PRISM-R in Lambeth: a worked example
Preview of Sprint 3 capability. This page shows how PRISM-R will present local-level analysis once the geographic explorer is built. Updated annually.
Child population aged 10 to 17
Lambeth's child population is more ethnically diverse than the national average. This is the denominator against which the upstream-driver rates are computed. Source: ONS Census 2021.
Stop and search, Metropolitan Police
Rate per 1,000 children, year ending March 2025. Stop and search is published at police force level, not local authority: these figures apply to the Metropolitan Police as a whole, the force covering Lambeth. Source: Home Office Police powers and procedures.
Permanent exclusions in Lambeth
Rate per 100 pupils, academic year 2023/24. Local authority level. Source: DfE suspensions and permanent exclusions in England.
Suspensions in Lambeth
Rate per 100 pupils, academic year 2023/24. Local authority level. Source: DfE suspensions and permanent exclusions in England.
Children looked after in Lambeth
Counts shown rather than rates. A true ethnicity-specific looked-after rate requires a 0 to 17 ethnic denominator, which is out of scope for v1. Source: DfE children looked after in England.
Looked-after counts for Black, Mixed Heritage and White children in Lambeth are shown. Counts for Asian children and children in the Other category are below the disclosure-control threshold and are not shown. The Asian cell was suppressed at source by the Department for Education; the Other cell is suppressed by PRISM-R to prevent back-calculation of the Asian figure from the group total. This is standard practice in disclosure-aware analytics.
Income deprivation affecting children
0.437
Lambeth's IDACI score, against an England average of 0.335.
Lambeth ranks 54th most deprived of 296 English local authorities on child income deprivation, more deprived than 82% of them. Source: MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, IDACI.
Lambeth illustrates the geographic patterns PRISM-R will surface once the geographic explorer is built in Sprint 3. The pattern visible here, that Black children in Lambeth are disproportionately exposed to upstream system contacts, stop and search and exclusion, even before any decision about remand is made, is the prevention informatics question PRISM-R exists to make visible. Sprint 3 will allow this pattern to be examined for any of the 318 local authorities in England and Wales, with appropriate disclosure controls applied.
Every figure on this page passes through PRISM-R's disclosure control. Full provenance, including reference periods and retrieval dates, is on the methods page.
What the data show, and where intervention could change the trajectory
What the Lambeth data show
Lambeth's child population aged 10 to 17 is substantially more ethnically diverse than the national average, with Black children making up 41 percent of the local authority's child population compared with 6 percent nationally. Children of Mixed Heritage account for a further 13 percent locally. Together these two groups make up over half of the local authority's child population.
Across the upstream indicators measured here, the same pattern recurs. Black children in the Metropolitan Police area are stopped and searched at 38.1 per 1,000, around three times the rate for White children locally. Black children in Lambeth are permanently excluded from school and suspended at higher rates than their White peers. The looked-after population in Lambeth is disproportionately Black, with 201 Black children in care compared with 49 White children, despite Black children being the larger demographic group locally. Lambeth is the 54th most deprived local authority in England on the IDACI measure, more deprived than 82 percent of local authorities.
These are upstream measures. None of them is a remand decision. They are the institutional contacts and life circumstances that precede the youth court appearing on the horizon.
How upstream pattern produces downstream disparity
The national-level road-to-remand cascade shown elsewhere on this site reveals that Black children face a Relative Rate Index of 2.40 at stop and search, 1.76 at arrest, 1.92 at remand, and 1.59 at custodial sentencing. The pattern visible in Lambeth, where Black children are over-represented at every upstream stage, is the local-level manifestation of what produces those national figures. Remand decisions are taken on the basis of a population of children already selected by upstream processes. Disparities in those upstream processes mathematically and procedurally compound by the time a remand decision is reached.
This is consistent with the research literature on accumulated disadvantage in the criminal justice system, with the YJB's own analysis of evolving practice in disproportionality, and with the findings of the 2017 Lammy Review.
Intervention points the evidence base supports
The pattern suggests four points where the prevention evidence base identifies leverage:
- Stop and search practice and accountability. The single largest source of upstream disparity in the cascade. Force-level practice changes, scrutiny mechanisms, and Section 60 use are all evidenced as variables that shift this rate.
- School inclusion and managed moves. The exclusion and suspension figures are leading indicators. Local authority and multi-academy trust practice on exclusion thresholds, alternative provision quality, and re-engagement protocols are well-evidenced intervention points.
- Pre-court diversion and out-of-court disposals. Once a child reaches arrest, diversion practice determines whether the case proceeds to court. YOT practice on disposal decisions, the availability of community-based alternatives, and the quality of joint working with health and social care all shift this point.
- Accommodation availability at point of remand. The YJB's 2025 disproportionality work identifies suitable accommodation as a major driver of avoidable custodial remand, particularly for Black and Mixed Heritage boys. The London Accommodation Pathfinder explicitly targets this leverage point.
A note on what this analysis is and is not
This page shows local-level upstream indicators alongside the national-level remand cascade. It does not show local-authority-level remand outcomes, because the YJB does not publish remand data at youth justice service or local authority level. Bridging that gap, by securing access to service-level remand data, would allow PRISM-R to track whether the patterns visible upstream translate directly into downstream remand disparity in each local authority. That is a stated v2 aim.