OnDemand: The Youth Justice Conference 2026: Prioritising Diversion and Child Centred Safeguarding

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You can watch all the insights, key sessions, and expert discussions from The Youth Justice Conference 2026 by purchasing our OnDemand Event. Access recordings of every session, including presentations from leading industry speakers*, and watch at your own pace.

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2026 Overview

The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales continues to drive forward its 2024–2027 strategy, placing the safety, wellbeing and positive outcomes of children at the centre of reform. With record lows in first-time entrants and custody sustained, the next phase of youth justice reform focuses on one of the system’s most pressing challenges, ensuring that every child receives consistent, high-quality support regardless of geography, race, and early experiences at school. This ambition is reinforced by the Ministry of Justice’s “Modern Youth Justice System: Foundations Fit for the Future” policy statement, which sets out a new approach to oversight and accountability across the youth justice system. Despite clear long-term progress, significant variation remains in access to diversion, health and education provision, and multi-agency support at the frontline of service delivery.

• From 2024-2025 the average time from offence to completion was 230 days the joint highest level it has been with 2021 (Youth Justice Board, 2026)
• In the year ending March 2025 there were just under 3,700 knife or offensive weapon offences resulting in a caution or sentence committed by children (Youth Justice Board, 2026)
• In England and Wales 80% of children cautioned or sentenced within the youth justice system are from the SEND or neurodivergent cohort (Michael Sieff Foundation, 2025)

The Youth Justice Conference 2026 explored how national reform is being translated into consistent frontline practice. Hear from leading experts, practitioners and partners on strengthening diversion, reducing unnecessary remand, delivering integrated support for children with complex needs, tackling racial disproportionality and building a more reliable, improvement-focused youth justice system. Through keynotes, case studies and practical workshops, the conference showcased how those working within the youth justice sector can move from pockets of excellence to an equity in service provision across the UK.

2026 Agenda

• 9.40am

  Chair’s Opening Remarks

  Dr Sean Creaney, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice, School of Law and Criminal Justice, Edge Hill University

  

• 9.50am

  Keynote: Diverting Victims of Child Criminal Exploitation

  • Understanding children exploited into criminal activity: distinguishing victims from offenders
  • Strategies for early identification and diversion from the criminal justice system
  • Developing multi-agency pathways that prioritise safeguarding over prosecution
  • Using lived experience and data to inform effective interventions and reduce reoffending

  Molly Ellis, CEO & Founder, Project Accountability

  

• 10.15am

  Keynote: Delivering an Equitable Youth Justice System

  • Key findings from the Youth Justice Insights Report and what they mean for frontline services
  • Addressing the postcode lottery: how to close the gap between the best-performing areas and the rest
  • Outlining the Youth Justice Board’s improvement and innovation role in supporting local systems
  • Strategies for embedding Child-First, evidence-led practice across all stages of the youth justice pathway

  Niccy Mills, Head of Youth Justice Practitioner Apprenticeships, Designated Safeguarding Lead, Intelligencia Training

  

• 10.35am

  Questions and Answers

• 10.55am

  Comfort Break

• 11.10am

  Keynote: Neurodiversity in Youth Offending Settings

  Becca Randell, Associate Director, Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, Senior Honorary Research Fellow, University of Sussex 

  Elinor Jones, Translational Research Assistant, Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex

  

  Kloé Hampton, Senior Manager Youth Programmes & Training, Peer Power 

  

• 11.40am

  Case Study: Justice for Children with SEND and Neurodivergence

  • Exploring the prevalence of SEND and neurodivergence among children in the youth justice system and the implications for their experiences and outcomes
  • Drawing on the findings of the Sieff Foundation’s 2025 report, Justice for Children with SEND and Neurodivergence, to examine the barriers faced by children within the justice system and the challenges facing professionals supporting them
  • Examining the practical reforms identified through the inquiry to reduce children’s contact with the justice system and improve outcomes for those who do enter it
  • Considering the economic and social benefits of implementing these reforms
  • Providing an update on progress towards implementing the recommendations and considering the actions needed to deliver more effective support for children with SEND and neurodivergence

  Professor Cheryl Thomas KC, Professor of Judicial Studies, Director, UCL Jury Project and UCL Judicial Institute, UCL

  

• 12.00pm

  Questions and Answers

• 12.20pm

  Lunch Break

• 1.00pm

  Keynote: Transitional Safeguarding: Supporting Young People Beyond Age 18

  • Understanding what transitional safeguarding is and why it’s important
  • Outlining the key principles of transitional safeguarding and how these can be embedded in youth justice and probation services
  • Key findings, recommendations, and organisational implications

  Lisa Smith, Deputy Director, Research in Practice

  

• 1.20pm

  Shauneen Lambe, Director, Youth Justice Legal Centre

  

• 1.40pm

  Questions and Answers

• 2.30pm

  Comfort Break 

• 2.50pm

  Keynote: Delivering Child-First Justice: What Shame Tells Us That Behaviour Management Misses

  • Understanding shame as the core emotional driver beneath the behaviour we see, and why addressing it changes the conversation
  • The Compass of Shame – an accessible framework for recognising shame responses in practice and understanding what they look like in real interactions with young people
  • Outlining what it means in practice to hold shame at the centre of how you work, and how it shifts the relationship between practitioner and young person
  • What shame-informed practice looks like on the ground, drawn from VIP’s therapeutic work with young people involved in serious youth violence in West London

  Charlie Rigby, Founder and CEO, Violence Intervention Project 

  

• 3.20pm

  Case Study: Education Inclusion as Prevention: Disrupting Pathways into the Youth Justice System

  • Exploring the link between exclusion, care experience and offending
  • Outlining the role of education in early identification and intervention and what can be done to improve this
  • Strategies for building effective partnerships between schools and Youth Justice Services
  • Strategies for creating inclusive environments that keep children engaged

  Paul Turnham-Coombes, Education Inclusion Team Leader, Somerset Council

  

• 3.40pm

  Questions and Answers

• 4.00pm

  Chair’s Closing Remarks

  Dr Sean Creaney, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice, School of Law and Criminal Justice, Edge Hill University

  

• 4.10pm

  Conference Close

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2026 Speakers

Martin Pratt CBE

Board Member

Youth Justice Board

Shauneen Lambe

Director

Youth Justice Legal Centre

Hannah Blower

Change Lead

Youth Endowment Fund

Samantha Burns

Postdoctoral Researcher

Manchester Metropolitan University

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