This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Extra funding for youth justice
08/01/2004
Some £35 million of additional resources over two years
will be invested in youth justice as part of the
Executive's Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) drive, it was
announced today.
The resources will, among other things:
• Extend the Youth Court initiative to a second sheriff
court;
• Double to 6,000 the number of young people who will
have to face up to their offending through 'restorative
justice' projects
• Ensure that support is given to implement national
standards by 2006 so that every children's hearing can
achieve 'fast track' performance.
Speaking in an Executive debate on youth justice,
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said that record resources
combined with the efforts of police, local authorities and
other partners had already delivered results in many parts
of Scotland. But she stressed that building on the number
and effectiveness of 'smart' options to tackle youth crime
was a priority in 2004.
Ms Jamieson said:
"We make no apology for taking radical action to deal
more effectively with the small minority of young people
whose behaviour blights our communities. More services to
divert young people from getting into trouble. Fast
effective systems to deal with those who do.
"Significant progress has been made since our youth
crime Action Plan was published in June 2002. For example,
we have expanded community based youth justice services -
over 7,000 new places including 3,000 restorative justice
places. Pilots for both fast track hearings and youth
courts have also been introduced to help us tackle
persistent offending quickly.
"The pilots are at an early stage but initial
indications are very encouraging. On the youth court
pilot, improvements to the information available to the
court has seen offenders more likely to accept
responsibility for their actions and therefore more likely
to plead guilty - reducing the number of trials required
and cutting time wasted by witnesses and victims.
"I can today announce the pilot will be extended to take
in Airdrie Sheriff Court as well as the existing one in
Hamilton. The youth court evaluation team will be able to
compare two different sized courts with different Sheriffs,
a different client group, and differing working practices.
Importantly, the second pilot site will mean that more
young offenders can be dealt with.
"The interim evaluation of 'fast track' hearings
published earlier this week also suggests that as well as
being quicker in dealing with offending, the assessment
reports have improved, and a wider range of appropriate
offending programmes is in place.
"The Standards for Youth Justice effectively require
that every children's hearing operates to 'fast track'
standards by 2006. Additional direct support to youth
justice teams will be provided to help achieve this -
meaning swifter and more effective targeting of youth
offending in all parts of Scotland."
She added:
"I met with Council leaders and Chief Executives before
Christmas to discuss how best we raise our collective game
to ensure people feel safer in their communities and see a
reduction in youth re-offending.
"They told me they needed to know that support was
available to help them deliver improvements. We are
investing £35 million of new money to help implement the
youth justice measures in the ASB strategy on top of
existing record levels of investment.
"This additional investment will provide services and
support right across the range of intervention - from
diversion, early intervention, parenting and family
support, to community based services, and intensive
services for persistent offenders. Supporting smart
options like doubling the number of places available - from
3,000 to 6,000 - on restorative justice projects.
"There are no easy answers or glib solutions to reducing
youth crime. However, strong foundations are being built
across the country to tackle it - together with an emerging
consensus that only a multi-agency collaborative approach
will deliver the results our communities are demanding."
The existing Youth Court pilot is based at Hamilton
Sheriff Court and sat for the first time on 2 June. The
pilot is aimed at dealing with persistent offenders aged 16
and 17, with the flexibility to deal with 15 year olds. In
its first six months there were 126 referrals - broadly in
line with expectations. The pilot will run for two years.
The announcement today means that Airdrie Sheriff Court
will be included in the pilot from spring this year.
An interim evaluation of fast track hearings was
published earlier this week and is available at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/fasttrack03.pdf.
Every local authority youth justice action team receives
funding for restorative justice projects in their area.
While individual projects vary, examples include: getting
young offenders who have sprayed graffiti on school
buildings to clean up their mess; getting young offenders
who have destroyed gardens to be responsible for repairing
the damage.
At the time of publication of the ASB Bill, it was
announced that £65 million of new money would be available
over two years to support the strategy - £35 million to go
towards youth justice funding. That funding will be split
as follows:
BREAKDOWN OF £35M NEW MONEY 2004-05 2005-06 TOTAL
Restorative Justice in the Hearings system
1.50 1.50 3.00
Programmes to support new measures such
4.00 9.00 13.00
as intensive, specialist services
Costs for hearings
system 0.32 0.15 0.47
Additional cost to Scottish Children's
0.15 0.20 0.35
Reporters Administration
Information/support for victims
0.50 2.50 3.00
Implementation of National
Standards1 1.50 1.50 3.00 (4.00)
Local diversionary
activity2 5.00 1.00 6.00
(10.00)
Extension of youth court
pilot3 1.20 1.20 2.40 (9.55)
Community Reparation Orders
0.55 1.10 1.65
Court costs of new
orders 0.27 0.57 0.84
Contingency
money
0.01 1.32 1.33
TOTAL
15.00 20.00 35.00
All of the £35m represents new money for agencies
Figures in total column in brackets = total funding for
this work, including allocations from existing resources.
1In addition to existing national standards money -
£500k in each year made available under youth crime action
plan
2Money for local action fund supplemented in 2005-06
by £4m current unallocated youth justice money from
Scottish Budget 2002. £10m for diversionary activity was
announced in a Partnership for a BetterScotland
3In addition to existing youth court funding of
£3.25m in 2004-05 and £3.9m in 2005-06.