While the youth justice system as a whole has made tremendous strides in the past 10 years, evidence shows that not all young people have benefitted equally from the improvements we delivered.

Although there has been a substantial overall decline in the number of children and young people entering the youth justice system – the proportion entering from a black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds has increased from 11.6% in 2001/02 to 17.9% in 2011/12.

The YJB believes that promoting equality, valuing diversity and delivering youth justice services in an anti-discriminatory way is fundamental to reducing offending and re-offending, not only among young people from affected minority ethnic groups, but also across the wider population.