Prevention Before Prosecution: What the Latest Youth Justice Evidence Means for Safeguarding Professionals
On 30 July 2026, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) published its latest Targeted Prevention and Diversion Evidence Pack, bringing together the most up-to-date evidence on what works to prevent children and young people from entering the criminal justice system. The publication comes at a time when the Government is placing increasing emphasis on earlier intervention and building a more preventative public service model.
For safeguarding professionals, this isn't simply another youth justice report. It reinforces something many practitioners have known for years:
The most effective safeguarding often happens long before a statutory intervention becomes necessary.
What is targeted prevention and diversion?
Diversion is about responding to children and young people in ways that reduce the likelihood of future offending without unnecessarily criminalising them. Rather than focusing solely on punishment, effective diversion seeks to understand why behaviour has occurred and what support may reduce future harm.
The evidence pack highlights approaches that:
identify risk early
address unmet needs
strengthen protective factors
involve families and communities
reduce unnecessary contact with the formal justice system
balance children's needs with victim safety and public protection.
Importantly, diversion is not about ignoring harmful behaviour. It is about responding proportionately whilst tackling the underlying causes.
What does the latest evidence tell us?
Some of the most significant findings include:
Around 43% of youth justice outcomes in 2025 were diversionary rather than resulting in a caution or sentence.
The number of children cautioned or sentenced has fallen by 65% since 2015.
First-time entrants into the youth justice system continue to reduce, reaching their lowest level for over a decade.
Significant regional variation remains, suggesting that where a child lives can still influence whether they receive diversionary support.
Inequalities also persist, with black children significantly less likely to receive diversionary outcomes than white children.
These findings demonstrate encouraging progress whilst highlighting that equitable access to diversion remains a significant challenge.
Beyond Criminal Justice: This Is Everyone's Business
Although published by the Youth Justice Board, the lessons extend far beyond youth offending services.
Schools.
Further education.
Health.
Housing.
Social care.
Voluntary organisations.
Employers.
Every organisation working with children and young people has opportunities to prevent escalation before concerns become crises.
Safeguarding has traditionally focused on responding to disclosures, referrals and incidents. Increasingly, the evidence tells us that our greatest impact comes from recognising vulnerability earlier and intervening before risks become entrenched.
We Need to Stop Measuring Success by Referrals
One of the biggest cultural shifts safeguarding leaders face is moving away from seeing referrals as the primary measure of effectiveness.
A high-quality safeguarding culture asks different questions:
How many concerns did we prevent from escalating?
How confident are staff in recognising early indicators?
Are young people accessing help before reaching crisis?
Are we identifying unmet needs rather than simply responding to behaviours?
Do our systems unintentionally disadvantage particular groups?
These are leadership questions.
Safeguarding maturity is demonstrated not by how efficiently organisations manage crises, but by how effectively they reduce the need for crisis intervention in the first place. This requires psychologically safe organisations where staff feel able to notice, question and act early.
Prevention Is More Than Early Help
Early intervention is often misunderstood as simply making referrals sooner.
True prevention requires organisations to understand the wider context around a child or young person, including:
trauma
adverse childhood experiences
exploitation
contextual safeguarding risks
education engagement
family functioning
neurodiversity
mental health
community influences
protective relationships.
Behaviour should never be viewed in isolation from these wider safeguarding factors. Professional curiosity remains one of the strongest protective tools we have.
What Can Organisations Do?
This publication provides an excellent opportunity for safeguarding leaders to reflect on their own systems.
Consider:
reviewing early intervention pathways
analysing whether certain groups experience different safeguarding outcomes
strengthening multi-agency relationships
increasing staff confidence in recognising emerging vulnerabilities
reviewing behaviour management approaches through a safeguarding lens
embedding restorative practice where appropriate
ensuring governance reports include preventative activity, not simply incidents.
The strongest safeguarding cultures understand that prevention is everyone's responsibility.
Final Thoughts
The latest Youth Justice Board evidence reinforces an important message:
Safeguarding should not begin when harm has already occurred, it begins when professionals notice the earliest indicators that something may be wrong.
Effective prevention protects children, supports families, strengthens communities and reduces long-term demand across education, health, social care and criminal justice. As safeguarding professionals, we should welcome this growing emphasis on prevention, not because it reduces statistics, but because it improves lives. When organisations invest in curiosity, relationships and early intervention, everybody benefits.
Resources
Youth Justice Board: Targeted Prevention and Diversion Evidence Pack
Government announcement: New evidence highlights benefits of targeted prevention and diversion