At the end of the tenure of the Labour Government in 2010 there were 3,631 childrens centres across the UK. By April 2017 that number had dropped by a dramatic 1,240 according to this article in the Guardian. The benefit of such provision in certain communities is clear, even though some were opened in a manner that seemed more ideological than common sense. Some put the existing children’s provision under threat, particularly in terms of the voluntary run PreSchools. However there is plenty of evidence that while the state can open and close provision over a very short period, that reinventing voluntary sector provision can take decades. This means that the impact of such state based decisions needs to be carefully monitored and where necessary reversed.It seems unlikely that a demand to reopen childrens centres would come from the Conservative Government, particularly as they have closed so many and even more unlikely that such a demand would start from the Ministry of Justice. However stranger things do occur. The MOJ have just published a paper called “An analysis of trends in first time entrants to the youth justice system”. The starting point is the raw data. In 2003 mid way through the Labour Administration, the number of young people entering the CJS began to rise and in 2006 the numbers peaked at 111,000. This was against a background of around 70,000 entrants in 2000 at the beginning of their term in office. However since that peak the numbers then began to drop even more significantly and we are now seeing around 40,000 young people entering the system each year. Whilst 40,000 people is still a huge figure, the social and indeed the economic cost of such peaks and the savings of such troughs are also huge.
The MOJ paper argues that a large part of the change has come about from the Criminal Justice System itself with a focus on youth diversionary work, and also the introduction of restorative justice provision which has taken place across the UK over the last 10 years. However these aspects are only part of the change. The other factors that have been identified include a much stronger focus on substance misuse prevention among young people, and also a reduction in school exclusions. Also a preventative programme introduced by Youth Offending Teams and finally the preventative work that has been carried out with vulnerable families through sure start centres.
Looking forward the figure of around 40,000 ideally needs to head down with an continued trend. However such a requirement will only be met if the right sort of provision is made in our communities. Many of the causes of the reduction since 2006 of new entrants to the CJS have been cut or put under severe threat over the last 5 years. It seems vital that as a nation we now do what we can to reverse the cuts that risk seeing a return to a 6 figure number of entrants to our criminal justice system. The cost to all of us socially and economically is huge if we get it wrong.
ianchisnall 