Applying the Child First framework in youth justice services

anoushakarim
Jun 26
5 min read

Updated: 13 minutes ago

Consulting Report

Thursday 26 June

We hosted a live webinar with the Youth Justice Board to discuss the findings of our report. If you missed it, watch it below:

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) for England and Wales has identified the Child First framework as the guiding principle for youth justice. It is an evidence-based framework focused on seeing children as children, building a pro-social identity, supporting collaboration, and diverting from stigma. The framework is underpinned by four tenets:

Seeing children as children by prioritising their needs and interests through developmentally informed work that acknowledges structural barriers children face and meets responsibilities towards children
Building a pro-social identity by recognising children's strengths and fostering positive relationships that empower them to contribute meaningfully to society
Collaborating with children by ensuring meaningful participation and engagement with both children and their parents or carers
Diverting children from stigma by minimising contact with the criminal justice system through prevention, diversion, and minimal intervention

The YJB commissioned Crest Advisory to carry out research exploring how youth justice services across England and Wales are applying the Child First framework in practice. The findings provide detailed insights from children and practitioners and include recommendations to support the more effective implementation of the Child First framework across a range of settings and partnerships.

Crest Advisory carried out mixed-methods research with children and practitioners with two core aims:

To understand how youth justice services are applying the Child First tenets in day-to-day practice.
To explore the key barriers and enablers to implementation across different local contexts.

The research involved:

Survey with children currently supported by youth justice services.
Survey with youth justice practitioners, managers and statutory partners.
Deep dive fieldwork with two youth justice services through workshops, interviews and focus groups.

“This important research highlights the strong and growing impact of the contemporary evidence base; Child First decision-making framework. With 96% of practitioners familiar with the framework and 95% confident in applying it - particularly in community and out-of-court settings - it’s clear that the Child First evidence base (What is Child First?) is shaping practice and decision-making.

“This reflects a significant cultural shift toward a more child-centred, strengths-based system that sees and supports children as individuals. The progress we’ve made is thanks to ongoing training, resources, and strong local partnerships, though we recognise that further support is needed in some areas to ensure consistency.

“It is encouraging that children increasingly feel seen, respected and involved in decisions about their lives - core principles of the Child First tenets ‘As children’ and ‘Building a pro-social identity’. But we know that a sense of belonging remains uneven, and we will continue working with youth justice services to strengthen ties with statutory partners, victims, and local communities.

“Children deserve to know that their voices make a difference. That’s why we’re encouraging services to adopt clear ‘You said, we did’ approaches, to build trust and ensure that feedback leads to meaningful change.

"We welcome the thoughtful and constructive recommendations in this report. They provide critical insight that will support the systems collective efforts to continue to embed the framework and strengthen practice which in turn will prevent offending and create safer communities with fewer victims."

- Steph Roberts-Bibby, CEO of the YJB

Key Findings

There is strong awareness and understanding of the Child First framework and high levels of practitioner confidence in applying the tenets across youth justice services.

Practitioners reported high awareness of the Child First tenets, with 96% saying they were familiar with the framework and 95% clear on how to apply it in their role.
Children’s experiences were generally positive: most reported feeling supported, listened to, and involved in planning.
The framework is widely seen as a consolidation of existing best practice, especially among teams already familiar with trauma-informed approaches.

But challenges remain:

Practitioners’ confidence in applying the tenets varied by setting. It was highest for out-of-court and community work, and lower in court, secure and transition settings.
Practitioners felt guidance materials were sometimes overly optimistic and did not always reflect the complexity of cases or restricted environments, such as courts.
Challenges in partnership working, including differences in language and priorities, sometimes limited the effective application of the Child First tenets across agencies such as police, schools and courts.

Recommendations for the YJB and wider sector

The report includes 17 practical recommendations for the Youth Justice Board to further support the implementation of the Child First framework. These fall into four main areas:

Recommendations to support youth justice services to build on good practice - including for the YJB to continue disseminating good practice through online platforms like the YJB Resource Hub, Youth Justice Bulletin and social media, as well as encouraging youth justice services to seek children’s feedback more regularly through the use of ‘you said, we did’ templates.
Recommendations to consolidate practitioners’ awareness of the framework - including for the YJB to review current Resource Hub submissions to ensure they capture varied and challenging contexts to support practitioners across different settings. Additionally, ensuring that resources are shared in diverse formats and provide practical support on how the Child First framework aligns with other ways of working, such as restorative justice and trauma-informed practice.
Recommendations to strengthen partnerships and continue to engage key partners - including for the YJB to circulate resources that youth justice services can use to explain the framework and its tenets to external stakeholders, and building on the successful roll out of the Child First self-assessment tool and Child First toolkit to bring partners together to reflect on common themes and gaps in how they currently apply the framework.
Recommendations to continue building the evidence base around the Child First framework - In particular, this involves supporting or commissioning further research that captures children’s and parents and carers’ perspectives.

Why this matters

The research shows strong support for the Child First framework across youth justice services, but also highlights areas where implementation is more difficult. Ensuring consistency across settings, including court, custody, and partner agencies, will be key to delivering better outcomes for children, victims and communities.

The report calls on the YJB and sector leaders to:

Continue to provide practical support for practitioners on the ground.
Build alignment across partners and systems.
Address persistent barriers around training, communication and operational context.

‘Our research highlights the significant momentum behind the Child First framework, grounded in the dedication of youth justice practitioners to get the best outcomes for children, communities and victims. Our direct engagement with children and practitioners has helped to shine a light on where services need the most support to apply the framework, and the important role of the YJB in helping services to translate the principles into practice.’

- Jessica Hull, Senior Strategy and Insight Manager at Crest Advisory

If you have any questions about the research, please contact the project lead, Jessica Hull, Senior Strategy & Insights Manager at Crest via jessica.hull@crestadvisory.com.