The Youth Justice Board (YJB) and the Association of
Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) have agreed to share
information on the ethnicity of children in contact with the youth
justice system.
Sharing the YJB’s ‘summary disproportionality tool’ will allow
police and crime commissioners (PCCs) to analyse the cohort of
children in their areas and spot if there are any disparities.
This will serve to increase their understanding of any local
issues or concerns and encourage them to collaborate with the
relevant agencies in order to address any disparity. For example,
this intelligence could be used to target funding for local
initiatives that have a track record of addressing
disproportionality. It could also feed into the work of local
Crime Reduction Boards as well as the development of
local/regional disproportionality action plans.
On using the tool, Norfolk PCC said:
Ensuring that all children are treated fairly by the criminal
justice system must without question be a priority for all
agencies who work in this area. My team has been able to use
the disproportionality tool and data to produce a report on
ethnic disproportionality in the youth justice system in
Norfolk and shared this report with our local youth offending
team (YOT).
In turn, the YOT have used this data to make a series of
recommendations for the future, including upskilling staff in
identifying and eliminating bias, the establishment of a
multi-agency group responsible for developing a local joint
disparity protocol and continuing to collect and analyse data
to understand where disparity is occurring.
My office will also continue to use the tool and similar data
sources when designing future youth interventions.
This data sharing agreement is partly in response to the Young
Review and its audit of Police and Crime
Plans. Back in 2017 it was noted many Police and Crime Plans
made no explicit reference to race equality and improving
outcomes for ethnic minorities, though the audit did identify
examples of where PCCs were driving progress on equality. Four
years later, following the YJB/APCC data sharing agreement and
with many new PCCs elected, there is work underway to ensure they
are all aware of the tool and are using it.
Merseyside’s PCC said:
Understanding disparities in the criminal justice system is
crucial if we are to ensure we have fair and efficient
processes and to help restore confidence and faith in the
system. Historically this has been hard to do due to
inconsistent recording across all the agencies.
The Youth Justice Board’s disproportionality tool is a helpful
and effective way to review the data specifically in relation
to young people who become involved in our criminal justice
system. It will enable us to identify potential issues and
ensure we can take action if there are any concerns that young
people from specific communities are over-represented.
As Chair of the Merseyside Criminal Justice Board, I am keen
that all agencies in our region monitor proportionality in our
criminal justice system and this tool will ensure we can do
this more effectively, helping to drive improvement and uphold
standards.
In April, representatives from PCC areas attended a training
session on the summary tool. The tool was also part of the
induction for new PCC’s at a ‘Meet the Partners Event’ in July
and it will be discussed at the next APCC General Meeting, in
October.
Alison Lowe, Deputy Mayor of West Yorkshire - and the APCC Lead
on Equality, Diversity, and Human Rights - said:
Following the Lammy Review underlining the importance of data
in tackling race disparity in the criminal justice system, I
encourage all PCCs and Deputy Mayors to access the data
available in the YJB’s Summary Disproportionality Tool.
The wealth of data that the Tool contains will greatly help to
inform our thinking as we develop our Police and Crime Plans,
hold forces to account, and identify what we can do locally to
address race disparity in the youth justice system, and ensure
fewer children become involved in crime.
Keith Fraser, YJB Chair, said:
I really welcome this new data sharing agreement with the APCC
and the exciting possibilities it brings for further
partnership working. I believe it will prove to be a huge
stride towards improving the life chances for children and
preventing them from being drawn into the criminal justice
system.
With access to the summary tool, PCCs will now be better able
to interrogate the evidence and reveal whether children from
ethnic minorities are over-represented in their area. And if
the evidence points that way, then there is huge potential for
PCCs to forge new alliances with local community-based groups
and help to build trust, as they seek to explain ‘why it is
happening’ and ‘what can be done about it’.
