On 12 February 2026, the Ministry of Justice (the MoJ) issued a policy statement titled “Modern Youth Justice System: Foundations Fit for The Future”, which sets out a new approach to oversight and accountability in the youth justice system.
Modern Youth Justice System, MOJ
Details
The Government will allocate £281 million for the youth justice grant over three years and a further £46 million for the Turnaround grant programme over three years. Youth justice services will receive multi-year certainty through three-year grant awards of £93.6 million per annum from 2026/27 to 2028/29.
From the financial year of 2026/27, the MoJ, rather than the Youth Justice Board, will directly distribute this core grant.
The key areas the MOJ identifies for reform and development are as follows:
- Victims
The MOJ encourages a greater focus from local teams on the victims of offences committed by children. The Government welcomes the addition of the victim’s standard to HMIP’s inspection framework in 2025, which assesses whether victims receive the high quality, compassionate and individualized service they deserve.
- Knife Crime
In line with the Labour manifesto, knife possession will become a key focus area for youth justice services and paying due regard to recent MoJ guidance will become a condition of core grant funding from 2026/27.
- Turnaround Programme
The “Turnaround” Programme of early intervention was established by the MOJ in 2022 to provide additional funding to support children on the cusp of the youth justice system, with the explicit aim of preventing future offending. The Government is clear that programmes like Turnaround can do more to divert children from crime entirely – improving lives, preventing crime and offering tangible return on investment.
- Custody as a Last Resort
The policy statement highlights that a child should only ever be sent to custody as a true last resort.
The Government will allocate £60 million for local authority remand payments over three years, to enable longer-term investment in alternatives to custody and will invest a further £5 million in regional projects to develop alternatives to custodial remand (e.g., specialist fostering, accommodation, or highly supported diversion into family care).
Improving Outcomes in Custody
The Government acknowledged that the conditions for children in custody require significant improvement. Around two-thirds of children in custody are held in young offender institutions, which are not set up to deliver complex therapeutic interventions and are therefore being failed.
The Government is focused on increasing the time children spend out of their cell/ room and will be looking closely at how education is delivered in custody. A panel chaired by the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families would conduct a review into safeguarding arrangements for children in custody.
- Central Government Supporting the Frontline
The Government will: (i) reform the role of the Youth Justice Board to focus on supporting the frontline; (ii) transfer activities relating to the development, funding and monitoring of government policy and the wider youth justice system from the Youth Justice Board to the MoJ; and (iii) establish an expert panel to advise government on how digital technology and data analytics can be better used to support youth justice services.
Further announcements will follow in Spring 2026, which will set out a clear, bold, and practical vision for a modern youth justice system.
Commentary
The Modern Youth Justice System is designed to be a radical overhaul of a system that was designed nearly 40 years ago. In 2026 the Government states that they are committed to “driving effective and consistent use of out of court resolutions, to re-examining the youth sentencing framework, and breaking down barriers to a child’s rehabilitation.”
YJLC offers inhouse trainings for Youth Justice Services wishing to upskill their teams and ensure they are up to date on these key focus areas. We also have a number of relevant online workshops coming up including a sessions focused on victims and witnesses, knife crime, and out of court resolutions.