Contact: Philip Sutton, Head of Youth Offending Services. Tel 01962 876100

E-mail: [email protected]

1. Background

1.1 The purpose of this report is to bring Members up to date with developments in the Wessex Youth Offending Team since the last meeting on 6 October 2004.

2. Government response to the Audit Commissions report

2.1 In January 2004 the Audit Commission produced its review of the Youth Justice reforms since 1997 and made recommendation for further improvements. The Government published its response in November 2004 and indicated that it proposed to (among other changes):

- issue revised guidance on the use of reprimands and warnings with a view to reducing the number of minor offences coming to courts

- extend the circumstances in which Referral orders are to be used

- replace Action Plan orders, Attendance Centre orders and Supervision orders with a new Juvenile Rehabilitation order (JRO) and introduce an Intensive Supervision and Surveillance order (ISSO)

- expand the number of youth inclusion and prevention programmes.

3. Freedom of Information Act 2000

3.1 Members will be aware that this Act gives the public new rights of access to recorded information held by public bodies. For the purposes of Freedom of Information Act, Youth Offending Teams have been designated part of local authority services. The Yot's publications have been notified to local authorities and its web-site has been improved. Staff have received instruction on how to respond to requests for information.

4. Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004

4.1 This new legislation includes (in section 32), a code of practice for work with victims, which has significant implications for Youth Offending Teams. The code of practice strengthens the legal commitment to victims of youth crime by ensuring that they always receive an opportunity to participate in restorative processes if they wish to. All staff who work with victims will require additional training. At a national level a bid for additional funding is being developed in order that all Yots can implement the code of practice from Autumn 2005.

5. Local Public Service Agreements

5.1 The Youth Offending Team is working closely with the local authorities in relation to their existing and planned Local Public Service Agreements. These Agreements are written agreements between the Government and public bodies which set out targets for improving performance over a three year period. If targets are met, a substantial "reward grant" is paid to the public body. The reduction of youth crime features in existing Local Public Service Agreements in Southampton and Portsmouth. Hampshire County Council is about to enter negotiations in relation to its second Local Public Service Agreement three-year cycle. Among the proposed targets are: reductions in reconviction rates for violent young offenders, and reductions in the numbers of children who are the victim of violence.

6. Supervision Orders

6.1 Last year, the Youth Offending Team reported significant improvements in the level of reconviction of young offenders placed on supervision orders. The rate of reconviction, (within two years of the commencement of the order), reduced from 88% to 72% . Three recent innovations and improvements aim to build on this success. They are the "Better Choices" programme, electronic monitoring of exclusion orders and intensive fostering.

7. Better Choices

7.1 This is a programme of twenty-four sessions of group-work which is now an expected component of supervision orders in most cases. The programme was developed jointly by Wessex Yot and the Cognitive Centre Foundation, drawing on the best available evidence of effective practice with young offenders. It aims to teach problem-solving, or cognitive skills, victim empathy and related skills. The programme is divided into three modules, each consisting of eight sessions. In 2004, 83 young offenders completed at least one module, and of these 51 completed the full programme. Plans are being made with Portsmouth University to carry out an independent evaluation of the impact of the programme on behaviour and attitudes.

8. Electronic Monitoring of Exclusion Orders

8.1 Wessex Youth Offending Team and Hampshire Probation Service are jointly piloting the use of electronic "satellite" monitoring of Exclusion Orders linked, (in the case of juveniles), to Supervision Orders. The pilot also includes young offenders and adult offenders released from custody, some adult sex offenders and perpetrators of domestic violence. The technology allows the whereabouts of offenders to be monitored. It is proving particularly useful in cases where there is a pattern of offending in specific locations, such as shopping arcades. Six young people have so far been made subject to monitoring.

9. Intensive Fostering

8.2 Working closely with Wessex Yot, the Children's Charity NCH will begin piloting the use of fostering as a requirement of a supervision order. Ours is one of three areas in England which will be included in the pilot. Specialist foster carers will be recruited and trained to enable them to foster young offenders. The pilot provides the opportunity for young people who are fostered whilst on remand, to remain in their placements for longer if they need intensive support.

9. Young people in Custody

9.1 The Youth Offending Team continues to voice concern about the numbers of young offenders in custody and the distance they are placed from home. It is recognised that the offending of some young people is so serious that custody is the only suitable sentence. Among such cases were, for example, the ringleaders of the violence which followed Portsmouth's football match with Southampton last year. In these cases, the Yot worked collaboratively with its criminal justice partners to ensure that arrangements were put in place for the inevitable custodial sentences. However, since the ringleaders were sentenced, a further large group of young people, many with no previous dealings with police, have followed these ringleaders into custody. These sentencing decisions have put huge pressure on the juvenile secure estate, and the Youth Offending Team. We remain to be convinced that they were necessary in all cases, having regard to the principal aim of the youth justice system which is to prevent re-offending. The Yot is facilitating a support group for the parents of these young offenders, as well as facilitating opportunities for the police and football authorities to explain the terms of the Football Banning Orders.

9.2 With regard to placements, Members will recall that, with the exception of Swanwick Lodge Local Authority Secure Children's Home, there are no secure institutions within fifty miles of Hampshire. The Youth Justice Board has invited Wessex Yot to pilot the use of video-conferencing as a means of maintaining contact with young offenders in custody, and the staff who supervise them there. This will, it is hoped, enable more effective involvement in sentence planning for Yot workers, and for family members, whilst reducing the burden of travel. In addition, the Youth Justice Board has agreed that Jonathan Fayle, Head of the Secure Placement Unit, will address the next meeting of the Standing Conference to discuss placement decisions and also to set out how the secure estate is responding to self harm and suicide among its inmates.

10. Evaluation of Yot Foundation Training

10.1 The University of Portsmouth reported at the Yot's annual conference in November, its evaluation of the impact of the Foundation Training Programme. This is a training programme developed by Wessex Yot, which aims to provide newly seconded or newly appointed staff with the skills they need to deliver youth justice services. With the exception of one of the eight modules, (which has since been revised) all parts of the programme were well regarded by new staff. The programme appears to have had the additional benefit of promoting the development of a commitment to a coherent culture among Wessex Yot practitioners. Staff who completed the programme were asked questions about what they saw as the main aims of the youth justice system and to rank these aims in order of importance. Almost all staff selected the same four aims, and there were no significant differences in the relative importance or ranking of these four aims: rehabilitation, restriction of liberty, reparation to victims and protection of vulnerable young people.

11. Response to South East Asian Disaster

11.1 Finally, it is pleasing to report that some of our most serious and persistent young offenders wanted to make a positive contribution to efforts to provide relief to the victims of the tidal wave in South East Asia. Twelve young people from the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme undertook ten mile walks with staff and raised funds through sponsorship. This money has been sent directly to a family in Sri Lanka with whom the minister at Totton Church is in contact.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents:

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:

(i) Published works.

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

P. Sutton

17/1/2005

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