Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to ensure a child psychologist is in place in every youth offending team.

Local Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) are multi-agency partnerships (which include health services) and they determine which services are needed to address the needs of the children who offend in their area. As of June 2017, there were 127 full time equivalent posts for seconded mental health practitioners working in YOTs in England and Wales. This included 59.7 part time and 68 full time posts.

Additionally, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, are expected to work with NHS England and local partners across the NHS, public health, children and adult social care, youth justice and the education sectors, to jointly develop and take forward local plans to improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, including children going through the youth justice system. In Wales, Local Health Boards (LHBs) are responsible for planning and delivering medical services, and aim to integrate specialist, secondary, community and primary care and health improvements. Even where there is no child psychologist or mental health professional embedded within the youth offending team, areas should have provision for children to access appropriate mental health support.