One minute guide: Bail and Remand Protocol for young people

What is the Bail and Remand Protocol for young people

In Leeds there is a Children and Families Services protocol to manage a child aged under the age of 18 if they have been arrested for a serious offence and face potential custody. This is the Bail and Remand Protocol. Court bail is managed in the community. A remand has more serious consequences and results in a child becoming looked after and either managed within the community or a secure placement, depending upon strict criteria.

The Youth Justice Board, which oversees the Youth Justice System and is sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, requires a local protocol to be in place to ensure that remand to custody is only used in exceptional circumstances where a child cannot be managed safely in the community.

Why is this important

Leeds is a Child Friendly City and recognises the rights of the child and our collective responsibility to take a trauma-informed approach to working with children within the youth justice system.

Article 37 of the UN’s Convention of the Rights of the Child states that a child should be deprived of their liberty only as a last resort. There is significant research that shows that even a short period of custody can have a serious detrimental impact on the life outcomes for a child.

There is also a Youth Justice Board requirement that disproportionality is addressed at this stage of the youth justice system, as nationally Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) children are more likely to be remanded than be given bail by courts.

Working together, children and family services practitioners can make assessments and plans to offer the court credible alternatives based on sound evidence. 

How does the protocol work

The protocol works by the Youth Justice Service (YJS), leading on the creation of a bail package and proposal to court and explaining the way that children and families services can work together to engage with the child and the family as a whole in order to address and minimise the concerns for the safety of the child and others and reduce the likelihood of reoffending. A bail or remand package can include:

• a type of monitored curfew
• exclusion zones
• prohibited activities
• required activities
• a placement away from home

What do practitioners need to do

The expectation is that planning starts to happen at the point of arrest. Where there is a risk of custody or the child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, a Strategy Discussion or Meeting should be convened as soon as possible with representatives invited from Children and Families Services, the YJS, the police and health.

There will also be a decision to be made about where the child is placed overnight under the Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act 1984 awaiting their first court appearance.

If the child is being held for a new offence, they will be eligible for what is known as a PACE bed; if they have breached their bail or have a warrant for not attending court, then they are not eligible. There are strict criteria and provisions within the PACE Act and the Children Act 1989 about what steps must be taken. If practitioners are unsure about this, they should discuss it further with the Duty and Advice Team (including the Emergency Duty Team out of hours) and the Youth Justice Service.

Further assessment needs to be undertaken in conjunction with the family as to necessary steps to reduce the immediate concerns for the safety of the child and others, to plan for bail or a Remand to Local Authority Accommodation (RLLA) in the community. This may include consideration of alternative accommodation both in the very short and longer term, such as with wider family members or accommodation provided by Children’s Social Work Services. The nature of any safety concerns presented by and to the child needs to be viewed in the specific context of their offence.

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