11 October 2012

T2A welcomes Criminal Justice Joint Inspection report into transitions

News and events

The Transition to Adulthood Alliance has today welcomed the publication of Transitions: an inspection of the transition arrangements from youth to adult services in the criminal justice system, a Criminal Justice Joint Inspection report into young adult transitions in both custody and in the community.

 

The multi-agency study, which draws on inspections made at six locations in England and Wales, makes reference to the Alliance’s work on maturity and highlights the T2A pilot projects in Birmingham, London and Worcestershire.

 

While welcoming examples of good practice, the report also details a number of key areas in which insufficient attention has been given to effective transitions:

 

  • Not all young people in the community who were eligible for transfer to adult-based services were identified – so transfer, when initiated, was undertaken too late and with insufficient information;
  • Young people were not always as informed or involved as they should have been, and some young people reported that in custody, they felt unprepared for the reality of a move to an adult establishment
  • There was a lack of work with those in health and education, employment and training to ensure that services needed by the young person were continued
  • There was insufficient timely sharing of information between the youth-based and adult-based services to enable sentence plans to be delivered without interruption; and
  • In custody, insufficient forward planning and communication led to a gap in sentence planning and delivery of interventions after young people had transferred to an over-18 YOI/prison.