Listening to the youth justice system
Wiring Up Youth Justice is based on the needs of practitioners. A consultation was conducted before the programme commenced in 2006 and progress is regularly reviewed by groups representing youth offending teams (YOTs), the secure estate, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) [links open in new windows].
What should the next ICT-enabled business change programme for the youth justice system look like?
Wiring Up Youth Justice completes its three year delivery programme in March 2010. The head of business change has undertaken consultation exercises with a wide range of stakeholders to identify requirements for agencies interacting with youth justice practitioners for the following five year period.
We wanted to know how we could help share information more easily with other criminal justice organisations and the children’s services community. We wanted to see how new technology-enabled business processes would contribute to our core goals of preventing youth offending and improving the care and attention we and our partners give to children and young people in the youth justice system, their families and the victims of youth crime.
Over 60 interviews have now been completed with interested parties in the Welsh Assembly Government, national and local government, and the voluntary and independent sectors. From these interviews and from the Wiring Up Youth Justice annual road shows, it is clear that there is an appetite for a new programme. In fact, some thirty potential projects have been identified, all of which have the potential to bring real improvement to the youth justice system.
We have given this proposed new programme the working title “Youth Connect”, and developed a vision as follows:
The emerging vision for this programme is:
"By 2015 people who work with children and young people in the youth justice sector will have available to them user-friendly information systems and processes which simplify the collection, management and sharing of accurate case-level information securely and efficiently. This will support our key priorities of reducing offending; keeping young people safe; and improving the effectiveness of (and confidence in) the criminal justice system."
Through an online survey YOTs and the secure estate have helped us to design the future programme by identifying which of the opportunities for change best fit with their organisation’s priorities.
Previous consultations
The programme consulted widely in 2006 to ensure it would meet the priorities of practitioners.
- A questionnaire was distributed to all YOT and information managers. Click to see what you told us [213Kb PDF, opens in new window]
- Consultation events in Cardiff and Manchester identified the needs and priorities of youth justice system staff. Click to see the responses from these meetings [137Kb PDF, opens in new window].
Advisory Boards
Stakeholders are involved at every stage of the programme’s development and regularly review progress through advisory boards:
Joint Offender Information Group (JOIG)
JOIG brings together representatives from across the criminal justice system including the OCJR, NOMS, DCSF, YOTs and the young peoples’ secure estate. JOIG advises on the strategic direction of the programme and how it impacts the criminal justice system.
What happens next?
A draft business case [2Mb Word document, opens in new window] for a future information sharing programme spanning the period 2010 to 2015 has been produced and will be presented to the JOIG in September 09.