Prevention and diversion

Bradford Youth Justice Service (YJS) vision is to help make Bradford a safer place to live.

Our mission is:

• For all children to be given the chance to live a happy and healthy life.
• To always put the child at the heart of everything we do.
• We will work with other people to help support and work on their good points.
• To stop or lower crimes committed by children.
• To reduce the harm caused by crime and work closely with victims.

Within Bradford YJS we have the Prevention and Diversion YES teams (Youth Engagement and Support) which works to deliver our Prevention and Diversion offer.

The Child First principles provide a framework in which we can successfully achieve these outcomes. We treat children as children and are committed to promote a childhood removed from the criminal justice system by diverting children away from formal sanctions and the courts, where this is appropriate. We promote the child’s individual strengths and capacities and help them develop pro-social identities. We work with children to encourage participation, engagement, and wider social inclusion.

Research has demonstrated that this approach works to prevent future victims, helps keep children and communities safer, reduces the burden of services, and creates better outcomes for children, communities, and victims. However, we recognise that diversion is not always appropriate and the serious nature of an offence, or actual or potential harm, means that formal youth justice processes will still be necessary.

Bradford's youth crime prevention work brings together several organisations and projects aimed at preventing offending, anti-social behaviour, and social exclusion. We are a pivotal member of the Bradford Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) panel. We work in partnership with the Police to identify children who engage in ASB, and we provide suitable interventions to prevent these children progressing into the criminal justice system.

We will continue to develop the diversion model to ensure it is strength and future focussed rather than deficit focussed, which looks on the offence in the past rather than what the child can achieve and supporting them to reach this.

Our aim is to keep children out of the formal criminal justice system by diverting them into informal interventions wherever appropriate and ensure that they are both proportionate to the crime committed and effective in reducing the risk of further offending.

Bradford has fully embedded Chance to Change and implemented a model where children can be diverted to other services where appropriate. We are confident the model works, and early indications show children who receive a Chance to Change disposal are less likely to re-offend and if they do it is likely to be less serious. We have looked at re-offending rates and initial data is showing that children in Bradford who receive a Chance to Change as opposed to a Youth Caution (YC) and Youth Conditional Caution (YCC) are 50% less likely to reoffend in the first year.

The Chance to Change model has been rolled out across West Yorkshire to ensure there is consistency and opportunities for more children to be diverted away from court and avoid the damage caused by having a criminal record.

Contact Bradford YJS: 01274 436060

We also work in Partnership with West Yorkshire Liaison and Diversion. They work with children and adults who have been arrested or charged and need extra support.

Contact West Yorkshire Liaison and Diversion: 01924 302425