Herts county councillors question ‘over-representation’ of black and ethnic minority children in crime report

Children from black and ethnic minority backgrounds are “over-represented” in a scheme designed to reform youngsters involved in crime, Hertfordshire councillors were told.

Local authorities across the country have a legal obligation to produce a youth justice plan to help prevent crime and reform juveniles.

A draft of Hertfordshire County Council’s youth justice plan was scrutinised at a meeting of the children, young people and families committee on June 21.

Priorities in the plan include prevention methods – such as Turnaround, an early intervention programme – and out of court disposals, where children volunteer in an intervention programme instead of facing formal prosecution.

Other endeavours include identifying educational needs and addressing barriers in training and employment.

The report stated: “Young people from the global majority are over-represented within Hertfordshire’s youth justice service when comparing the 10 to 17 age offending population with the 10-17 population.

“Latest data published by the Youth Justice Board (April to Dec 2023) shows the most over-represented group are mixed ethnicity children; they make up 11% of the offending population and 8% of the 10-17 population.

“White ethnicity children are under-represented within Hertfordshire’s Youth Justice Service, accounting for 71% of the offending population against 76% of the wider 10-17 population.”

Cllr Steve Jarvis raised the over-representation of non-white offenders in the report as “an area of concern”.

He said: “I think it’s rather disturbing that one of the things that we thought was one of the most significant issues last year is no longer identified as a priority and also appears to be one of the things on which no progress has been made.”

Lydia Phillips, service manager of the youth justice policy, said: “In terms of disproportionality, it does remain a priority. It has been incorporated in our first priority around governance and leadership, so it still sits within that and doesn’t stand alone.

“There were four young people who received a custodial sentence last year: three of those were young black males, which is why obviously that is over-represented. The percentages do look distinct because the numbers are so low.”

Ms Phillips pointed to a number of mentoring initiatives to help young people, including life skills such as cooking lessons, as well as ongoing work with the police to help reduce court outcomes.

Peter Kay, head of youth justice at the council, added: “This disproportionality isn’t about Hertfordshire’s youth justice service, it’s every youth justice service in the country.

“Locally, what I would say is that today we have one young person in custody and that’s a custodial sentence for serious offences, so he’s serving a few years. He is a non-white young person, but the work that we do on a daily basis is about minimising the impact for all young people in terms of their involvement in the youth justice system.”