The data generated by the KPIs will be used both by the YJB to monitor performance of youth justice services (YJSs) and by the MoJ to identify barriers to reducing reoffending.

The Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board have just published a set of 10 new key performance indicators (KPIs) to be used by youth offending services from the 1st of April this year. Because KPIs are used to monitor performance and senior managers are accountable for them, they tend to have a profound and enduring impact on the structure and service delivery model used.

These KPIs were designed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in consultation with the YJB, front line services, inspectorates and other government departments.

The data generated by the KPIs will be used both by the YJB to monitor performance of youth justice services (YJSs) and by the MoJ to identify barriers to reducing reoffending.

Importantly, the KPIs explicitly recognise the importance of all the prevention and diversion activities carried out by YJSs, with the result that the data will be collected on all children with whom the YJS is working, not just those with a conviction.

The YJB and the MoJ have made a commitment to publish the initial findings from national data on key performance indicators in Spring 2025.

The ten new indicators are set out in full below.

The Indicators

KPI 1 - Accommodation

The percentage of children in the community and being released from custody with suitable accommodation arrangements

KPI 2 - Education, training and employment (ETE)     

The percentage of children in the community and being released from custody attending a suitable ETE arrangement

KPI 3 - Special educational needs or disability (SEND)

The percentage of children who have an identified SEND need and are in suitable ETE and have a formal learning plan in place for the current academic year

KPI 4 - Mental healthcare and emotional wellbeing   

The percentage of children in the community and being released from custody with a screened, or, identified need for an intervention to improve mental health or emotional wellbeing; and of that the percentage of planned/offered interventions; of that percentage of children attending interventions

KPI 5 - Substance misuse      

The percentage of children with a screened or identified need for specialist treatment intervention to address substance misuse; and of that the percentage of children with planned or offered intervention/treatment; and of that the percentage number of children attending intervention/treatment

KPI 6 – Out-of-court disposals        

The percentage of out-of-court disposal interventions that are completed/not completed

KPI 7 - Management Board attendance   

Monitoring senior partner representation at management boards, and monitoring if partners contribute data from their individual services that identify areas of racial and ethnic disproportionality.

KPI 8 - Wider services  

The percentage children who are currently on either an Early Help (EH) plan; on a child protection (CP) plan or classified as Child in need (CiN) or have looked-after status.

KPI 9 - Serious violence

The rates of children convicted for a serious violent offence on the YJS caseload.

KPI 10 - Victims  

The percentage of victims who consent to be contacted by the YJS, and of those, the percentage of victims who are engaged with about restorative justice opportunities, asked their view prior to out-of-court disposal decision-making and planning for statutory court orders, provided information about the progress of the child’s case (when requested) and provided with information on appropriate services that support victims (when requested).

In addition to these 10 new KPIs, Youth Justice Services will continue to record data on the four current KPIs (first time entrants, reoffending binary rate, reoffending frequency rate and the number of children in custody) on the basis that these statistics provide an excellent overview of how the  youth justice system as a whole is performing. Indeed, we regularly review these statistics at Work with Offenders and they have reflected the main successes of the youth justice system over the last decade in the huge reductions of the number of first time entrants (down 78% between 2012 and 2022) and the number of children in custody (down 77% during the same ten year period).