Dealing with offending by young people: 
performance update – podcast transcript

Anne:  This is Anne McCubbin here to talk with Antony Clark and Kirsten Paterson about our report Dealing with offending by young people. Kirsten, what’s your report about?

Kirsten:  The report follows up on recommendations made in our previous reports which were published in 2002 and 2003 and also investigates the impact of recent increases in funding.  

Anne:  The report says in recent years there’s been an increased focus on youth justice.  Could you tell us a bit more about that?

Kirsten:  There’s been a substantial increase in investment for youth justice services since our last report and the introduction of national standards for youth justice services has helped to deliver positive changes.  

Anne:  Thanks Kirsten.  Antony could you tell us a bit more about the report findings.

Antony: Well as Kirsten said the increased investment has led to some positive changes in youth justice services.  These include increased partnership working between police, social work and other agencies, increased access to services for young people who offend and much faster police reporting and reported decision making, all of which are to be welcomed.

Anne:  And what needs to improve?

Antony:  A big challenge lays ahead for the Scottish Executive, local authorities and other agencies involved in providing services for young people who offend.  They need to strengthen their performance management arrangements, gather better performance data so that they can demonstrate that the new investments are actually improving outcomes for young people and are delivering value for money for the public purse.  

Anne: So what are the next steps with this report?

Antony: Well the report highlights encouraging progress in a number of areas.  There are also challenges that lay ahead.  We set out a series of recommendations in the report which are designed to improve services for young people who offend.  These recommendations are directed at the Scottish Executive, local authorities and the other agencies involved in this area.  Key recommendations include improving partnership working with education and the NHS, building on the good work we identify in the report and also the development of better performance measures based on outcomes for young people.  It’s encouraging that the Scottish Executive has already committed to reviewing the outcome measure for these services.

Anne: Antony and Kirsten, thank-you very much.