Source Public Accounts Committee 22 February 2023
The Public Accounts Committee has cited a failure of ownership and ‘reluctant’ leadership by Government, safeguarding systems not working in some areas with tragic consequences and an increase in overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in the youth justice system.
“The Department for Education tells us that it holds the ring across Government on supporting and protecting adolescents, but in the same breath had to say it hadn’t even started work on the harms from social media. Young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are grossly overrepresented in the youth justice system, a problem that’s been obvious and growing for a decade, but there’s no sign of action or even special attention to the issue.
It’s hard to escape the feeling that our young people, especially the ones who were already vulnerable and at risk, are being treated as an afterthought. Too often they fall the cracks of different services and are left to fend for themselves. The financial cost of these failures is already a bank-breaking £23 billion a year. Is the Government prepared to fund what that will grow to, when the problems it’s failing to tackle now come home to roost?
And there is no number that can be put on a child dying because of a failure to co-ordinate across so-called safeguarding services. After this report, we expect Government to produce an annual update on how it’s improving outcomes for adolescents. Not the plans and programmes it’s making – we want to see the evidence of better outcomes, every year.”
Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee
Read more at source: Unacceptable, unnecessary harm to vulnerable adolescents being failed by maze of services
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