The Minister for Justice, Lord McNally, has confirmed that the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is to produce a commissioning strategy for young adult offenders. 

In a response to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Lord Ramsbotham on 24 July 2012, the Minister said that the report would be disseminated to commissioners and service managers in due course.

Lord Ramsbotham:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions have been taken by the Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service to identify what works in terms of interventions with young adults aged 18 to 24.[HL1682]

The Minster replied:

The Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service are committed to evaluating offender management programmes and other approaches to working with offenders in order to improve understanding of what works to reduce re-offending.

Work to date has considered the effectiveness of interventions for all adult offenders rather than targeting the effectiveness for those aged 18-24. NOMS is developing a specific commissioning strategy for young adult offenders and is currently examining both the impact of cognitive skills training with young adults and how to prevent recreational drug use developing into drug dependency.

The findings from this work will be shared with commissioners and providers of offender services in due course. NOMS will also continue to work with providers to assist them in robustly evaluating existing and innovative interventions in order to further develop the evidence base for this group of offenders.

The T2A Alliance report ‘Pathways from Crime’ recommended that the T2A approach should be developed throughout the criminal justice process, and identified the 10 steps in the system where a more effective service can be provided.

The T2A pilots, which have been running since 2009 in three areas of England, have been shown to reduce reoffending rates, reduce breach of community sentences, and improve social and employment outcomes for young adults aged 16-24.