Gail Quinton, Assistant Director

Young People & Community Education Services

May 2002

Printed on 100% recycled paper

Strategic Youth Issues Project Group

Membership:

Gail Quinton (Chair)

Assistant Director: Young People & Community Education, Bath & NE Somerset Council

Inge Shepherd

Community Safety, Bath & NE Somerset Council

Inspector Julian Moss

Avon & Somerset Constabulary (B&NES)

Sally Churchyard

Youth Offending Team, Bath & NE Somerset Council

Gareth Jones

Youth & Community, Bath & NE Somerset Council

Antony Higgins

Somer Community Housing Trust

Simon Ratcliff

Education Welfare, Bath & NE Somerset Council

Sgt. Kevin Adams / Sgt. Norman Pascal

Avon & Somerset Constabulary (B&NES)

Sue Maclean

Connexions West of England

Briony Waite

Mentoring Plus

Maurice Lindsay

Social Services, Bath & NE Somerset Council

(represented by Sally Churchyard, Youth Offending Team)

Cllr Paul Crossley

Bath & NE Somerset Councillor

Cllr Angela Godfrey

Bath & NE Somerset Councillor

Cllr Carol Paradise

Bath & NE Somerset Councillor

Cllr Tim Ball

Bath & NE Somerset Councillor

1.1. This report draws on the summer 2001 experience of youth disorder in South Bath. It makes recommendations for effective inter agency work with young people to prevent or reduce their involvement in nuisance, crime and disorder, and their consequent risk of entering the criminal justice system, as well as considering how to make communities feel and experience greater safety from crime and disorder. The report is intended to both identify strategies that can be immediately implemented but also to provide information which can be used to support future external funding applications.

1.2. Although the remit of the group was specifically on longer term strategic approaches to prevention, the immediate need to reduce crime and disorder with young people who are currently offending has not diminished. This report does not make recommendations about how this can be addressed although it is noted that many of the young people involved in the original youth disorder in South Bath are now receiving statutory services from the Youth Offending Team (YOT). There are also now established community safety action groups in the affected areas.

2.1 The issue which led to the establishment of the group was an upsurge of crime and disorder involving a small group of young people in the South Bath area. Their activities began with illegal riding of motorcycles, then moved on to stealing and burning out cars. Some of the young people were involved in harassment and assault of other residents. Others moved on to commit criminal offences outside their home area including burglary, shop theft and robbery.

2.2 The project group found that effective agency communication and co-ordination at a local level was established in response to dealing with the disorder issues, and continues through the South Bath operational group. However, there was a need to consider an enhanced strategic co-ordination and what opportunities existed for broader based strategies to prevent local disorder.

2.3 Although the small group was the catalyst for the formation of the project group, members were equally concerned about the lower level nuisance and disorder involving large groups of young people gathering in the streets. In some areas the activities of these groups is spilling over from normal teenage behaviour to unacceptable activity such as vandalism and harassment of residents. Local Ward Members felt that a significant element of this anti-social behaviour was alcohol related.

2.4 The Strategic Youth Issues Project Group was formed in October 2001 in response to Member concerns about an unacceptable level of disorder and criminal activity in the south of Bath city involving a group of young people and the ability of agencies to respond in a co-ordinated way.

2.5 The brief of the Group was to consider the underlying causes of the problems that were occurring, and to make recommendations for longer term measures to address these causes. This was to support existing activity e.g. the role of the Youth Offending Team. Although the initial problems had flared up in the south of Bath, the remit of the group was to consider strategies that could be applied to the whole district.

2.6 Membership of the group included Councillors from the affected areas, officers of the Council (Education - including Youth & Community and Children's Support Services, Youth Offending Team, Community Safety) and representatives of the Police, Connexions Service, Somer Community Housing Trust and Mentoring Plus.

2.7 The group was established with a fixed life of six months and with the task of making recommendations to the Council's Management Board and elected Members. With the onset of modernisation, consideration of the issues raised would be appropriate through an overview and scrutiny panel.

3.1 Many of the young people involved in more serious criminal activity had been known to services. However it is only when they become involved in the criminal justice system that there is a mechanism for agencies to work together through the Youth Offending Team.

3.2 The Project Group has identified the need for agencies to be able to share information about young people at risk and develop appropriate action plans from an earlier age. There is growing local recognition of what can be learnt from elsewhere about the effect of early intervention.

3.3 The project group considered how an effective mechanism for early multi agency intervention could be established and was appraised of Nottingham's successful development of multi agency panels with specific workers attached to young people. The group considered the establishment of a similar model in B&NES which would take referrals from Police, Education, Primary Health Care and Social Services of young people who demonstrate more than one risk factor in order to ensure all agencies share responsibility for proactive work with young people. It is acknowledged that the feasibility and resource implications of this would need to be explored in more depth.

3.4 There are a number of initiatives in place which work with young people who have been identified as being at risk of involvement in crime and disorder. These include:

3.5 There are other statutory agencies that provide a universal service which will include some targeted work with young people at risk of offending. These include Youth and Community, Connexions Intensive Personal Advisors, Education Welfare Service, Social Services.

3.6 The Youth Offending Team has a statutory role to work with both young offenders and those at risk of offending. The B&NES Youth Justice Plan outlines both the specific work of the YOT and the national performance measures set for the Authority in relation to the prevention of offending, achievement of these are overseen by the YOT steering group. The YOT has also identified a potential opportunity to access youth justice board funding to develop a Youth Inclusion project in partnership with a neighbouring authority. If this proves possible this report will help to inform this work.

3.7 However there is a need to ensure that these initiatives are co-ordinated effectively and that there is greater clarity about the referral criteria for each initiative. The Project Group recommends that an appropriate mechanism is established to share information about which young people are involved in which scheme and provide a referral route from the preventative panel to each initiative. Common monitoring and evaluation criteria should be established for all of these schemes to compare their effectiveness and learn from best practice. This needs to feed into a common forum which will provide local clarity about who and where activities need to be targeted.

3.8 It is recognised that truancy and exclusion from school are contributing factors to youth disorder issues. Although there are a range of strategies and operational activities in place to address these, once again it is important that joint agency collaboration and evaluation is in place to support this, and issues can be reported back to a common forum.

(1) That a project team be established to consider the feasibility of developing a multi- agency preventative panel to review the needs of children who have not entered the formal criminal justice arena but who are demonstrating risk factors, and to plan action to address these needs.

(2) That any feasibility study considers the role of a multi agency panel in co- ordinating referrals to preventative initiatives.

(3) That commissioners / steering groups for current preventative initiatives review their monitoring and evaluation requirements to agree common standards for comparison and are supported in doing so as part of the feasibility study.

(4) That the Avon and Somerset information sharing protocol is adopted in order to facilitate effective identification of vulnerable young people and the development of a joint agency response. All agencies are encouraged to align their information sharing protocols with this.

(5) That all agencies review how they fulfil their responsibility to support the development of effective strategies for tackling youth disorder and encouraging active citizenship.

4.1 Poor and inconsistent parenting, and family trauma including domestic violence are identified nationally in research as one of the key factors which can lead to young people being at risk. The Project Group agreed that a range of support services are needed for parents to help them in developing and using skills to support their children. A range of services do exist across the district, but their coverage is patchy and eligibility criteria vary. The list produced by the Family Information Service of current projects is attached as Annexe 1.

4.2 The Community Safety Partnership has commissioned a project to provide parents support groups for parents whose children have been identified as being at risk. This will be evaluated over a two year period. The experience of agencies, including the YOT is that by time parents reach them they have become disillusioned and disaffected about their ability to manage the behaviour of their children. This reinforces the need to identify parenting skills approaches which can help parents before they feel too powerless to effect change.

4.3 The Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership is a multi-agency partnership responsible for planning and co-ordinating services for all vulnerable young people¹. The Partnership has identified the need for the development and co-ordination of parenting support as one of its priority areas. The Youth Issues Project Group endorses this priority.

(6) That the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership be asked to give continued priority to developing and co-ordinating support services for parents.

(7) That a report back mechanism is established between the Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnership and the Community Safety Partnership

5.1 The level of concern which local residents express about the activities of groups of young people is often out of proportion to the actual nuisance involved. When dealing with these issues it is essential that we do not allow a focus on the very small number of young people who are involved in nuisance and disorder to overshadow the fact that the vast majority of young people are not involved in these kinds of activity. We must also recognise that young people themselves are vulnerable as victims of crime including bullying, sexual abuse and theft.

5.2 It is important to ensure that young people have the opportunity to be involved in the development of policies and services. The Youth Democracy Project (DAFBY) has been established to promote the involvement of young people and it is recommended that the project Steering Group ensures links to other forums such as the Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnership and the Community Safety Partnership.

5.3 Young people are increasingly encouraged to contribute towards the development of services. The experiences of Services such as Connexions who are successfully engaging young people as service users in the development of their services need to be shared with others to encourage ways of Services such as Connexions who are successfully engaging young people as service users in the development of their services. working which can include and empower young people. The development of the Children's Fund should support this aim as it is expected that children between 5 - 13 years will have been involved in determining the provision that is made for them.

5.4 The 'Get Life Awards Day' are an annual event which requires greater co-ordination and corporate support, possibly in conjunction with any proposals to develop a Young People's Citizenship award and through the office of the Chair of the Council.

5.5 The Mayor of Bath has an annual award scheme for the 'Citizen of the Year'. Although there are currently no plans to expand this, it is an example of a positive strategy to encourage greater community empowerment.

5.6 In areas where problems are more serious, it can be difficult to gather evidence of criminal or anti-social behaviour because of the fear of intimidation. Feedback from estates in Bristol with community safety projects in place suggested that they had not found it easy to build community involvement or to overcome the barriers to people feeling intimidated. They had found that where they had resources to undertake a specific project people would get involved, but they needed to know that something would happen as a result of their involvement. This learning needs to be incorporated into community safety strategies developed in B&NES.

5.7 One of the priorities of the Community Safety Strategy 2002-5 is to develop local Community Safety Action groups. Some groups already exist, but we hope to access additional resources to offer them greater support and spread them to other areas. This will build on multi-agency partnership work with Somer Community Housing Trust (SCAN projects) and through the Social Inclusion Pilots.

5.8 Acceptable Behaviour Contracts are a model for early intervention by police with a young person whose behaviour is of concern and is likely to lead to greater anti social activities. Trials in other areas have indicated that these voluntary agreements between young people, their parents/ carers and the police require less formal processes but can be very effective. A small group led by the police is considering the development of such contracts within B&NES alongside the establishment of an Anti Social Behaviour Officer, subject to successful funding being found.

5.9 Community Panels provide an active group of local community members who meet with young people referred by the Court, and their victims, to agree action plans for how the young people can make amends and be reintegrated back into society. This is an almost unique way for the public to become directly involved in building safer communities as well as being an important group to consult with.

5.10 There is a statutory role for elected members in developing greater community governance. The move towards modernisation within B&NES provides opportunities to consider how this can best be addressed

5.11 There is a need to highlight and build on existing strategies for community empowerment. The 'neighbourhood watch' scheme provides a facility to bring communities together and has the potential to provide a stronger voice to tackle youth issues. The police would welcome support from all agencies to recruit neighbourhood watch co-ordinators.

Recommendations:

(8) That the 'Get Life Awards Day' are developed in conjunction with any proposals to develop citizenship awards through the Office of the Chair of the Council.

(9) It is strongly recommended that young people are actively encouraged by all agencies to become active stakeholders and agencies need to consider how they proactively work to secure this. The work of the Corporate Youth Democracy Project (DAFBY) should be recognised and included in any progress reports with specific reference to progress on engaging hard to reach groups.

(10) That Acceptable Behaviour Contracts and the establishment of a dedicated Anti Social Behaviour Officer is supported by all agencies.

(11) That Neighbourhood Watch schemes and Community Panels are recognised and promoted by all agencies as a whole community response.

(12) That elected members consider how their role and the development of modernisation can help empower communities to resolve local issues, particularly reducing the fear of intimidation, build community confidence and tolerance, and cross - generational respect.

6.1 The multi agency Drug Action Team is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive young people's substance misuse plan (YPSMP), which includes preventative work, identification and assessment of young people at risk of substance misuse, and provision of treatment.

6.2 New funding has been made available to increase the amount of preventative work in schools, and also to undertake outreach work targeted at vulnerable young people.

6.3 The Strategic Youth Issues Project Team would stress the importance of providing education and awareness around alcohol abuse. Progress on implementing the YPSMP will be reported through the Drug Action Team

6.4 There are a number of initiatives for developing a young persons card. Discussions have been taking place for over a year about the possibility of developing a local `proof of age' card, however there are significant barriers to developing a standard local card including the cost of producing a forgery-resistant card, the mechanism for distribution, and the need to provide for the large numbers of young people who visit the district. The 'Connexions Card' is also being piloted with the intention of rolling it out nationally, however, again its use is voluntary and limited to specific groups (generally 16 ).

6.5 The Strategic Youth Issues Project Group recommends that rather than try to establish one card for the district, we recognise that there are a range of identification options available to young people. Effort should be channelled into working with licensed retailers and licensed premises to ensure that they enforce a proof of age scheme, thereby motivating young people to use any of the range of cards available.

6.6 The Police and the Chair of the Magistrates licensing bench are proposing to organise a bi annual multi agency meeting to review licensing issues. A standard agenda item will be alcohol misuse by young people. This forum will explore options such as a voluntary Over 21s policy and/or proof of age scheme, making it harder for young people to either steal alcohol or intimidate staff into selling. Vulnerable premises should be identified and action taken with the licensee.

6.7 Trading standards have newly introduced powers and strategies such as the use of `test purchasing operations' to address the illegal sale of cigarettes and alcohol to minors. This work needs to be linked to the work of the licensing forum.

Recommendations:

(13) That licensing forum meetings led by magistrates, police and local authority services are established in order to encourage all licensed retailers and licensed premises to implement an effective proof of age scheme, and co-ordinate action where there is evidence that under 18s are obtaining alcohol either directly or indirectly from premises.

(14) The licensing forum reports on progress to the Community Safety Partnership.

(15) Ensure the use of `test purchasing operations' by trading standards is linked to the work of the licensing forum.

(16) Each organisation examines its links with other organisations and strengthens its communication and information sharing as necessary.

(17) That progress on implementing these recommendations is reported back annually to the Community Safety Partnership, with copies of the report to Management Board and the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership.

Recommendations

It is recognised that these recommendations will not immediately address the difficulties experienced by individuals in communities where youth disorder is a very real and distressing experience. The recommendations are intended to overcome some of the longer term and structural barriers which hamper the ability of workers to work effectively at an organisational level in order to make a difference. It is anticipated that by addressing some of the `bigger picture' issues this will help support workers at a local level.

Annexe 1

FAMILY INFORMATION SERVICE

summary of services for developing and supporting parenting skills

Educational Psychology Services - 01225 394901

'Coping With Kids'

Courses run over the year.

Social Services Dept - 01225 421686 - (Sian Bentley)

The 117 Project offers parenting support.

(there is no need for parents to make appointments, they can call in)

The Southside Family Project - 01225 331243

Courses on: Parenting Skills

Mon - Thurs: 8.30 - 11.45

The Norton Radstock Family Centre - 01761 410413

Project Leader: Alison Cowley

Work with children from 0 - 11 years old.

Counselling for Families

Paulton Hospital - 01761 437124

Janet Weeks, Health Visitor

Parent Courses in Norton Radstock

Keynsham Clinic - 01179 862424

First Time Mums (Parenting)

Parentline Plus (National) - 0808 800 2222

Parent volunteers give telephone advice.

Pre-School Learning Alliance - 01179 077073

Adult & Community Education

Contact: Meg North, 16a Broad Street, Bath - 01225 396468

Parenting Teenagers - course at Wellsway School

Family Learning Programme for Children and Parents linked to specific schools.

1 *'Vulnerable' means children and young people whose life chances will be jeopardised unless action is taken to meet their needs better, and to reduce the risk of social exclusion. Most children and young people will not be 'vulnerable' throughout their whole childhood, but will go through periods of vulnerability.

DoH Guidance: 'Co-ordinated Service Planning for Vulnerable Children in England'