Working with Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and young people: Effective Practice for Youth Offending Teams

01 Jun 2021

In 2018-2019 the Youth Custody Service delivery plan aimed to improve outcomes for GRT children in custody. An area of focus was to improve data recording and resulted in an additional ethnicity option (W3- Irish Traveller) being added to the Youth Justice Application Framework (YJAF). There was a need to better understand why GRT children felt less safe within custody. Children identified they felt less safe because people/staff didn’t understand them. As a result, the YCS in partnership with the Traveller Movement created a GRT Effective Practice Briefing (EPB) which was cascaded to establishments. Since the creation of the EPB, the CiC 2021 report has reported improved experiences for GRT children. A conclusion cannot be drawn that there is a direct correlation between the two, however, the evidence would indicate the EPB was a contributory factor and the feedback from staff about the content has been positive. REF: HMPPS Race Action Plan