Walsall Youth Justice Service Strategic Plan 2022-25

This plan details the work of the youth justice partnership, reviewing key achievements over the past 12 months and progress against priorities, and setting the vision and strategic direction of the service over the coming 12 months.

Walsall Youth Justice Service is a statutory multi-agency service under Section 37 of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act in partnership with Walsall Council, Walsall Children’s Services, West Midlands Police, the National Probation Service and Health.

The partnership is committed to continual learning and development to improve life outcomes for children and families, to have fewer victims of youth crime and a safer Walsall. These principles align with the Walsall Right 4 Children vision aimed at ensuring the right children are in the right place with the right support for as long as it is needed so they are safe from harm, happy and learning well.

The annual youth justice plan includes a selection of key highlights over the last 12 months.

• During this time, inspectors found effective practice in Walsall during a thematic inspection of remanded children.

• Turnaround, the youth early intervention programme led by the Ministry of Justice went live in December 2022. In Walsall, the funding was used to start delivering a programme of innovative youth work, intervention and positive activity opportunities in Walsall for young people on the edges of criminality, and their families.

• Work continued to address disproportionality and the over-representation of boys with black and mixed ethnicity in the justice system. In 2022, the partnership worked with Open Lens Media, a local media and training organisation, to deliver a coaching programme and to create a documentary based on their lived experiences they have faced growing up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDwc-CII01I.

• Through Safer Walsall Partnership funding, a local mentor was commissioned to work directly with black boys within the secure estate (young offender institutions, secure training centres and secure children’s homes) to help them navigate their time in custody and to help them plan and effectively resettle back in the community.      

Notes to editors

The plan is available to view on the council’s website using this link

Youth Justice partnerships have a statutory duty to produce an annual youth justice plan for submission to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales showing how youth justice services will be provided and funded.

Locally, Walsall Council is responsible for producing this plan, setting out how youth justice services in the borough are provided, funded and composed, as set out in Section 40 of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act.

The youth justice annual strategic plan outlines the partnership’s priorities for 2022 to 2025 and provides commentary on the three national key performance indicators for youth justice services. These include the rate of first-time entrants to the youth justice system, the number and rate of custodial sentences, and the proportion of young people re-offending.

The aim is to prevent and reduce offending and re-offending behaviour in children and young people and the plan identifies five main priorities:

• Improving the transition experience of children in the justice system.
• Reducing disproportionality and improving outcomes for over-represented children.
• Reducing serious youth violence.
• Ensuring the voice of children is clearly heard and impacts upon delivery.
• Identifying and responding to unmet needs of children in the justice system.

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