How much do young offenders need social work?

The current orthodoxy in social work with young offenders centres on the twin themes of justice and systems management. The first beseeches social work to use mechanisms, such as the 1982 Criminal Justice Act, as a means of improving the juvenile court process. The second seeks to provide a clear alternative to custody by redefining Intermediate Treatment as a strategy aimed primarily at "heavy end" offenders. The recent news that the numbers of those receiving Youth Custody has risen sharply since the implementation of the above Act, only serves to amplify the importance of the debate about what kind of social work young offenders should receive. The current implication for both the courts and social work practice is that justice is not being done and diversion not being achieved. However, should social work respond by concentrating the vast majority of its endeavours in one particular area, then it would clearly have major implications both for practice and for the allocation of resources. It would therefore have an effect on the kind of social work young offenders might receive and hence how much such a service may be required.