9th June 2025
The Michael Sieff Foundation – Justice for children with SEND & neurodivergence
This report is an independent review into how the current system can fail to prevent children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and neurodivergence from unnecessarily entering into the justice system, how they are dealt with once in the system and what happens when they leave the justice system.
Details
In England and Wales 80% of children cautioned or sentenced within the youth justice system are from the SEND or neurodivergent cohort. A Working Group convened by the Michael Sieff Foundation reviewed the pathways in and out of the justice system for these vulnerable children and drew conclusions as to how well equipped the youth justice system is to effectively deal with this cohort. The Group’s key findings were as follows:
- SEND and neurodivergence predominate in children in the justice system, but the justice process and many professionals at key stages of the system have not been equipped to deal with this cohort of children.
- Reforms are urgently needed to prevent the criminalisation of vulnerable children – the report sets out reforms targeted at each stage when a child with SEND and neurodivergence can be helped to avoid offending or reoffending.
- There are important long term economic and social benefits to these reforms.
Considering these findings, the report focuses on changes that can be made within the criminal justice system to meet the needs of SEND and neurodivergent children and yield better outcomes for society, without the need for primary legislation. The report suggests that improvements to the system can be implemented at 5 distinct stages:
- Preventing children entering the criminal justice system;
- Improving children’s first contact with the criminal justice system;
- Improving the court process for children;
- Improving sentencing and custody; and
- Exiting the justice system: reintegration, rehabilitation and preventing re-offending.
Throughout all of the above stages, the report emphasizes that the knowledge and skills amongst the police, legal professionals and judges must be improved through mandatory training on how to effectively interact and deal with SEND and neurodivergent children.
A key rationale behind the suggested reforms is maximising public safety and increasing the likelihood that SEND and neurodivergent children who commit crime will go on to become well-functioning, law-abiding adults.
Commentary
The findings of this report evidence that the justice process and many professionals working within it, including youth justice lawyers, are ill-equipped to be dealing with this group of children. To achieve better outcomes for these vulnerable children and for society, training on SEND and neurodivergence for teachers, police, staff in secure settings, legal representatives and judges is crucial.
Without adequate training for professionals working within the youth justice sector, SEND and neurodivergent children will continue to be at a detriment. On a practical basis, the report could be referenced when advocating for children in or at risk of the criminal justice system or included in Pre-Sentence Reports where appropriate, to highlight the issues.