http://www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk/policy/deptcircular/annexa.html

Section 37 establishes that the principal aim of the youth justice system is to prevent offending by children and young people. This aim will help focus the energies of youth justice practitioners on the way in which they execute those duties and functions so as to contribute to the overall goal of preventing offending, including re-offending.

Youth Justice Services

http://www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk/policy/deptcircular/annexa.html

Section 38 places a duty on local authorities with social services and education responsibilities, to ensure the availability of appropriate youth justice services in their area. Chief officers of police, police authorities, probation committees and health authorities are required to co-operate with the local authority in ensuring that such services are available. Youth justice services are currently defined as: the provision of persons to act as appropriate adults during police interviews with children and young people; assessment and rehabilitation programmes associated with a final warning; bail support; the placement of children and young people on remand in local authority accommodation; the provision of reports or other information required by the courts in criminal proceedings; the supervision of community sentences and other court orders; and supervision following release from custody.

Youth Offending Teams

http://www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk/policy/deptcircular/index.html

Section 39 places a duty on local authorities with social services and education responsibilities, to establish one or more youth offending teams for their area. The duties of these multi-agency youth offending teams are to co-ordinate the provision of youth justice services locally and carry out the functions assigned to the team in the youth justice plan. They have responsibility for delivering community-based intervention programmes to make young offenders face up to their crimes and change their attitudes and behaviour.

http://www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk/policy/deptcircular/forming.html#formulating

Section 40 requires local authorities with social services and education responsibilities, to formulate and implement an annual youth justice plan. The youth justice plan is to set out how youth justice services in an area are to be provided and funded; how the youth offending team(s) are to be composed and funded, how they are to operate and what functions they are to carry out.

Youth Justice Board http://www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk/who/what.html

Section 41 of the Crime & Disorder Act established the Youth Justice Board for England & Wales to provide a clearer national framework for local action to tackle youth offending. The aim of the board is to:

q Monitor the operation of the youth justice system and the provision of youth justice services:

q Advice the Secretary of State on the setting of national standards for the provision of youth justice services and custodial accommodation;

q Advise on how the principal aim of the youth justice system might most effectively be pursued ; and

q Identify, promote, and make grants for the development of good practice, both in the operation of the youth justice system and the prevention of youth offending.

In 1996 the average time taken to deal with persistent young offenders aged 10-17 from arrest to sentence was 142 days. These delays were seen to impede justice, frustrate victims, increase the risk of offending on bail and postponed intervention to address offending behaviour. The Government has pledged to halve this to 71 days. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/cpd/jou/nme.htm

The Youth Justice Board monitors performance of local areas against performance targets and publishes results in relation to reducing delays. The Board also helps areas to establish fast track schemes with a particular emphasis on persistent young offenders. See http://www.reducing-delays.org/index.html

See Holdaway, S. et al (2001) New Strategies for Addressing Youth Offending:The National Evaluation of the Pilot Youth Offending Teams. Home Office: Research & Development Occasional Paper No.69.  This can be read at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/occ69-newstrat.pdf