Cordis Pulse: March 2019
March 2019
With increasing public, political and media attention directed at knife crime and serious violence, we have produced a blog-post which discusses the promise of taking a public health approach to addressing the issue. The full blog can be seen here.
Linked to this are the new Standards for children in the Youth Justice System 2019 which the Ministry of Justice and the Youth Justice Board have launched to replace the 2013 standards. The Government says that it is committed to maintaining a distinct Youth Justice System which delivers justice for those who are victims whilst also rehabilitating offenders. The principle of “child first” and “offender second” is a key feature of these new standards.
The five standards cover practice: (1) out of court disposals; (2) at court; (3) in the community (court disposals), (4) in secure settings, and (5) on transition and resettlement. They are intended to guide strategic and operational services’ understanding of what is expected, but do not prescribe the services that should be designed and delivered. This provides Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) with an opportunity to shape how the standards will be delivered and will give them scope to adhere to the minimum standards or go above and beyond (where needed) depending on local priorities.
Cordis Bright has advised Youth Offending Team Boards in scoping these new standards in conjunction with their strategic National Probation Service (NPS) representative; their expertise will be invaluable in ensuring that YOTs deliver in the best way to meet the needs of children and young people in their area.
The YJB have a duty to have oversight of the standards to determine whether services are demonstrating accountability, improvements and showing evidence of impact and influence. This is where we can help, by assisting in developing/ revising local protocols for all five standards, or by way of case file audit. We are currently able to offer a service of auditing two cases over the course of a day against the new standards at no cost, in order to give you a flavour of the power of case file auditing. If you would you like to discuss this further or take up this option please contact Kam Kaur on 07919 483968 or via email: kamkaur@cordisbright.co.uk.
Read more by downloading the Pulse below.