Children from black and ethnic minority backgrounds are 'overrepresented' in a scheme designed to reform children involved in crime, Hertfordshire councillors were told.

Local authorities across the country have a legal obligation to produce a Youth Justice Plan to help prevent crime and reform juveniles.

A draft of Hertfordshire County Council's Youth Justice Plan was analysed at a meeting of the Children, Young People and Families committee on Friday, June 21.

Priorities in the plan include prevention methods, such as Turnaround – an early intervention programme, as well as 'Out Of Court Disposals' which see children volunteer in an intervention programme instead of formal prosecution.

Other endeavours include identifying educational needs and addressing barriers in training and employment.

The report stated: "Young people from the global majority are overrepresented within Hertfordshire's Youth Justice Service when comparing the 10-17 aged offending population with the 10-17 population.

"Latest data published by the Youth Justice Board (April to Dec 2023) shows the most overrepresented group are mixed ethnicity children, they make up 11% of the offending population and 8% of the 10-17 population.

"White ethnicity children are underrepresented within Hertfordshire's Youth Justice Service, accounting for 71% of the offending population against 76% of the wider 10-17 population."

Cllr Steve Jarvis raised the overrepresentation of non-white offenders in the report as "an area of concern".

He said: "I think it's rather disturbing that one of the things that we thought was one of the most significant issues last year is no longer identified as a priority and also appears to be one of the things on which no progress has been made."

Lydia Phillips, service manager of the youth justice policy, said: "In terms of disproportionality, it does remain a priority. It has been incorporated in our first priority around governance and leadership, so it still sits within that and doesn't stand alone.

"There were one four young people who received a custodial sentence last year, three of those were young black males, which is why obviously that is overrepresented. The percentages do look distinct because the numbers are so low."

Ms Phillips pointed to a number of mentoring initiatives to help young people, including life skills such as cooking lessons, as well as ongoing work with the police to help reduce court outcomes.

Peter Kay, head of youth justice at the council, added: "This disproportionality isn't about Hertfordshire's youth justice service, it's every youth justice service in the country.

"Locally, what I would say is that today we have one young person in custody and that's a custodial sentence for serious offences, so he's serving a few years.

"He is a non-white young person, but the work that we do on a daily basis is about minimising the impact for all young people in terms of their involvement in the youth justice system."