Page 81 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

these under the headings: (a) ensuring specialists make decisions about
children, (b) making consistent decisions, and (c) holding the CJS to account.

Ensuring specialists make decisions about children

Custody Suites

4.4 The CJS is designed for adults. This is why there are currently no permanent
child custody suites. Although adaptations have been made, with YOTs and
Youth Courts, the fact remains that children are often subject to conditions
similar to adults. In addition, there is a palpable lack of specialist training on
how to interact with children.

4.5 Recent initiatives within the MPS are attempting to address the problem,
prompted by a large number of children being arrested at the Notting Hill
Carnival in 2018. For example, in addition to plans to build two child custody
suites within London, we have heard of pilots aimed at improving the
experience of custody for children by using it as an opportunity to engage.

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4.6 Learning from Redthread 224 and working with, among others, DIVERT and
the Children’s Society, 226 the MPS has developed a new police station liaison
programme for children, to be piloted in Wood Green police station. In the
temporary custody suite, youth custody workers will screen every child to
identify their welfare needs and relevant risk factors. The youth workers will
be responsible for the initial engagement with children brought into custody
and seek to understand more about the child’s context and support networks.
The youth workers will also identify whether there are any welfare concerns in
the child’s relationships. For example, we have heard of one instance where a
police station representative engaged with a young pregnant teenage girl who
had run away from foster care and stolen a mobile phone as she was being
exploited. The police were not aware of this background until the
representative sat on the floor with her and chatted informally. In this way,
custody will be used as a reachable moment and as a chance to implement

224 Redthread is a youth work charity. It aims to empower young people to thrive as they navigate the
challenging transition to adulthood, by integrating trauma-informed youth work into the health sector.
225 DIVERT is a Metropolitan Police Service intervention programme aimed to reduce reoffending.
226 The Children’s Society is a national children’s charity.

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