This conference was held in Central London in January 1998 and organised jointly by The British Juvenile and Family Courts Society (BJFCS) and The National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, at which the keynote speaker was The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP, the Home Secretary. Important contributions were also made by no fewer than nine members of the Government's Task Force set up in May last year to examine the future of the Youth Courts — a task which, in my opinion as a Youth Court magistrate since 1978 and past chairman of the BJFCS, was ripe for attention. The conference was attended by 300 delegates representing a wide range of professionals involved with young people and the courts.

The Home Secretary's opening words emphasised both the timeliness, in view of the Crime and Disorder Bill going through Parliament, and the importance of the conference because of the widely held view that the system was failing. In addition a consultation process was taking place to look at longer-term reform of the Youth Court. The Home Secretary spelled out that too little is done when children start to offend to ‘intervene positively’ in their lives; repeat cautions are used ineffectively; re-offending continues on bail; and there is a lack of supervised community-based programmes aimed at making young people take responsibility for their behaviour, make amends, and change. He drew attention to the disjointed system of both custodial facilities and orders that need to be overhauled. Finally he pointed out that there is a lack of a national strategy.