Juvenile Offenders (Hansard, 29 March 2000)

§ Mr. Straw

The Detention and Training Order (DTO) will come into force on 1 April 2000. It will become the main custodial sentence for juvenile offenders aged 12 and under 18, replacing detention in a young offender institution for under-18s and the secure training order. Detention under section 53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 will remain available for the minority of young offenders aged 10 and under 18 who commit grave crimes.

Subject to parliamentary agreement to an Order laid on 27 March, for under-18s sentenced to custody under the DTO or section 53, and those remanded to Prison Service custody or direct to local authority secure accommodation, new, more co-ordinated arrangements for the juvenile secure estate will start operation in April. The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales will commission and purchase places from the Prison Service, the Secure Training Centre (STC) contractors and Local Authority Secure Units (LASUs). This will give it considerable influence over the management of custodial placements for under-18s, and enable more appropriate and cost-effective use of facilities. The Board has drawn up commissioning and placement strategies to support its proposed new role and a copy of these has been placed in the Library.

Initially, there will be 13 Prison Service establishments holding under-18s, three STCs and 200 to 300 places the Youth Justice Board expects to purchase from LASUs, through current negotiations (LASUs have 480 places in total, but have to keep enough free for local authority placements for welfare purposes or for those placed in secure accommodation following a remand to ordinary local authority care). So altogether, there will initially be some 3,200 places for youth justice purposes.

Of these places, 2,800 will be provided by the Prison Service. There is £51 million being invested in a substantial capital development programme throughout the juvenile estate, plus improvements in education, training and work designed to prevent re-offending and drawing on "what works" evidence-based research. This 139W will, over time, make its establishments better equipped to deliver the acceptable and positive environment required to meet the needs of those held within them. However, the Government and the Youth Justice Board believe that further steps should none the less be taken to protect the most vulnerable under-18s. Within its total budget for secure placements in 2000–01, the Board will push this process as far as it can during the coming year, particularly in respect of the 100 girls under 18 serving custodial sentences.

Beyond this, what the Youth Justice Board can do to move them elsewhere, and how quickly, depends on the numbers remanded and sentenced to custody by the courts and the physical and financial resources available to cater for them. If the numbers decline, the new powers will provide further opportunities to place more of these vulnerable young people in LASUs and STCs. In all placement decisions, the focus will be on matching the needs of individual young people to the available accommodation, based on the evidence of "what works", not least in reducing crime. The Board will monitor establishments' performance—within the Prison Service, LASUs and STCs—against service specifications to ensure regimes are of an appropriate standard and that the well-being of the young people is being properly addressed.

As to future years, we have previously announced plans for two more STCs providing approximately 80 places. The Youth Justice Board will take over development work on these in April. We will be considering in this year's Spending Review what further provision should be made for new establishments to be commissioned by the Board.

With the improvements to the quality of the Prison Service juvenile estate, the greater flexibility available to place DTO trainees and the consolidation of commissioning and purchasing responsibilities with the Youth Justice Board, the new arrangements represent a significant opportunity to drive up standards and place young people according to their relative needs in terms of welfare and action to prevent re-offending. I am confident that the Youth Justice Board, working with the various providers, will fully seize this opportunity.