Member

This reflects what evidence from youth justice practice already tells us. Evaluation of diversion programmes, including work by the Suffolk Youth Justice Service, shows clearly that outcomes improve when conditions are tailored to the individual child, realistically enforceable and do not interfere with education or access to support services. Without those things, there is an obvious risk of children being set up to fail. When failure leads to breach and a breach is a criminal offence, we are not diverting children from the justice system; we are actually drawing them further into it.