''A closer look at the care system, youth offending and the criminal justice system in the West Midlands — and why we need to ask what happens to young people long before they enter custody''. When we talk about young people entering the criminal justice system, we often focus on the offence. What happened? What did they do? What sentence did they receive? But how often do we stop and ask a different question? What happened to that young person before they ever entered the cr

Youth-service spending in England has fallen dramatically year on year local-authority spending on services for young people, has steadily been in decline. Using figures reported by the House of Commons Library this is what was found. There has been a 68% cut in spending on youth services in England spending fell from £1.074 billion in 2011/12 to £349 million in 2023/24 after accounting for inflation. That's a 68% real-terms reduction. Universal/open-access youth services wer