Skip to main content
Complex Safeguarding Wales

Youth Justice Service

The Youth Justice Service plays a central role in safeguarding criminally exploited young people.

Youth justice practitioners support young people who come into contact with the police, those who are at risk of criminality, and those who have been charged or convicted.

Further, youth justice practitioners support young people who may be unknown to services or do not meet service safeguarding thresholds. This places youth justice practitioners in an important position for identifying, supporting, and preventing young people from being criminally exploited.

Youth justice practitioners must receive training regarding child criminal exploitation, including risk factors at the individual, interpersonal and community level as well as the impact of criminal exploitation on the young person’s mental and physical health

Warning signs

Justice Services have an important role in spotting the early signs of child criminal exploitation, which can be difficult to recognise.

Safeguarding responsibilities

Youth justice practitioners should adopt whole-family approaches and work with the families of young people experiencing criminal exploitation.

Guidance for the Youth Justice Service

For further guidance for youth justice practitioners, including warning signs for child criminal exploitation, see pages 67-77 of the Practitioner Toolkit.

Complex Safeguarding Wales Practitioner Toolkit

This toolkit was developed as part of a Health Care Research Wales funded study into child criminal exploitation in Wales and is aimed at enhancing practitioner responses.

View document Download document (PDF, 2.7 MB)