Youth offending team loses millions

MILLIONS of pounds has been slashed from Birmingham’s young offending budget since 2010.

Government funding for the Birmingham Youth Offending team has been cut by 53 per cent in real terms since 2010/11, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

The team had its £4,246,000 funding in 2010/11 reduced to £1,991,000 in 2017/18 – the latest year for which figures are available.

The figures come as councils across the country are still waiting to find out their youth justice grant allocations for 2019/20, despite setting their overall budgets half a year ago.

Youth offending teams are embedded in local authorities to work with young people who get into trouble with the law.

They run local crime prevention programmes to keep people away from crime, help young people at the police station if they are arrested, and help young people and their families at court.

Increases in knife crime highlights the challenge still facing teams

Local Government

Association

Between 2012/13 and 2018/19, the number of people hospitalised after being assaulted with a knife in Birmingham more than doubled.

The government has said the cuts to the grant simply reflect a decrease in first-time young offenders.

Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Youth offending teams have an outstanding track record in working with children and young people to stop them coming into the youth justice system, but they’ve been victims of their own success. As the numbers of young offenders has fallen, so has the grant from central government to continue the preventative work that caused the fall in the first place.

“Increases in knife crime amongst young people highlights the challenge still facing youth offending teams, and councils are concerned that cutting back on funding risks undermining the progress that’s been made over the last decade.

“Councils must be given the resources they need in the forthcoming Spending Round to work with young people and prevent their involvement in crime in the first place, rather than simply picking up the pieces after offences have been committed.

“Youth offending teams are struggling to access the funding necessary to run vital, and successful, prevention and intervention schemes.”