Reducing serious youth crime

Tabled Report 15: 2023–24

Tabled date

2024-06-28

Report year

2023-24

Community welfare Justice and public order

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of the Premier and Cabinet continues to work with key system stakeholders to

   ensure more effective coordination, integration, and delivery of youth justice-related initiatives, including facilitating whole-of-government investment and implementation where appropriate.

2. QAO's text Addressed to: strengthen their leadership and governance of the youth justice system (the system). This

   strengthen their leadership and governance of the youth justice system (the system). This should include 

   • ensuring relevant leadership committees, including the youth justice taskforce, are attended by appropriate entity delegates with appropriate decision-making authority
   • identifying and prioritising key challenges across the system and implementing appropriate strategies and actions
   • improving cross-entity collaboration to ensure entities share relevant information in a timely manner, including making the multi-agency collaborative panel data dashboard available to relevant entities.

3. QAO's text Addressed to: reviews, updates, and implements its new youth justice strategy. The strategy

   reviews, updates, and implements its new youth justice strategy. The strategy should  

   • include indicators of success to measure performance across the system
   • include clear system-wide actions aimed at reducing the over-representation of First Nations young offenders in the system   
   • clearly define roles and responsibilities across the system to inform entity-level strategies and plans. 

4. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service

   finalises its youth justice strategy, ensuring it includes measurable objectives and aligns to the state strategy. 

5. QAO's text Addressed to: finalises its system-wide monitoring and evaluation framework and commences evaluation of 2023 youth justice reforms. This

   finalises its system-wide monitoring and evaluation framework and commences evaluation of 2023 youth justice reforms. This should include 

   • developing a plan for ongoing evaluation across the system
   • reporting outcomes of monitoring and evaluation regularly and transparently to the Department of Youth Justice, the Queensland Police Service and other relevant entities, and to the public, as required, to help inform whether the Queensland Government’s actions are reducing youth crime.

6. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Youth Justice

   formalises and executes a plan for measuring the effectiveness of programs using its outcomes framework.

7. QAO's text Addressed to: strengthens its investment and procurement practices to ensure that all investment decisions are based on sound market analysis, with the rationale for decisions clearly documented in line with evidence. This

   strengthens its investment and procurement practices to ensure that all investment decisions are based on sound market analysis, with the rationale for decisions clearly documented in line with evidence. This should include

   • regularly mapping its investment against youth crime trends across Queensland
   • ensuring its contracts contain sufficient performance measures and targets that assess outputs and outcomes
   • developing a framework to build capability in the sector. 

8. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Youth Justice and the Queensland Police Service, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and governance committees

   agree on a uniform, evidence-based approach to identifying those young offenders with the highest risk of reoffending and ensure this information is shared with relevant stakeholders across the system.

9. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service

   monitors bail checks for serious repeat offenders to ensure timely and appropriate action. 

10. QAO's text Addressed to: improves and standardises its processes and systems for collecting and recording data about its core rehabilitation programs and support services. This

    improves and standardises its processes and systems for collecting and recording data about its core rehabilitation programs and support services. This should include providing appropriate training and guidance to staff to ensure data is collected as required. 

11. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Youth Justice

    continues to implement plans to address staff shortages at detention centres, including considering alternative methods to rehabilitate young offenders while centres are in lockdown. 

12. QAO's text Addressed to: ensures there is effective and sustained support to young offenders transitioning from detention into the community. This

    ensures there is effective and sustained support to young offenders transitioning from detention into the community. This should include

    • evaluating the length of time a young offender requires support
    • implementing a more structured process for planning a young offender’s release
    • communicating in a timely way with relevant stakeholders about the young offender’s risk, needs, and transition plan
    • providing appropriate support to meet the young offender’s social and cultural needs.

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO