New rules for Youth Court barristers

The rules have changed for barristers working in the Youth Court. They must now register with the Bar Standards Board and declare they have the specialist knowledge, skills, and competencies to work with children and young people. Enver Solomon, CEO of the charity Just for Kids Law, said: ‘This is a welcome and long overdue reform which will help address the fact that overall the quality of legal representation in the youth court is not good enough and much too variable. Mandatory high quality training is now also needed to ensure legal representation is always of the very best standard for every child and the reform needs to be extended to the Crown Court too.’