We spoke to the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, and his Policy Officer, Dan Gordon, about the DIVERT scheme in the West Midlands.

The West Midlands Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) has commissioned a Pre-Arrest Drug Diversion scheme, which was rolled out in October 2020, and is now taking place across the seven local authorities of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

Kam Kaur, Senior Social Worker and Parenting Apart Consultant, told us about their programme for separated and divorced parents. 

This guest blog asks what can be done to re-establish trust between communities and police service areas in London, and stop the increasing incidents of serious youth violence.

We spoke with Caroline Chapman, a police sergeant at Project Gateway about her experience a police out of court disposal scheme for young adults.

This briefing outlines what is different about the Family Drug and Alcohol Court approach, and its strengths.

We spoke with Mark McPaul, Senior Probation Officer in Sefton, about the innovative approach taken in Sefton Magistrates Court and their involvement in the Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR) pilot programme

Background

Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service (NYOS) began holding out-of-court reviews of Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YROs) in 2014, shortly after the publication of Lord Carlile’s inquiry into the Youth Court which recommended the development of problem-solving approaches to youth justice, including components such as judicial monitoring.

In March, the Centre convened a panel to discuss the themes raised in its new research report into racial disparity in youth diversion schemes. 

The Centre's Director, Phil Bowen, responds to the 2021 report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.