Record Lows: Untold Half of Story

Stephanie Roberts-Bibby, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) explores the Youth Justice Annual Statistics for 2024 to 2025 that were published today.

On reading through these statistics, I am both proud and pleased to see the record lows in child first-time entrants and children in custody, but complexity of needs, inadequate service provision court delays and the high use of remand are stalling progress.

You could almost say that this is a story of two halves. On the one hand we are seeing incredible success in prevention, but we are also seeing a system 'machinery' that is increasingly clogged, leaving too many vulnerable children and victims in limbo.

Prevention is working

I want to start by celebrating the hard work of the frontline teams. The numbers here are truly impressive. We've seen the number of children entering the system for the first time drop to 8,100. That is the lowest number on record.

Similarly, the number of children in custody has fallen to 418. When you consider that this is a 3% drop from last year and a 60% fall compared with 10 years ago, it's clear to me that the Child First decision-making framework is making a real difference. We are successfully steering children away from the system before they get pulled in.

Court delays

However, for the children who do enter the system, the experience is becoming increasingly difficult. The statistic that keeps me up at night is 230 days to get an outcome. That is the average time it now takes from an offence to court completion. It's the highest on record and even worse than during the height of the pandemic. For an adult, eight months is a long time. For a child it is a lifetime, and equally so for a victim. This 'stagnant' justice process doesn't just delay a sentence, it delays rehabilitation, keeps victims waiting for closure, and prevents everyone involved from moving forward. It is costly and ineffective.

Challenging the narrative

I am often disappointed to read about a "youth crime wave", but the data doesn't support that perception. Arrests of children actually decreased by 2% this year. In fact, children account for only 8% of all arrests. While we are keeping a close eye on knife and offensive weapon related offences (which saw a 2% rise), the vast majority of our children are not the ones driving crime rates. Where a child does offend, the evidence suggests that the most effective way for us to prevent them getting drawn further into the system is to facilitate a shift in their identity from pro-offending to 'pro-social'. What this means is supporting them to develop their strengths and potential so that they see themselves as someone who will benefit other people and society as a whole. Key to this is reducing the stigma associated with offending which we can do by reframing the way we talk about children in contact with the youth justice system. This will help children to develop constructively, reduce offending and make communities safer, and that will mean fewer victims.

Emerging trends

We are seeing a concerning three-year upward trend in sexual offences, with a 6% rise bringing the total to about 1,500 cases. While the specific causes remain under analysis, we cannot ignore the role that online environments and violent pornography may play in shaping behaviour.

Many children in the justice system, particularly girls, are survivors of abuse, neglect, and trauma themselves. Recognising this connection is vital for our oversight and strategy.

We must provide effective support to those who have experienced violence, helping prevent them from entering the youth justice system. It is also important that we support boys, bringing them into conversations around violence against women and girls and reducing harmful behaviours. Finally, we must also address the systemic failures that make violence and abuse a reality for so many women and girls, thus exposing them to cycles of harm.

Where we must all do better

Success isn't success unless it applies to all children, and the latest figures show we still have work to do to achieve equity. While it's heartening to see an 11% drop in Black children in custody, they remain significantly over-represented. I am particularly concerned that the proportion of Mixed ethnicity children in custody has doubled over the past decade. We will continue to scrutinise the evidence and data until we can understand why.

Almost two-thirds (62%) of children held on remand don't end up with a custodial sentence. We are essentially putting children in cells, only for a court to later decide they didn't need to be there. This is a trauma we must aim to avoid.

Adultification remains a significant issue in youth justice, relating to Black and Mixed ethnicity children, where innocence and vulnerability are not recognised. This is a manifestation of racism and results in professional curiosity being reduced and safeguarding needs less likely to be met.

To help combat this, we are doubling down on community-based alternatives like the Addressing Ethnic Disparity (AED) pathfinder in the West Midlands and the London Accommodation Pathfinder (LAP). The AED pathfinder aims to address systemic challenges concerning ethnic disparity, and design ways to support sector wide development and the LAP focuses on supporting Black and Mixed heritage boys who are at risk of being remanded to custody, providing stable, community-based environments that focus on rehabilitation.

Despite a welcome reduction in the overall rate of reoffending (0.7 percentage point decrease on the previous year) it is disappointing that the frequency rate has increased to a 10-year-high. What this suggests is that while fewer children are reoffending, of those that do, the number of actual reoffences committed has increased. Evidence indicates that these children often have high levels of unmet need, which can exacerbate offending behaviour. This underlines the importance of continued investment in trauma-informed and targeted support to address underlying drivers and achieve sustained reductions in reoffending.

In summary

While we celebrate the historic reduction in children entering the justice system, we cannot ignore the 'stagnant' reality for those who remain within it. Success is fragile when court delays hit record highs and remand is used so frequently for children who ultimately do not receive custodial sentences.

In February 2026, we will publish our Annual Insights report, providing a deeper dive into these figures, specifically addressing the persistent over-representation of Black and Mixed ethnicity children. Moving forward, our focus must remain on early intervention and community-based outcomes. We must ensure the whole system is as effective as the frontline teams who have brought us this far.