Thirty-Seventh Report - Support for vulnerable adolescents

The Ministry of Justice and Home Office seem to lack curiosity about the increase in the proportion of children from ethnic minority background in youth custody and appear to have no current plan to address the situation. While the number … Read more The Ministry of Justice and Home Office seem to lack curiosity about the increase in the proportion of children from ethnic minority background in youth custody and appear to have no current plan to address the situation. While the number of children in youth custody across all ethnicities has reduced by 73% from 2010–11 to 2020–21, the proportion from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased (from 32% to 53%). Furthermore, a recent HMI Probation report found that young black children, aged 10–17, are 2.8 times more likely come to the attention of the youth justice system as would be expected given the proportion of black boys this age in the general population while the numbers of mixed heritage children in the youth justice population has doubled since 2010. These disproportionate outcomes have been highlighted in previous reviews dating back many years, but the Ministry of Justice and Home Office still cannot fully explain the disparity. The Ministry tells us that there are a range of complex “societal factors” at play, but acknowledges that some interventions may be introducing disparity, such as the police’s use of stop and search and decisions about whether to remand someone in custody ahead of their trial. It says it is working to improve the clarity of decisions about whether to remand someone in custody. However, overall neither the Ministry of Justice and Home Office have clear plans for how they will reduce the disparities in the proportion of ethnic minority children entering youth custody. 8 Support for vulnerable adolescents Recommendation: Ministry of Justice and Home Office should report back within six months on what they understand about ‘what works’, and what action they will take to understand why ethnic minority children make up over half of all children in custody. They should also set out how they will use the understanding to address the issues. Show less

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Data sharing exercises need to be better used to understand the support vulnerable adolescents need. The poor outcomes experienced by vulnerable adolescents are often overlapping. For example, 72% of children sentenced in 2019–20 were assessed as having mental health concerns. … Read more Data sharing exercises need to be better used to understand the support vulnerable adolescents need. The poor outcomes experienced by vulnerable adolescents are often overlapping. For example, 72% of children sentenced in 2019–20 were assessed as having mental health concerns. And one in five of 16–24-year-old young people not in education, employment or training had a mental health condition in 2021. The Department for Education told us the overlaps between different vulnerabilities were complicated and that data sharing helped them identify overlapping groups of vulnerable adolescents who need support. But without better data sharing it is very hard to understand how all the different risk factors and vulnerabilities overlap and there is scope for better understanding of all overlapping needs. Departments have plans to improve the join up of different government data sets on vulnerable adolescents, including by linking anonymised health and education data. Whilst this is positive, the government does not have any clear plans for how the exercise will be used to better understand the risks that vulnerable adolescents face so that it can provide more targeted support. Recommendation: The Department for Education should take the lead in coordinating and setting out within six months an agreed approach to how departments will collect and use data to understand the pathways to adverse outcomes for vulnerable adolescents. Support for vulnerable adolescents 9 1 National and local leadership Introduction Show less

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On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, in November 2022 we took evidence from the Department for Education, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice about how government and local bodies support vulnerable adolescents.2

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At 31 March 2021, there were 53,790 adolescents in care between the ages of 9 and 17, making up 67% of the total care population. Between 31 March 2014 and 31 March 2021 the number of 9- to 17-year-olds in care increased by 26%, which is higher than the increase …

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