Evaluation of the Youth Justice Reform Programme: Final Report

By Jack Cattell, Sarah Webb, Ammeline Wang, Kasra Aghajani, Sophia Hasapopoulos, and Lorraine Khan

This evaluation has found that the Youth Justice Reform Programme (YJRP) foundations have been laid, and better outcomes were reported, particularly for the workforce. The Youth Custody Service (YCS) can build on these to sustain and improve the changes so it can implement the individualised approach fully. 2.1 Background Charlie Taylor’s (2016) review of the youth justice system found several shortcomings in the youth custody system, including poor safety, missed education opportunities, insufficient staff skills, and disjointed resettlement pathways. The government’s response was to launch a series of initiatives jointly known as the YJRP. The YJRP covered custody and community management of children who offend. This evaluation focused on custody changes. The YJRP aimed to (i) deliver an individualised approach through an integrated framework of care (ii) create a larger, more resilient, and more stable workforce with specialist skills and (iii) provide strong leadership and governance to support a rehabilitation culture. This report responds to the first two aims. The programme was composed of four work strands: (i) Education and Sports (ii) Behaviour Management (iii) Workforce and (iv) Leadership and Culture. Under each of those four work strands, sets of work packages were implemented to achieve the programme’s aims: education and sports provision in the secure estate; behaviour management packages to make child custody safer; workforce packages for improved recruitment and training; and leadership and culture packages to increase the capacity of the YCS.

2.2 Evaluation approach The evaluation of the YJRP ran from spring 2020 to spring 2022. It aimed to i) provide evidence of the implementation and delivery of the YJRP and ii) assess the programme’s impact on key outcomes of interest (such as assaults on the estate and increase in the workforce) robustly. The evaluation consisted of three strands: a scoping study, a process evaluation, and an impact evaluation. The Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) within the evaluation’s scope were Feltham A, Cookham Wood, Parc, Werrington, and Wetherby.1 The secure schools remain part of the overall YJRP, though the first secure school (Oasis Restore) will be evaluated separately. The scoping study identified the baseline position of each YOI, such as current population size, composition, staffing level, and when the YJRP work packages were or were to be implemented. The process evaluation implemented a theory of change2 approach to understand how operational and contextual factors contributed to child and workforce outcomes. Data were collected from staff and children in the YOIs through semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The impact evaluation estimated the YJRP’s impact on the number of staff and their time in post and the number of assaults in the YOIs using an interrupted time series analysis where longitudinal data from before the intervention was used to construct a counterfactual. Given the limited availability of a strong counterfactual, the conclusions are suggestive rather than definitive. A children’s survey was designed to measure their attitudes to relevant elements of the YJRP. 2.3 Evaluation key findings Building a professional, specialist workforce The aim of the YJRP’s Workforce work strand was to (i) create a bigger, more resilient, and more stable workforce (ii) employ more staff with specialist skills and (iii) create a culture change for staff who want to work with children with a focus on rehabilitation. Creating a bigger, more resilient, and more stable workforce Staffing levels increased at every YOI that participated in the study. Further, the proportion of staff who remained in their post for at least 12 months increased after implementing the reforms. However, changes are still required to recruitment strategies and the workforce and management culture to allow for a more resilient and more stable workforce. 

Employing staff with specialist skills More staff were trained and completed training on the delivery of CuSP3 and the Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS)4 under the Unitas training and foundation degree. The findings also suggested a need for more specific training on the core elements of the YJRP and professional development, as well as time for staff, such as study days, to complete relevant training. Culture change towards a rehabilitative environment The YJRP was found to have changed the culture of YOIs and STCs to a more rehabilitative environment. Staff members reported taking a more rehabilitative approach to working with children, which contributed to a better relationship between staff and children. The shift to a rehabilitative approach was also reflected in the responses gathered from children, who reported feeling safe, being treated fairly by staff members, and having their needs better understood by staff. Delivering an individualised approach Central to the YJRP was an intention to offer support that is closely aligned with the needs of individual children.5 The individualised approach has education and wellbeing at its heart and is delivered principally through the Behaviour Management and the Education and Sports work strands. Behaviour Management Results were inconclusive about the impact of the YJRP on child-on-child and child-on staff assault rates within the YOIs, due to COVID masking any impact of the programme. Progress to make sites safer, however, was attained through other means, such as staff support for children, making them feel safer and as though they were being treated fairly. This approach helped children learn from their mistakes and de-escalate challenging situations. Staff and children also reported that the development of consistent relationships facilitated good discipline. The Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS) and CuSP generally supported positive outcomes for some children, such as improved and supportive relationships with staff, feelings of safety, and confidence when leaving the establishment. However, children’s feedback in the survey suggested case workers and CuSP did not benefit all children, particularly those with ethnic minority backgrounds. Education and Sports The provision of education was hindered by the COVID pandemic, with a lack of face-to face education. Nevertheless, most children regularly attended the face-to-face classes available and reported a good choice of courses. Many children also reported being involved in various sports and physical activities. Further improvements could be made in (i) skill-building for careers (ii) educational level of courses and (iii) staff training to deliver all courses sufficiently.       

London: UK Ministry of Justice, 2024. 76p.