Young offenders role strengthened

Moves to strengthen councils' involvement with young offenders could deliver better results for young people in custody but will be an administrative 'nightmare', according to a leading children's sector figure.

The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) welcomed the government's £100m Youth Crime Action Plan, unveiled last week, promising a "triple track"
programme of enforcement, intensive prevention and support for parents. Among the measures singled out for praise was the government's commitment to make authorities
responsible for the education of young people in custody.

ADCS past president John Coughlan said greater accountability for the continuity of young offenders' education could result in better results for children in custody.

But he said the shift would open up a can of worms over local authority responsibility for offenders placed outside of their home area. "My instinct says the easiest way is for the authorities that host custody centres to hold the cash, but it's principally better [for continuity of education] to do it the other way around," he said. "Technically, it's going to be an absolute nightmare, but it's the right thing to do."

Bob Ashford, head of strategy at the Youth Justice Board, said the creation of regional groupings of local authorities to deal with young offenders could ease the funding issues.
He agreed that financial responsibility should fall on councils where custody centres were based, as the most practical solution.

Andrew Neilson, assistant director at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the charity was pleased to see councils gain more responsibility. But he said the education move was one of a selection of "smaller levers" the government had chosen to introduce, having stopped short of making councils financially responsible for funding the non-education costs of youths placed in custody, which is still being considered.

Mr Coughlan said the ADCS remained opposed to being given responsibility for funding youngsters' custody costs unless it had a say in who was placed in custody.