Foreword

Six years after the Barrow Cadbury Trust published Lost in Transition, the report of its Commission on young adults in the criminal justice system, there are signs that policy makers are finally turning their attention to this neglected age group. Earlier this year the Justice Select Committee argued that “it does not make financial sense to continue to ignore the needs of young adult offenders. They will become the adult offenders of tomorrow.” The new government’s sentencing review and promised rehabilitation revolution offer a chance to develop an approach to young adults which is more appropriate and effective than our current arrangements.

Before politicians, criminal justice agencies and the public accept the case for change they will need to understand more about what is practically involved in providing effective programmes and projects for young adults. This timely report from Young People in Focus will help that process. Identifying examples of promising practice and drawing out the principles which guide them, Made to Measure will be an important resource not only for those who commission and provide services for people in the young adult age range but those who are developing the right legal and policy framework for doing so. It complements the report which Young People in Focus published last year setting out the scale of the challenges involved in meeting the needs of young adults. We now have some important illustrations of how that is being achieved. It makes an important contribution to the work of the T2A Alliance which is not only pressing for much needed policy change but the shifts in practice on the ground which need to go with it.

Rob Allen
Chair T2A Alliance