June 23, 2023. News

VRU hosts youth justice services webinar

A core function for the Violence Reduction Unit is to coordinate local partners in their response to serious violence and to share knowledge and best practice.

On Wednesday 14 June, the VRU hosted a webinar with a focus on the youth justice services and their work on serious youth violence.

The meeting was opened by Matthew Barber, Police & Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley and the session was then led by Jo Brennan, Head of Operations South East of the Youth Justice Board together with a number of the Heads of Youth Offending Services from across the region.

The session focused on the vital role of the youth justice services, and the necessity of local partnership arrangements to be working closely to involve their local Youth Offending Service.

With nine Youth Offending Services across the Thames Valley, the webinar was an opportunity to raise understanding on their role, structures and shared areas of priority and the overlaps with wider community safety, policing and other partnership efforts in the context of serious violence.

All areas have a statutory Youth Justice Partnership Board which is responsible for the delivery of all local youth justice services. Each service must publish a Youth Justice Plan each year – with 2023/2024 plans due for submission to ministers by the end of June 2023 for publication shortly after. These will be important resources for local partnerships to include in wider local work and planning. The VRU will support their promotion once published for partner awareness.

The slides from the webinar are available to download below and a recording of the session in full can also be viewed.

For those interested in closer liaison with their local Youth Offending Service, contact vru@thamesvalley.police.uk