the YJB, we talk about the need for a Child First approach within youth justice. Children are at the heart of what we do, and our focus is on better outcomes for children. Our vision is for a youth justice system that treats children as children.
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As an evidence driven organisation, we believe Child First is about ‘what works’ in preventing offending by children - it supports fewer victims and safer communities and is not about a mantra or an ideology.
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The youth justice system has been hugely successful at reducing the number of children entering the system and children within the secure estate. However, those children who remain in the system face multiple complex challenges and need us to reconsider the support available to them to move forward with their lives.
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The evidence tells us that support should take a Child First approach. It is our assessment that it is this approach which will be effective in addressing the offending behaviour of the small number of children within the youth justice system today, and in preventing offending by those children who are more likely to enter the system.
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In March, we published our three-year strategic plan. In it, we set out our vision for a Child First justice system.
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It is an ambitious plan and we recognise that building a Child First system will take time and require a wide coalition of support.
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Our vision calls for a systemic response to meet this challenge, where the YJB, and all youth justice services operate according to a Child First approach that:
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Prioritises the best interests of children and recognising their particular needs, capacities, rights and potential. All work is child-focused, developmentally informed, acknowledges structural barriers and meets responsibilities towards children.
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Promotes children’s individual strengths and capacities to develop their pro-social identity for sustainable desistance, leading to safer communities and fewer victims. All work is constructive and future-focused, built on supportive relationships that empower children to fulfil their potential and make positive contributions to society.
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Encourages children’s active participation, engagement and wider social inclusion. All work is a meaningful collaboration with children and their carers.
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Promotes a childhood removed from the justice system, using pre-emptive prevention, diversion and minimal intervention. All work minimises criminogenic stigma from contact with the system.
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Child First goes beyond the youth justice system. The principle is one that should steer our intervention with all children - to recognise the potential they each bring with them and to instil in them the sense of their own value.
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A Child First approach is perhaps more important than ever in the current climate. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to greater challenges for a lot of children including mental health, changes to education and an increase in harms caused by exploitation and abuse.
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We are also committed to making sure we influence and improve processes so that all children are treated fairly. We want to see a youth justice system where children are not disadvantaged because of their ethnic background, learning ability, sexual orientation or any other characteristics that might attract different treatment.
Prevention and Diversion
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As adults, we have a moral responsibility to protect children in our society from all harms that might hinder their growth and their ability to realise their potential. If we fail in this responsibility, children will almost inevitably fail to thrive. In some cases, they will be drawn towards negative influences and behaviours to feel self-worth and value. In such circumstances, contact with the youth justice system, the subsequent impact upon their sense of self, and the stigmatisation that follows will all hinder their ability to constructively move forwards.
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The evidence tells us there are many benefits to diverting children away from the formal criminal justice system. Diversion contributes to better outcomes for children and consequently reduced crime and safer communities. Diversion is clearly an important tool for police, the justice system and society as a whole.
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We also know that children can make more mistakes purely, because of lack of experience and knowledge that adults accumulate, as well as biological and cognitive development. Diverting children recognises this and removes the stigma of involvement with the justice system and a criminal record.
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Furthermore, evidence tells us that contact with the youth justice system alone increases the likelihood of children re-offending and continuing their journey deeper into the justice system. Contact with the justice system serves to negatively label children in both their own eyes, and the eyes of others, and create a particular identity which contributes to an increased likelihood of further offending. If you tell someone that they are ‘bad’ it is not unreasonable to think they may begin to believe this and in turn to begin to behave in ways that further reinforce this belief. In turn, while welcoming recent government reform, a criminal record continues to present huge barriers to children’s success in entering education, training and employment into adulthood.
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The YJB wants to break the cycle. We want to make sure that wherever possible, children are prevented from having contact with the youth justice system. In cases where contact is unavoidable, any interventions that are deployed should create constructive opportunities for children to realise their potential. And where possible doesn’t criminalise them, which can significantly impact on their futures. This will benefit both the child as an individual, and society. Evidence tells us that this works in preventing offending and reoffending. This is our core principle and what we regard as Child First. The YJB wants to ensure that the whole youth justice sector can respond to children’s differing levels of vulnerability and needs to ensure less contact occurs with the system.
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The established prevention and diversion work in Wales has contributed to continued reductions in first time entrants and custody. The Youth Justice Blueprint for Wales builds on this success and I understand there is work being carried out by the South Wales Violence Prevention Unit to map areas of work which have synergy with the blueprint.
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A project jointly commissioned by the YJB, National Probation Service (NPS) and the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers (AYM) has been looking at prevention and diversion. The project, funded by the National Probation Service, aims to support YOTs to develop a shared definition and understanding of this work and improve ways in which it is recorded and reported.
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This will provide YOTs, the NPS and the YJB with a better understanding of the prevention and diversion work being delivered across England and Wales, identify and engage key stakeholders who operate prevention and diversion initiatives so that information and data can be shared and promote good prevention and diversion practice across YOTs.
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Last month, we published a summary report of findings from surveying YOT managers earlier this year. The responses indicated the scale of prevention and diversion work for YOTs and the challenges faced around funding, delivery, caseloads, assessments and evaluations.
Violence Reduction Units and how the YJB can support
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deliver prevention
- YOTs
- Children’s Services
- the police
- the Third Sector
- Schools/Education
- Health Services
deliver diversion
- YOTs
- the police
- the Third Sector
- Health Services
- Children’s Services
- Schools/Education.
Violence Reduction Units and how the YJB can support cont.
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Early warning signs about children coming into contact with the youth justice system is a positive and police are in a strong position to spot activity early and to reduce the vulnerability.
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Police are in a unique position to turn children’s lives around. There are key points in a child’s life when adults have the opportunity to set them on a different path. The police are usually the first contact a child has with the youth justice system, so they can influence how that child then progresses through the system.
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By focusing on that initial contact, and prevention and diversion, it can help fewer children enter the system, and allow police to focus on other areas of work.
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Violence Reduction Units are an important example of partnership working at a local level. Bringing together all of the organisations who are involved in, and understand the issues locally, means there are opportunities to really focus, on and address the challenges faced. And it’s also an opportunity to develop and build an evidence base for what works.
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I have spoken on many occasions about how collaboration is at the centre of what we do, and the YJB brings together experts from within our organisation and from the voluntary and community sector, academia, government and children themselves. We want to work with our partners across the system and beyond to push for positive change.
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We want to help you manage need and focus on other areas and we are in a position to provide you with data, information and opportunities to support your work in this area.
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The Youth Justice Resource Hub hosts a range of published information, and we’re committed to building the range of practice examples available via this site to support practitioners and local services. The report I mention above about prevention and diversion can be found here.
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As part of our continuing aim to help reduce serious violence, between December 2019 and December 2020, we supported a group of 30 YOTs who are in the top quartile of local authorities experiencing the highest level of serious violence in accordance with the YJB’s definition of it. Support included enabling network members to share practice and discuss challenges and hear key speakers present current strategic and policy issues. Now that the project has concluded, the Network will join the YJB’s Developing Practice Fora and upcoming themes for these sessions have been identified as prevention and diversion; trauma; and exploitation. The YJB is also continuing focussed work to help reduce serious violence and exploitation under six funded pathfinders across 15 YOTs.
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We have refreshed the Serious Youth Violence Stocktake and relaunched the Serious Youth Violence Data Toolkit.
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We have a number of Pathfinder projects happening across the country that are focusing on serious violence and exploitation.
A brief overview
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In Manchester, research commissioned by Manchester’s Youth Justice Service, explores the nature and prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) within the youth justice cohort in Manchester, along with children’s experiences of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Serious Violence. In addition, it investigates both children’s and practitioner’s views of youth justice practice, and the use of trauma-informed interventions. A webinar which shares the findings of this project, and a report are publicly available.
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Newcastle pathfinder is now in its second year of a three-year project and aims to explore why Newcastle’s rate of serious youth violence for a core city is low compared to statistical comparators, identify the underlying factors driving this and share these findings to the wider youth justice network to inform practice in other areas.
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In the West Midlands, seven YOTs are working with their local Violence Reduction Units to create and facilitate community based, parental peer support networks that can be accessed by parents with children known to or at risk of involvement with the youth justice system.
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In Sandwell, the Youth Offending Service has been funded to create a website in order to increase engagement locally.
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There is a joint project between Norfolk, Essex, Cambridge and Suffolk YOTs to reduce the number of children involved in county lines.
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The East Sussex pathfinder project will study the use of contextual safeguarding peer group assessments in YOTs to better understand how children become involved in child criminal exploitation (CCE) in East Sussex. The project also aims to help develop a more effective local multi-agency assessment with children experiencing harm outside of the home and CCE as well as developing different approaches to engaging and working with children from ethnic minorities at risk of CCE.
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We share the outcomes of all our pathfinders, and you may find useful information that is relevant to your region in those.
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We also publish regular research publications that offer accessible data.
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Finally, we will be looking to set up an event this year where we look at the youth justice system as a whole and map the interactions and interdependencies. This will be with input from all youth justice stakeholders, and we will welcome the insight of VRUs.
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We want to help where we can, and I invite you look at what we have available and speak to us about how we may be able to support you.
Closing
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We are working to one end – the best outcomes for children who come into contact with the justice system.
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You all understand the areas you represent and are best placed to know the local needs and concerns.
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Children have huge potential, and we want to harness that. We need to give children the opportunities to realise this potential and succeed. It is more important now than ever, to support our society to move past current challenges.
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As I said at the beginning, the last year has been incredibly challenging for everyone – especially children. It’s incumbent on all of us to provide opportunities for children to have positive experiences and interactions and look ahead. One example is the recent announcement in Wales of a ‘Summer of Fun’ - an offer for children and young people to play and participate in leisure, recreational, sporting and cultural activities to help rebuild their social and emotional skills. socialise, to be active and to play.
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We know relationships create positive change for children. Children need adults to believe in them and to see their potential; this helps them to be able to see it too.
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If we allow children to succeed in life, we prevent offending. We will not only protect the public but will enable our society to thrive.
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My ask of you is to see children as children, look out for them and want the very best for them, then we will be providing a better criminal justice system for all.