Child Rights And Youth Justice C.I.C.

Child Rights and Youth Justice (CRYJ) CIC advocates for a world where children’s rights are fully understood and protected in the justice system. During the financial year 2024-25, CRYJ has benefited children by: - supporting the work of the MoJ Quality of Advocacy Working Group (QAWG) to ensure children receive the highest quality legal representation. QAWG has set up a cross-sector Advocacy Advisory Group to produce advice and guidance on how to introduce mandatory training for lawyers representing children in criminal proceedings. - promoting greater understanding of care experience amongst the legal community and challenging stigma by working to develop a care experience led mentoring organisation - Lawyers Who Care (LWC). CRYJ has supported LWC as advisors as well as developing their programme evaluation framework and drafting their ‘From Promise to Progress: Impact Report 2025’. - improving understanding of age disputes in criminal cases through educating criminal practitioners about age disputed children; how to identify age dispute, challenge age assessments/determinations and navigate the issue when it arises, in particular for unaccompanied asylum seekers. Working with Kent criminal duty solicitors this work has ensured children, arriving in small boats and lorries and initially age assessed as adults by the Home Office, are not held in adult prisons, adult hotels or prosecuted through the adult criminal justice system. The work is ongoing to produce a legal guide to be disseminated to all criminal practitioners nationally. - working with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to embed Child First practices in London police custody suites. Having supported the development and delivery of the Child first training and Research Pilot (ChiRP) in Brixton and Wood Green Custody Suites, CRYJ are supporting the research and impact evaluation being undertaken by Dr Miranda Bevan (KCL) and Dr Vicky Kemp. - improving understanding of the prevalence of Special Educational Needs & Disabilities and Neurodivergence in the Youth Justice System by being part of the SIEFF Foundation Working Group on SEND, Neurodivergence and Youth Justice. The SIEFF report ‘Justice for children with SEND & neurodivergence’ was published in April 2025.