Contact: P. Sutton, Head of Youth Offending Services. Tel No. 01962 976100 [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 "Youth Justice - The Next Steps" was published on 8 September as a companion document to the Green Paper entitled "Every Child Matters". The Green Paper as a whole sets out the Government's proposals for improving the way statutory and voluntary services can work together to provide support for children. "Youth Justice, the Next Steps" is one of a number of companion documents. These are:

"A better education for children in care" which sets out strategies to improve standards.

"Keeping Children Safe", the detailed response to the Victoria Climbe enquiry, and a special "Children's Version" of the main Green Paper.

1.2 The Green Paper and its companion documents all have significant implications for local authorities, police, health and the probation service. The Government is seeking responses to its proposals by 1 December. The purpose for this report is to set out the main recommendations in "Youth Justice - The Next Steps" in order for the Committee to be able to respond.

2. Background to "Youth Justice - the Next Steps"

2.1 The full text of the youth justice Green Paper is attached, (Appendix 1). The basic approach is to build upon the changes introduced through the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), namely:

_ Multi-disciplinary youth offending teams which work both within the criminal justice system and children's services.

_ Effective pre-court intervention to tackle the early onset of offending behaviour from the age of ten years.

_ The single statutory aim, to prevent offending, which applies to all those who work with young offenders.

_ Support for parents and for the victims of youth crime, and

_ Improvements in the provision of community supervision and of secure accommodation for the most serious and persistent young offenders.

2.2 The Committee may wish to indicate its support for this broad approach of building on what has already been achieved.

3. Pre-Court Interventions

3.1 The Government is seeking views on how pre-court interventions can be further developed. In the Hampshire Police Force area, reprimands and final warnings have been operating for all juveniles since 1998. The decision-making processes used by the police to determine whether to reprimand, warn or recommend for prosecution are fair and transparent. A consequence, probably unintended, is that a greater proportion of detected youth crime is now dealt with through the courts than through procedures which divert young offenders away from the court processes. This was not the proposal in the Audit Commission's report Misspent Youth, which was one of the triggers for the 1998 reforms. One solution might be for the more serious first and second offenders who currently go to court, to be able to be referred by the police to restorative justice panels led by community volunteers.

4. General Sentencing Principles and Structure

The majority of young offenders who appear before a court are dealt with by specially trained Magistrates sitting in the Youth Court. Training for Magistrates emphasise the importance of sentencing young offenders in ways which will have the best impact on the likelihood of reconviction. The proposed "single main purpose" of sentencing consolidates this, and the Committee may wish to welcome this proposal, along with the proposal to simplify the current range of juvenile court sentences.

5. Families and Communities

Following its experience of piloting both Family Group Conferences and the Parenting Order, the Wessex Youth Offending Team has for some time been advocating the improvements proposed in this paragraph, namely:

_ Ensuring fathers as well as mothers are engaged in parenting programmes.

_ Developing new programmes for young offenders who are parents.

_ Linking the use of family group conferencing into the "menu" of support for parents.

6. Policing, Public Order and Courts

6.1 The proposals for "Young Defendant's Information Pack", to better prepare young defendants and their carers for court and for improvements in the training and specialisation for lawyers and judges who deal with young people should be supported. In Wessex, there is a large number of volunteers who already undertake the role of "Appropriate Adult" when young people are being questioned at police stations. These volunteers could well wish to contribute to the preparation of young defendants and their carers for their court appearance.

7. Remands

7.1 The proposals in relation to remands, including the need for small hostels for young people who are not suitable for remand fostering, is entirely in accord with the Remands Strategy of the Youth Offending Team. In its response to the Green Paper, the Committee might wish to offer to be involved in the development of a small specialist residential unit in our area.

8. Sentencing in the Community

8.1 The Consultation Paper correctly identifies the need to simplify the current confusing range of community-based penalties.

8.2 Referral Orders have been successfully implemented and would be expanded in the modest way that is proposed. Action Plan Orders, on the other hand, have not always enjoyed the same level of success and therefore there has been a certain lack of confidence in them from sentencers. In part, this has been due to the current prescribed length of three months. Considerable work will need to be done with the magistracy, with attendance centre staff, with Youth Offending Team staff, and with partners in the voluntary and statutory sectors in order to transform the Action Plan Order into an effective, flexible community based sentence. If this can be achieved, it will represent an improvement in the current position. If it is not achieved, there is the danger that the absence of other forms of sentence will leave courts with little option but to increase their use of custodial sentencing.

9. More intensive sentences, including custody

9.1 In Wessex, our Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme is shortly to be extended from Portsmouth and South East Hampshire to cover the entire area. It already takes a significant number of young people on release from custody, if they meet specific criteria. Although funded by the Youth Justice Board, it is under-resourced to deal with numbers of young people who meet the eligibility criteria. The proposal to link ISSP more closely to the secure estate as well as to community-based educational establishments is to be welcomed, but would require flexibility in the transfer of resources between the secure estate and the community-based ISSP. A mechanism would need to be found which would ensure that funding followed the child and which recognised that effective intensive community-based programmes are not an inexpensive option.

10. Staff and Organisation

10.1 A number of staff in Wessex Youth Offending Team are embarking on the Effective Practice Certificate this autumn, and, within our ISSP and the Learning and Skills Council, there is an enthusiasm to explore an Advanced Modern Apprenticeship Scheme. There is further work to be done by the Youth Justice Board in order to ensure that the qualifications have credibility, and are properly linked to other academic and vocational qualifications.

10.2 In relation to Yot's structure and membership, the Committee might wish to take advantage of the opportunity to promote consideration by the Government of giving further encouragement to cross-authority partnerships of Yot's, which, like Wessex, would be co-terminous with Criminal Justice Areas. It might also be opportune to promote the need for clearly defined links with local Connexions partnerships, (which we enjoy in Wessex), and with local authority housing departments, in order to ensure that all the relevant local services which can contribute to preventing youth crime do so.

11. Conclusion

11.1 "Youth Justice - the Next Steps", sets out the proposals to build on recent reforms in youth justice, within the overall context of the new strategy to support all children. The Committee is invited to respond to the consultation by 1^st December, and this report provides some suggestions as to how that response might be developed.

Recommendations

That the Committee

i. Notes the report concerning the Government's Consultation Paper "Youth Justice - the Next Steps".

ii. Requests that the Chairman responds on its behalf by 1 December 2003

Background Documents : Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB. The list schedules:

(1) Published works.

(2) Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

1. "Youth Justice - The Next Steps"