Existing protocol on reducing unnecessary criminalisation among care experienced people will be ‘significantly strengthened’, with improved scrutiny of outcomes, says youth justice white paper.
The government has pledged tougher action to tackle the overcriminalisation of children in care and care leavers in its youth justice white paper, published yesterday.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it would significantly strengthen the existing cross-government protocol on reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers, published in 2018.
Care experienced children are ten times as likely to have been found guilty of offences as their peers, according to a Children’s Commissioner for England report published last year.
The white paper said that behaviour that could be dealt with informally within a family home could escalate into police involvement for a child in care, while the group were also at heightened risk of criminal exploitation
Protocol on reducing criminalisation to be strengthened
The existing protocol urges local authorities and health and criminal justice partners to draw up local agreements, with accountability arrangements, on reducing unnecessary criminalisation, based on principles including that:
- Every effort should be made to avoid unnecessary criminalisation, including through preventive services, in recognition of the fact that looked-after children’s experiences can make them vulnerable to youth justice involvement.
- All professionals should understand the impact of trauma and abuse on development, particularly on emotional and behavioural development and self-regulation.
- Restorative and diversionary approaches should underpin responses to a child’s behaviour, whether this occurs in their placement or the wider community.
- Persistent and more serious offending can indicate that the young person has significant unmet needs and responses to offending should recognise this.
- Planning for the aftercare and resettlement of young people on remand or serving a custodial sentence should start from their entering their remand placement, or custodial establishment, and involve all relevant professionals in their lives.
It also states that the police should not be called for low-level behaviour management or matters a reasonable parent would not have called the police over.
The MoJ said the government would publish “an ambitious, refreshed protocol” later this year, setting clear expectations of what local agencies should do to prevent unnecessary criminalisation across all care settings.
Improved safeguarding of children in custody pledged
The white paper also pledged to improve the safeguarding of children in custody.
It referenced a review, launched earlier this year, into safeguarding across the youth custodial estate, being led by chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler. This was commissioned in response to the Prison and Probation Ombudsman’s investigation into the abuse of boys and young men by staff at Medomsley Detention Centre between 1961 and 1987.
Trowler is leading a safeguarding review panel, whose work encompasses:
- Exploring the feasibility of a new way of raising child protection concerns and improving advocacy in the youth custodial estate.
- Analysing data on allegations against staff across the Youth Custody Service (YCS).
- A case review into allegations against staff where abuse is indicated.
- Reviewing staff recruitment, training and support across the YCS.
- Exploring the practice culture across the estate from the perspectives of prison staff, young people and their families.
The review is due to report in June and, in the white paper, the MoJ said it would strengthen safeguarding practice across the system, including through improved training, clearer routes for children to raise concerns and a swifter and more appropriate response to them.
It added that the government would also consider the role of children’s social care in relation to children in custody off the back of Trowler’s review.
Other youth justice reforms
The white paper also included plans to:
- Reduce the number of children held in custodial remand by 25% by the end of the Parliament (most probably 2029) through investment in community-based alternatives and legislative changes.
- Reform the use of out-of-court resolutions to tackle inequalities in their use and improve their effectiveness in diverting young people from crime, with proposals issued in autumn 2026.
- Pilot youth intervention courts, bringing together judges, youth justice services and specialist support to work in a structured way tackle the root causes of children’s offending, with at least one site being set up by spring 2027.
- Commission a review of the function and purpose of criminal courts for child defendants, which will consider how well they support children to turn their lives around and prevent crime and report by August 2027.
- Shift the youth justice estate away from young offender institutions to smaller, rehabilitative settings, such as secure children’s homes, with measures to achieve this set out in autumn 2026.
- Implement the new offence of child criminal exploitation and child criminal exploitation civil preventative orders, brought in by the Crime and Policing Act 2026, under which adults who use children to commit crimes will face prosecution and disruption, respectively.
