Tag Archives: youth justice board

Mark Pack

Youth Justice Board replace the £1m consultant

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th September 2009 - 7:50 am

Last month I blogged about the Youth Justice Board paying £1m over three years to one IT manager, employed as a consultant. They have now decided to end this arrangement and instead employ a normal member of staff, at much lower cost:

An IT consultant who cost the Youth Justice Board (YJB) £336,000 last year is to be replaced by a permanent employee on a regular pay grade, CYP Now can reveal.

The move, which could save the YJB more than £200,000 a year, comes on the back of concerns raised over the high cost of employing chief information officer Mike

…

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Tim Connolly

Opinion: Youth justice – a golden opportunity for the Lib Dems

By Tim Connolly | Wed 9th September 2009 - 2:30 pm

Youth justice has risen, zombie-like, from the place unloved political issues go to die. In July, the Government published an interim report on The Youth Crime Action Plan, its “comprehensive, cross-government analysis of what the government is going to do to tackle youth crime.”

This prompted vigorous activity from the think-tanks and NGOs, and a predictable silence from the dead who may live again, aka the Conservative Party.

Last week, the Liberal Democrats published data showing that the number of 10 to 12 year olds convicted of a criminal offence rose by 87.2% between 1997 and 2007. Nick Clegg, remarking on the figures, argued that:

It is a disgrace the Government spends eleven times more locking up our young people than it does on backing projects to stop them getting involved in crime in the first place.”

Unless you happen to be keen on nineteenth century penal philosophy, Nick’s comment seems to make excellent sense. I would suggest, however, that it is, at best, carelessly imprecise. At worst, it indicates a refusal to challenge the prevailing conservative narrative on youth crime. Given recent reporting of events in Doncaster, a measured rebuttal is more critical than ever.

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Mark Pack

Youth Justice Board’s IT manager paid £1m in three years

By Mark Pack | Sun 2nd August 2009 - 11:21 am

From the Sunday Telegraph:

Mike Mackay, an IT manager for the Youth Justice Board, (YJB) a quango charged with overseeing youth justice and the rehabilitation of young criminals, has been paid almost £1 million over the past three years, making him one of the highest-paid public servants in the country…

Freedom of Information requests and the YJB’s annual accounts reveal that in 2007 Mr Mackay was paid £330,000 for his services. Last year that rose to £351,499, according to the Daily Mail.

This year, he was paid £336,000, which is more than ten times the salary of a youth worker.

A spokesman for

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