The supervision of care-experienced children within the youth justice system

Our May 2024 Research & Analysis Bulletin was produced by Eleanor Staples, Ph.D and Jo Staines , examining the supervision of care-experienced children within the youth justice system. The research used a qualitative approach to gather the experiences and views of both professionals and children, with attention being paid to barriers and success factors. A range of qualitative methods were used with the children aged 15-18 years old, including mobile instant messaging interviews (MIMIs), music elicitation, and semi-structured interviews.

Despite the considerable challenges, there was a great deal of evidence of youth justice practitioners building positive relationships with care-experienced children, understanding their needs and experiences, and having a beneficial impact on their wider wellbeing, as well as their offending. Children valued these approaches, as well as the ability of youth justice services (YJSs) to foster optimism for their futures.

Crucially, the research underscores the importance of understanding the criminalisation of care-experienced children as a complex, multi-systemic issue, and implications are set out for the police, courts, education, the probation service, and children’s social care, as well as YJSs. Further, issues relating to institutional resources and social inequalities cannot be avoided when trying to understand and resolve the problem of the over-representation of care-experienced children in the youth justice system.

The report (and an accompanying 10 minute video) can be accessed via this link: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/research/research-analysis-bulletins/

Some of the songs highlighted by the children through the music elicitation method, representing their thoughts and feelings, are included at relevant points in the bulletin, with key lyrics and links to listen to each song.