Croydon's Youth Justice Service is reinforcing its 'Child First' approach to prevent and reduce offending behaviour among young people aged 10-18. This commitment was a key focus at a recent Scrutiny Children & Young People Sub-Committee meeting, where the Youth Justice Plan 2025/26 was reviewed. The plan aims to enhance outcomes for children at the earliest opportunity by addressing the root causes of offending behaviour.
The 'Child First' approach is defined by four tenets:
- Treating children as children
- Building pro-social identity
- Collaborating with children
- Diverting from stigma
The plan, mandated by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, outlines the service's vision to prioritise children's needs and divert them from stigma.
According to the Youth Justice Plan 25/26, the Youth Justice Crime Board aims to understand the local factors influencing children's involvement in the criminal justice system and to prevent them from entering it. The plan also addresses violence against women and girls (VAWG), recognising its impact across all age groups and the need for a multi-pronged approach, including services for victims.
Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education and Croydon Youth Justice Crime Board Chair, Stuart Collins, noted in the plan's foreword that it aligns with the Mayor's Business Plan, with the Youth Justice Service playing an integral role in achieving this strategic objective.
Key performance data for 2024/25 reveals that the Youth Justice Service worked with 289 children, typically aged 16-17, overseeing 439 interventions. Violence against the person remained the highest-ranked offence for both boys and girls. The plan also identifies challenges such as IT issues and engagement with mental health services.
To address these challenges, the Youth Justice Plan 2025/26 outlines specific strategies involving various agencies:
- Police: Embedding the MET's Children's Strategy, adopting the Child First approach, and reducing Serious Youth Violence.
- Health: Mapping and addressing demand for children's basic health needs, both physically and mentally, and creating responsive health services for vulnerable individuals.
- Children's Social Care: Continuing to evolve the strategic multi-agency response to extra familial harm, working with families, education, and the voluntary community sector, and ensuring early help is provided.
- Education: Ensuring all children remain in education with provisions that meet their needs, making exclusions a last resort, and providing early support for SEN needs.
- Probation: Ensuring all children transitioning into Probation receive a high-quality, individualised service that aligns with other transitions, such as leaving care or moving from CAMHS.
- Youth Justice Service: Maintaining high performance against all Key Performance Indicators, minimising the number of children not in education or employment, and working to prevent children from entering the system.
While the service has seen a steady decline in frequency of re-offending, data showed an increase in first-time entrants to the system. However, the Youth Justice Service Management Team explored this in more detail and found that many of the children entering the system had offences dating back as far as 2022, where delays had impacted on timeliness of entry. These delays were attributed to factors such as investigation delays, Crown Prosecution Service delays, and court listing delays, as detailed in the Appendix B Youth Justice Plan Presentation. The findings have been shared with partners, and the Youth Justice Crime Board has discussed the matter, with all partners confirming awareness and actioning.
In 2024, the service audited the time from offence to sanction and found considerable delays, causing stress to both children and victims. In response, the service is advocating for children and victims where delay is a factor, including proposing that intervention is not always necessary within the system.
The service relies on funding from the Local Authority and the Youth Justice Board, with additional funds for prevention projects. The 2025-26 budget reflects a reduction due to the removal of funding previously granted by MOPAC. The following table details the funding streams:
| Agency | Budget | Total |
|---|---|---|
| LB Croydon | 1254,000 | 1254,000 |
| YJB Grant | 576,093 | 576,093 |
| Unaccompanied Minors Grant | 92,000 | 92,000 |
| Engage Project (MOPAC) | 80,000 | 80,000 |
| Turnaround Project (Ministry of Justice) | 92,221 | |
| Total | 2014,314 |
Additional contributions are made by statutory partners through seconded staff. The following table details the additional income:
| 2025/26 Additional Income (Unbudgeted) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agency | Income | Payments in Kind - Revenue | Other Delegated Funds | Total |
| MET Police | ||||
| 4x Police Officers | 130,000 | 130,000 | ||
| National Probation Service | ||||
| 0.3 Probation Officer | 23,750 | 5,000 | 28,750 | |
| Public Health - Speech and Language | 40,000 | 40,000 | ||
| Public Health – Physical Health Nurse | 52,000 | 52,000 | ||
| Total | 250,750 |