Our Kate Aubrey-Johnson, convenor of the Garden Court Children’s Rights Team, is project managing the Child First Custody Training and Research Pilot.
The Child First Custody Training and Research Pilot (ChiRP) launched on 13 November 2024. The Pilot is providing specialist training and introducing new processes for children in police custody. The aim of this Pilot is to ensure children receive child specialist support from police custody staff and child specialist legal representation from the point of their arrival at the police station.
The Pilot hopes to address the disparity of experiences and outcomes for children at police stations, to decrease the number of children detained in police custody, the time children spend in custody and the number of children charged, by encouraging diversion and taking a child first approach.
Funded by Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC), the Metropolitan Police and London Boroughs of Haringey and Enfield, the Pilot is taking place in Brixton Police Station and Wood Green Police Station from mid-November 2024 – mid-March 2025.
The training has been delivered by the Youth Justice Legal Centre, Youth Practitioners Association, London Criminal Court Solicitors Association and Child Rights Youth Justice CIC – working alongside a team of systemic psychotherapists.
Academics from University of Nottingham, King’s College London, and the University of Greenwich have been advising on the Pilot. The project will be evaluated as part of a Nuffield Foundation funded research study by academics from the University of Nottingham and King’s College London.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Legal Aid Policy Unit and the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) are aware of the Pilot and the findings will be reviewed by the MOJ and LAA. Find out more here.
Kate Aubrey-Johnson is a youth justice specialist barrister and mediator at Garden Court Chambers with experience as a criminal defence practitioner and public lawyer. Kate is co-author of the leading textbook Youth Justice Law and Practice (LAG, 2019) and consultant editor for Halsbury’s Laws of England, Vol 27, Criminal Procedure (5th Edition) on proceedings involving children. She is a youth justice expert and is regularly called upon to give lectures and deliver training. She has recently been appointed as a Recorder to sit in crime on the South Eastern Circuit, which will take effect on 18 November 2024.
