03 April 2008
Justice Minister David Hanson has given a speech at an annual youth crime conference organised by Nacro, the crime reduction charity.
[Check against delivery - this is the prepared text of the speech, and may differ from the delivered version.]
Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (David Hanson MP):
Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
I know that Nacro has played a major role since 1966 in preventing crime and reoffending and in supporting ex-offenders, and I pay tribute to your work. You have worked hard to give ex-offenders, disadvantaged people and deprived communities the help which they need to build a better future.
I am genuinely pleased to learn that Nacro has helped over 85,000 people each year with your dedicated staff and volunteers, working both inside and outside of prisons across England and Wales, help offenders to resettle after their sentence: getting them help with addictions, mental health problems and employment training. Supporting housing projects, where former offenders and others can live while they get their lives together, supported by key workers, are an excellent demonstration of the impressive work done by Nacro.
And, if anything, that work is even more vital today than ever.
Because the challenges which you face are the same as those for the government:
- How to improve on early intervention
- How to bring the great power of government to bear on the causes of crime in a more effective way; a more coordinated way
- How to help build better pathways to tackle the issues that lead to crime - drugs, alcohol and family breakdown
- How do we help reintegration to society with employment and housing?
- How to use more effective sentencing to prevent young people going into custody in the first place through effective use of community sentences
- How to reduce the number of young people in custody in the future, while still ensuring that there are places for persistent and dangerous offenders
- And, how do we make custody itself an effective intervention?
You all know, I hope, what a high priority tackling youth offending remains for this government. But doing it successfully takes a combined effort from a range of services - many of which are represented here today - to deliver the continuously-improving youth justice system that we need and which the public deserves.
This is clear when we look at how far the justice system has come in the last ten years.
- we have seen an overall fall in crime of 32%
- a 7% reduction in reoffending
- a 40% increase in offences brought to justice
Conferences such as today's give us an opportunity to take stock of how the system used to be and how different it is now.
Because there have been major changes to date. The youth justice system is no longer disjointed with little focus on prevention. It is not preoccupied with simply processing young people rather than seeking to prevent or improve their behaviour.
With your help, we have made real progress over the last decade:
- Since the Crime and Disorder Act in 1998 the system has become much more cohesive with the establishment of the Youth Justice Board and later Youth Offending Teams.
- We are dealing with more juvenile offences without recourse to the courts which is freeing up court time for more serious and persistent offending.
We need to change the way in which we do things in order to adapt to current issues. We now have, for the first time, the new joint arrangements between the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Children, Schools and Families are opening up a variety of opportunities, just as we had hoped they would. There are now much closer working relationships across the Ministry of Justice and DCSF with a better understanding of the broad range of issues. There is also an increased focus on improving educational provision for offenders to bring this in line with mainstream education.
The Children's Plan published at the end of last year set out our joint priorities and intentions to review our approach to preventing youth crime and tackling offending.
The new arrangements are reflected in our two main priorities: to prevent young people committing crimes and to work with those that do offend to tackle the causes of their offending and hold them to account for their actions.
All of this is not to say that there are not significant challenges facing us. No one can have missed recent media coverage of a number of high profile crimes committed by young people. Appalling random crimes such as the murders of Garry Newlove in Warrington, and Sophie Lancaster in Lancashire, understandably heighten public concern about young people and crime and should not be tolerated. The perpetrators quite rightly face long sentences for their vicious crimes. My thoughts go to the families of the victims. Thankfully, there is no evidence to suggest that overall violent crime by young people is on the increase.
Nevertheless, government should take such cases very seriously and it is our job to ensure that effective sentencing is in place to deal with this appalling crime when it does occur.
These tragic cases are symptomatic of the ever-changing challenges. The use of firearms by young people involved in gang violence is of particular concern to the Home Secretary who set up the Tackling Gangs Action Programme last September to focus work in areas in four key cities - London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool - where gang violence has been particularly persistent. The programme is helping to develop multi-agency activity in these areas including:
- enforcement action
- exchange of information
- mediation and mentoring provision to prevent the escalation of gang conflicts and provide exit strategies for gang members
- prevention and diversionary activity
- sharing of good practice
We have got to focus on the supply and availability of firearms. The Association of Chief Police Officers, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and HM Revenue & Customs have all committed to giving this area of work a high priority and have already conducted operations, for example, at postal hubs to seize weapons being transported via the postal system.
Although frequent use of illicit drugs has decreased among young people; there are an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children of problem drug users in England and Wales: 2% to 3% of children under 16:
- between a third and a half of acquisitive crime is estimated to be drug related;
- around a quarter (24%) of young people aged 16-24 have used an illegal drug in the last year.
I have instigated a review of drug treatment which will report shortly.
Since 1998, we have responded to public concern and the calls of practitioners to implement a series of measures designed to curb anti-social behaviour: Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), acceptable behaviour contracts, parenting orders and crack house closures just to name a few. We need this wide range of powers because not all anti-social behaviour is the same. A 'one size fits all' approach to tackling it simply will not work.
We are encouraged that three independent reports including the Home Affairs Select Committee report (2005), the Audit Commission report (May 2006) and the NAO report (December 2006) have confirmed our approach to tackling anti-social behaviour is working but we will continue to support practitioners on the front line to work together to do more. We have just finished 16 workshops around the country in partnership with the Crown Prosecution Service, the Court Service and experts in the field on making best use of the tools and powers available and new comprehensive guidance is planned.
All of these challenges - guns, knives, gangs, drugs - are at the forefront of this government's agenda. They are corrosive influences which need to be tackled. And that is why we are working to crack down on gun and knife crime while doing everything that we can to promote safer communities.
- Neighbourhood Police Teams are providing local people and communities power over how their streets are policed.
- Our Youth Taskforce Action Plan, which builds on the work of the Respect Taskforce, sets out our approach to anti-social behaviour based on tough enforcement.
- We want to stress the responsibilities as well as the rights of our young people.
These are the type of steps which people want to see taken.
It is also important to remember that the vast majority of young people are, and will remain, on the path to success. But those at risk of offending will often be vulnerable to a range of negative influences and the unacceptable social consequences that flow from them. So we need to develop new strategies to tackle the changing world - and to revisit some of the persistent problems we face.
We need to get better at identifying sooner those young people and families in need of support and doing what is necessary to keep their lives on the right track.
We need to reduce the number of young people going into the criminal justice system. Despite improvements, there are too still too many young people in the criminal justice system. Over 200,000 10-17 year-olds were found guilty in court, or cautioned for an offence, in England and Wales in 2005. We need to examine sentencing options because that figure is far too high.
We need much closer working between children's services and youth offending services on the ground - bridging the gap which has traditionally existed between the two.
We need to re-examine mental health, drug and alcohol services. And we need to challenge the education and training support we offer. So what are we doing and what can we do better?
The first-time entrants indicator is designed to help with this by focusing local areas on targeting services earlier towards children and young people who are at most risk of offending.
To achieve greater levels of integration between youth crime prevention and wider children's services, we made a commitment, in 'Aiming High', the 10-year youth strategy, to pool 10% of the Youth Justice Board's prevention grant with local authority funding - a fact I hope you will welcome.
We are creating a three-year pilot to look at how Youth Offending Teams can best pool 100% of their prevention budgets to strengthen support for young people and prevent offending.
And there will be new and continuing work on prevention and early intervention through the new Youth Taskforce. Their Action Plan which I mentioned earlier, and which was published last week, sets out how we intend to make over £218 million available to tackle the root causes of bad behaviour and build on successful approaches combining tough enforcement to stop anti-social behaviour, non-negotiable help to tackle the causes of bad behaviour, and early intervention to help young people and their parents at the first sign of problems.
This includes an additional almost £23 million for positive activities through the Youth Capital Fund which I will return to.
It also includes other initiatives such as setting up 20 Intensive Intervention projects to address the most challenging young people. Young people will sign a contract - they will get help like drug treatment or literacy training to tackle the causes of bad behaviour - but there will be sanctions if they don't engage or behaviour doesn't change. These projects will work with around 1,000 of the most challenging young people each year.
We want to encourage statutory and voluntary sector bodies to play their part with local authorities in active local partnerships delivering services to all young people. We recognise the importance of volunteering in building social cohesion within our communities. So we are again making available £5 million on providing expert support from the Training and Development Agency to help local areas reform their services.
Young people with additional needs who are not easily reached by mainstream or specialist services can be supported and challenged through multi-agency working, led by local authorities. Tools such as the Common Assessment Framework together with a personalised package of support co-ordinated by a lead professional will ensure each young person receives more personalised support.
This is not about a soft approach. We will continue to tackle anti-social behaviour and address its causes through the effective use of enforcement powers and we will evaluate the effectiveness of support measures alongside anti-social behaviour orders.
What else can we do? We cannot support young people in isolation from supporting their families and communities. That is why we will expand the network of Family Intervention Projects. And we are making £60 million available to roll out Parenting Early Intervention Pathfinders.
An important part of delivering the action plan is to find new ways to help local communities and young people resolve tensions and to help promote positive interaction between young people and other sections of society, in a positive way.
When we ask young people what would stop them offending they tell us that what they need are more things to do and places to go. Local authorities have already had success in delivering school holiday based positive activity programmes for young people at risk of poor outcomes. A total of £115 million was made available via the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund from 2006 to fund activities and improve facilities for young people in local areas and over one million young people have participated.
We will further support efforts to get young people into positive activities, as I mentioned earlier, by fast tracking almost £23 million through the Youth Capital Fund. This will help get improved facilities opened quickly in the most deprived areas where teenagers are most at risk of getting into trouble and have fewest opportunities to get involved in activities such as sport and the arts.
All local authorities in England will receive extra investment from April 2009, but 15 priority areas will receive extra funding from April this year. We particularly want these areas to learn lessons about how to improve outcomes for young people at risk of the most serious problems, such as involvement in violent gang crime.
The Fund allows young people to be at the centre of the decision making process. For example in Moss Bank, Derbyshire young people worked with local partners to raise £45,000 to go towards the refurbishment their new youth club; and at the BJ Cool Cyber Café in Kirklees young people were involved in developing and planning sessions and activities based around a youth café which meant that they had a safe place to be rather than 'hanging around on the streets'.
Many young people do turn their lives around and we will run a national award scheme to recognise those young people who have overcome difficult circumstances and are now making a positive contribution to their community.
Increasing our emphasis on prevention and early intervention is vital, but we must also do more to deal with those that do commit offences to reduce reoffending rates and improve the outcomes for young offenders. Ensuring that young people do not reoffend after they finish a custodial or community sentence is critical for the welfare of young people and for the safety of the public.
Therefore, we must not only hold young people to account for the offences they commit but must also do more to tackle the causes of their offending.
How much better it is to be able to unlock a young person's potential than to lock them up?
There are currently too many missed opportunities. When a young person commits an offence we must use the period of their engagement with the criminal justice system to reduce the likelihood of them offending again. Better use of interventions will help ensure that the courts and practitioners really target those requirements which can be of most benefit to the particular young offender to prevent further offending.
We know that access to mental health services is critical. Many of you will know that Jack Straw announced a review which will be chaired by Lord Bradley and will look at the extent to which offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities could, in appropriate cases, be diverted from custody to other services and will consider the barriers to this.
And we are also looking at how we use custody, for example by developing special provision for young people with particular needs. Good examples such as the new unit at Wetherby Young Offenders' Institution for more vulnerable 15 and 16 year-old boys, which is due to open later this year and the refurbished unit at Ashfield Young Offenders' Institution in Bristol which I opened last month to house separately the boys of school age in the Young Offenders' Institution. And good progress has been made in improving young people's access to mental health care and services whilst in custody.
The recent White Paper 'Raising expectations: enabling the system to deliver' outlined our proposal for local authorities to plan, fund and commission education and training for young people in juvenile custody. This is an opportunity to develop clearer frameworks of responsibilities and deliver an improved education service which is more consistent for young people across transitions and which meets young peoples' individual needs. We are currently consulting on how this can best operate and would welcome your views.
It is one of our top priorities to offer suitable alternatives to custody when prison is not the answer. To minimise the use of custody and focus it on serious and persistent offenders we must ensure that community sentences are an effective option and command public confidence. They must tackle offending behaviour, address educational and social problems, encourage the young offender to take responsibility for their behaviour and make reparation to the victim or community where appropriate.
Effective sentencing is crucial and local communities must be involved with a greater voice in sentencing. To offer alternatives to custody, we must have the confidence of the community and we are working to build that confidence in the work we are taking forward.
The Youth Justice Board is taking the lead. They have developed the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme as the most robust community sentence for young people. This is the top end community sentence reserved for those young people who may otherwise be at risk of a custodial sentence.
But we all recognise that there is still much more to do to ensure that young people are only sent to custody as a last resort. That is why I am so pleased that the Youth Justice Board continues to be innovative in their approach to the development of alternatives to custody. Their Intensive Fostering pilots are a new way of approaching this issue. Intensive Fostering is reserved for those young people whose home environment is contributing to their offending behaviour and represents an innovative and intensive approach to community sentencing. We are determined to do all that we can to help in the development of this area and that is why the Government has recently pledged an extra £4.1 million to support these pilots.
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill will address this further. It contains a strong emphasis on youth justice and builds on the platform that we have set in place since 1998. The biggest change will be the introduction of the Youth Rehabilitation Order. This will be the new generic community sentence for young people.
The Youth Rehabilitation Order will build on the best elements within the current sentences and make them clearer and more coherent. Courts will be able to choose from a 'menu' of different requirements with which the offender must comply.
Crucially these requirements will be tailored to the needs of the individual and the seriousness of the offence. This means that each young person will have a sentence that meets their own personal needs. An order could include, for example, requirements that deal with drug treatment and testing, mental health treatment, supervision and curfew and intoxicating substance treatment.
Let us also be clear that the orders will provide an alternative to custody. I believe that the menu of interventions, if tailored effectively, can offer a real community alternative that has rehabilitation at its heart. Moreover we will be including intensive supervision and surveillance and intensive fostering for courts to use where the custody threshold is reached.
In order to ensure that these two requirements are used properly we have put statutory restrictions on their use.
Let me be clear - there are still further challenges. We need to:
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Improve responsiveness of the criminal justice system to a young offender's, and their family's, needs to tackle the causes of offending, including through engaging other services;
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Avoid escalating young people's offending by drawing them too far and too early into the criminal justice system;
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Improve the quality and effectiveness of provision, both within the youth justice system and in other mainstream services.
It's important that we improve delivery across the piece, and ensure effective resettlement of young offenders back in the community with effective continuity of care addressing their ongoing needs.
And all of these priorities for the future will soon come together through the development of a Youth Crime Action Plan and a Green Paper on the resettlement of young offenders. Both will be published this summer.
The Action Plan will set out cross-government arrangements for tackling the overall level of youth crime. This crucial work is being taken forward by the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Department for Children, Schools and Families all working together to good effect. It will include preventing young people offending in the first place; reducing reoffending rates; tackling wider welfare needs and risk factors that contribute to offending; and public concern about youth crime.
It will also consider how we deal with young people in the criminal justice system, examining how the out of court and court systems can help tackle underlying causes of offending and how to ensure a young person's time in custody is used to best effect.
The Green Paper will examine all services young people need both during their sentence and afterwards, particularly looking at how we can ensure continuity of support. It will focus on those who have received community or custodial sentences. And it will set out proposals for addressing the underlying needs of young offenders and clarifying responsibilities for provision and support.
It will also look at delivery mechanisms and how we can ensure any workforce issues are addressed, enabling services to be delivered to a high standard.
We are keen to learn from people at the sharp end of youth justice and we are consulting widely as we develop both of these documents.
Of course, some of the most familiar problems are the most difficult to solve.
And the youth justice system itself can present some of the barriers which prevent effective resettlement. Roles and responsibilities for young offenders are not always clear, either in the youth justice system itself or in other mainstream and targeted services.
There are no easy answers here. Research provides insight into 'what works' and examples of effective provision. And on average effective interventions achieve 10-12% reductions in reoffending. But significant variation in reoffending rates in local areas show us that progress can be made to change offending behaviour.
Improving outcomes will require addressing delivery challenges around multi-agency working and ownership of outcomes for this group.
The Action Plan and Green Paper will provide an excellent opportunity for us to consider our approach to these problems afresh.
We are expecting to publish them in July and consultation for the Green Paper will run for three months. There will be a series of consultation events which we will publicise nearer the time and I hope you will all participate in that process. Your views and experience are essential if we are to get this right.
There are some big challenges ahead. But I am encouraged by the countless examples of good practice that exist across the system.
I have visited prisons, probation areas and youth offending teams, where I have met dedicated staff working tirelessly to make a positive impact on the lives of the young people they work with.
We must build on this good practice, but we must also do more to gain the confidence of our communities. We have to ensure that our approach to preventing crime and reducing re-offending is effective, respected and tackles the issues that people are concerned about.
This can only be achieved if we employ a genuinely cross agency approach, involving all sectors together to meet the challenges and rise to the opportunities ahead.
The challenge is there to reduce re-offending and to build better lives. To protect our communities and to promote community cohesion.
There are opportunities ahead in challenging times. We have a duty to make the best job we can.
I hope that you find the rest of the conference enjoyable and productive.
Thank you.