Cabinet members of Stoke-on-Trent City Council are set to approve a new Youth Justice Plan to reduce the number of young people brought before the courts for criminal offences through a working partnership with prosecutors, the police and other partner organisations.
Youth Justice plan to focus on first offenders
Council Cabinet member for Children’s Services Sarah Jane Colclough said the new model would assist youth services to “intervene and support young people before they get entrenched in criminal behaviours”. The justice plan will see the council working to reduce the number of first-time entrants into the criminal justice system.
This approach builds on successful work already carried out by partner organisations to cut youth reoffending rates in the city to 24.3% against a national average of 32.5%, the council says. Nationally 8,300 young people entered the justice system for the first time in the year up to March 2024, a 3% fall compared to the previous year. Out of these, 72% received a non-custodial sentence. The number of young people given custodial sentences increased by 21% and there was an average of 430 young people in custody at any one time, the lowest number on record.
Restorative justice plays a key role
The new Youth Justice Plan is designed to intervene early with the aim of preventing young people from being caught in a life of crime. This will involve an increased use of restorative justice, where young people who have committed crimes are brought face-to-face with their victims to see the impact the crime has had on their lives. Restorative Justice has been shown to reduce re-offending; additionally, taking part in the process can help victims experience a greater sense of closure after a traumatic event and believe that their feelings are being considered by the justice system.
The new plan will take into account the views of children and families when developing support to be given to both the victims and perpetrators of crime.
It will also address specifically the increased risk of young girls in the care system “falling victim to the influence of crime” and funding will be in place to set up a workgroup to address this issue.
Positive effect of County Police’s high visibility patrols
Action will also be taken by the council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team working in partnership with Staffordshire Police to address issues relating to criminal gangs, knife crime, drug misuse, anti-social behaviour and illegal off-road motorcycles; this is a positive alliance as overall crime rates in the county have fallen by 10% following the introduction of high visibility ‘problem solving’ patrols by Staffordshire Police in areas most affected by crime.
The new approach to policing was made possible by a £1 million allocation to the county as part of the government’s Safer Streets strategy and has seen knife crime cut by 26%, a 4% reduction in serious violence and more than 90 arrests made by officers carrying out targeted patrols.
Superintendent John Owen, who led the problem-solving approach for Staffordshire Police said the reduction in crime across the county was “extremely positive, both for local communities who are now experiencing far less crime in hotspot areas and for the officers and staff in the force who can see the impact their hard work is having on crime figures across the county”.
Councillor Colclough said the new youth justice plan aimed to help all the “young people in our city to thrive and make positive contributions to their communities” and that it would continue the work the council are doing to “improve the wellbeing of our residents”, and to make Stoke-on-Trent “a cleaner, greener and safer city for all who live, work and visit here”.
