Care duties owed to children in youth justice system
Date: Tuesday 21st July 2026
Time: 2pm – 4.30pm
Cost: £120 | £60 for YJLC Members
Contact [email protected] for your members' discount code or membership information
A practical, focused session for youth justice professionals working with care experienced children and young people.
This workshop explores the legal duties owed to children in care within the youth justice system, and how to translate those duties into meaningful, rights-based practice. It looks at how care planning, safeguarding, and youth justice responsibilities intersect in real cases.
Participants will consider how to strengthen practice around care plans and needs assessments, work effectively with Independent Reviewing Officers, and support children moving between care, custody, and the community.
Key themes include:
- Care duties owed to children in youth justice settings
- Needs assessments and care planning for children in care
- The role of the Independent Reviewing Officer (and how to work with them effectively)
- Rights of care leavers and transitions from custody
- “Going home” from prison and managing risk on release
- Contextual safeguarding in practice
- Identifying when a child may need legal advice or representation
A practice-led session designed to sharpen legal understanding, improve cross-agency working, and strengthen outcomes for care experienced children involved in the youth justice system.
About the facilitator: Chris Callender
Chris qualified as a solicitor in 1997. Chris began his legal career in criminal defence and specialised in defending children and young people.
In 2002 he joined the Howard League for Penal Reform to set up a legal service to children and young people in prison including a free legal advice line to children in custody. Chris’s work included a series of judicial review challenges around children’s rights in the care system, treatment in prison and securing the first article 2 Human Rights Act inquiry into the treatment of a child in prison.
In 2013, Chris returned to private practice working in public, housing, age assessments and community care law with a specialist interest around the rights of children and young people. Chris assisted clients who were victims of criminal and sexual exploitation, including “county lines”. Chris developed his practice seeking compensation against local authorities for failure to remove children from harm or where they suffered neglect while in care.
Chris has represented families in inquests relating to children and young people who had taken their lives while in the care of mental health services.