Youth offending teams (updated)

London Councils’ Executive Member for Children and Young People Councillor Steve Reed has written to Education Secretary Michael Gove warning that planned funding cuts to youth offending team funding could set back efforts to reduce crime in London. This follows news that funding for youth offending teams (YOTS) from the Youth Justice Board will be reduced by as much as 30% for some boroughs and an average 23% in London. The average cut in cash terms for London is almost £175,000 per borough.

The letter argues that the average cut for England is 21%, and given that young Londoners account for almost a quarter of all young offenders in the criminal justice system, this cut appears disproportionately harsh on the capital.

Sandwell Council has put all staff within the youth offending and targeted youth support services on the authority’s ‘at risk of redundancy’ register. 70 full-time equivalent posts are affected and over 80 employees in total, although it is not yet known how many will be made redundant. The council has so far confirmed around £1m for this year’s budget compared to over £2.5m in 2010/11, and one councillor is expecting about a 25-30% reduction on last year’s budget.

Over the past three years, Sandwell’s youth offending service has reduced the number of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time by over 400 – more than a 60% drop.

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