Former council chief executive and Audit Commission managing director, Frances Done, has taken up the reigns of the Youth Justice Board – just as things are getting very tough in the realm of youth crime. She talks to Chris Smith If ever there was a poisoned chalice, then right now taking charge of the body that oversees young offenders would have to be it. The in-tray for Frances Done, new chair of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), will include the suspects charged with murdering a 17-year-old drug dealer shot in the head in Camden, north London. He was the 15th teenager murdered in London so far this year. It followed the violent deaths of Harry Potter actor Rob Knox and Jimmy Mizen, the 16-year-old killed in a south London bakery. But the former chief executive of Rochdale MBC and managing director of local government at the Audit Commission is unfazed. ‘Young people in the youth justice system is very high up everyone's agenda right now. It's difficult to think of anything much more important than the prevention of young people heading into a life of crime,' she says. ‘Many outside think it's dead simple but there are no easy solutions or quick fixes.' Part of the battle will be convincing a sceptical public who believe the streets have been lost to violent hoodies. Ms Done says: ‘There's some really quite successful work, especially around joint working at local level, but there are huge challenges. ‘The key task is to concentrate on the route of young people who come out of the system; we've got to keep driving down the rate of re-offending. We've also got to improve the confidence of victims.' Adding to the difficulty is the torturous politics that come with the job; her predecessor Professor Rod Morgan quit after attacking the Home Office for, as he saw it, driving too many young people into the criminal justice system. Significantly, her appointment, announced by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and agreed with the Ministry of Justice, ended a Whitehall battle and Home Office involvement in youth justice. Critical to breaking the cycle of offending will be ensuring that young people do not fall back to the environment that led them into the criminal justice system. However, experts argue multi-agency youth offending teams are not doing this and are failing to cut the £650m cost of youth crime. A study by the Study by Joseph Rowntree Foundation into youth crime found influencing factors are unsurprising: low family income, poor housing and low educational attainment. Other factors are drug or alcohol addictions and mental health issues. Many have already been in the care system from an early age. These issues are unlikely to be solved by prison, but Ms Done accepts that public safety must also be considered. She explains: ‘There's an incredible balance between acknowledging the support they need but also the need to challenge them to acknowledge what they have done. Very simply, there are too many young people in custody, but the alternatives have got to be robust.' She believes local authorities have a key role to play and improving the joint working with other agencies will help. But local authorities are also urged to raise their game: ‘A chief executive should know how many young people are in custody and how many will be supported when they come out: housing, substance misuse, access to jobs and so on. She adds: ‘We've got to find ways in which we can all work more closely together. The new performance framework is going to be helpful to get focus where it's most required.' Ms Done also recognises that the YJB has not done enough to help councils change local perceptions. ‘The YJB needs to support local areas in getting the message over to communities by using examples. We need to improve on that but there's a good story to tell.' She believes the public are open to being persuaded: ‘Local people, in a quick remark, will say children should be locked up but if you talk to them and give them the details, the attitude changes.' Her attitude sums up how she will be tackling one of the toughest jobs in government: ‘I'm an optimist – you don't do a job like this if you weren't. I think a large part of the solution is in the day to day things. You've got to keep at it.' Ms Done also calls for some perspective: ‘There are awful things happening every day. We've got to remember that 95% of children get on with their lives and are on the path to success.' BIOGRAPHY Frances Done was a chartered accountant who worked for KPMG for nine years. She was also an elected member of Manchester City Council, but stood down from politics 20 years ago. She was treasurer and then chief executive of Rochdale MBC. Ms Done then became chief executive of the organising committee that successfully staged the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Ms Done was managing director of local government at the Audit Commission from 2003 until October 2006.
