Understanding referral pathways and diversionary support for children within the criminal justice system in England and Wales Exploratory study report

By Jade Farrell, Angela Collins, Kam Kaur, Scarlett Whitford-Webb, and Ashna Devaprasad

This exploratory study aimed to examine police safeguarding practices, referral pathways, multi-agency collaboration, and diversionary support provided by Youth Justice Services (YJSs) and other agencies for children within the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Defining children - For the purpose of this report, when saying ‘children,’ we are referring to children (10-17 years old) that are considered vulnerable (Davis, 2022) and have been given an Out-of-Court Resolution (OOCR). These children may have been arrested in the course of this process. They can be either informal (non-statutory) or formal (statutory) and don’t involve a decision made through a court process (Centre for Justice Innovation, 2025; Youth Justice Board (YJB), 2024a). This project included a four-phase, mixed method approach to understand ‘breadth’ of practice through national insights, as well as ‘depth’ through deep dive insights across a number of local contexts

Youth Endowment Fund, 2025. 136p.