Meeting documents

CONTENTS

Page

Section A: Summary 

Introduction 2

Summary of Performance 2004-2005 2-3

Local Priorities for 2005-2006 3

Section B: Local Planning Environment 4

Section C: Drivers of performance

C.1 Governance and Leadership 5

C.2 Performance and Quality Systems 6

C.3 Resources 6-8

C.4 People and Organisation 8-9

C.5 Partnership Working 9

Section D: Preventing Offending and Minimisingthe use of Custody

D.1 Prevent Offending 11-13

D.2 Intervene Early 14

D.3 Provide Intensive Community Supervision 15

D.4 Reduce the use of Custody 16

D.5 Reduce Re-offending 17-18

D.6 Ensure the Swift Administration of Justice 19

Section E: Achieving Improved Outcomes for Childrenand Young People who have Offended

E.1 Ensure Effective and Rigorous Assessment 20

E.2 Support Engagement in Education, 21

Training and Employment

E.3 Support Access to Substance Misuse Services 22

E.4 Support Access to Mental Health Services 23

E.5 Support Access to Appropriate Accommodation 24-25

E.6 Support Resettlement into the Community 26

E.7 Support Parenting Interventions 27-28

E.8 Provide Effective Restorative Justice Services 29

E.9 Ensure Equal Treatment Regardless of Race 30

Section F: Review and Approval 31-32

Section G: Appendices

G.1 Organisational Chart 32a

G.2 Performance Measures 33-36

G.3 Effective Practice Quality Assurance 37

G.4 Race Action Plan 38-40

G.5 Glossary of Terms 40-42

SECTION A: INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

Introduction

This is the sixth annual Youth Justice Plan for Bath and North East Somerset. It is drawn up in accordance with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the specifications of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. It reports on key elements of the Youth Justice Board's Performance Management Framework, in particular local performance in relation to Key Performance Indicators and the Effective Practice Quality Assurance cycle. It sets out how the local authority's statutory work of preventing youth offending will be resourced and monitored in partnership with the Police, Probation and Health Services and together with other key agencies, including Connexions West of England. It also establishes the context for four local priorities for the year ahead.

The Plan sets out fifteen themes that the Youth Justice Board has identified as being fundamental to the delivery of the overall aims and objectives of the youth justice system. Contained within each theme are the performance measures, now referred to as key performance indicators, which have been used for a number of years, with the addition of a new measure to tackle racial discrimination and promote diversity and fairness. Each section provides an overview of practice in the last year, a report on performance, and an action plan to improve service delivery in 2005/2006.

Summary of Performance in 2004 - 2005

Steady improvement in performance, as measured against national key performance indicators reflect the dedication of hardworking staff both within the Youth Offending Team and in partner agencies. Notable is the 100% level of satisfaction reported by parents and victims who received services. The principal aim of the youth justice system is to prevent offending and a mechanism has been established for following up how many young people re-offend. The detail of this is reported in section D.5 of this Plan. Reconviction follow-up in Bath and North East Somerset shows a mixed picture and may not be significant because the number of young people in each of the sample categories for 2002 was so small. There was a marked reduction in re-offending amongst young people who received Reprimands and Final Warnings, but an increase amongst other groups. There is an indication of some positive change with those subject to Community Orders, however; of the eight young people in this group, all of whom re-offended, four committed less serious offences and three re-offended less frequently. The twelve-month follow up of the 2003 cohort is more promising, with particularly good outcomes for those receiving Reprimands and Final Warnings.

The Youth Offending Team has also participated in an Effective Practice Quality Assurance cycle. This reviews the quality of work undertaken by the partnership, measured against established principles of practice effective in preventing offending, and externally validated by the Youth Justice Board. Three aspects were validated in 2003 and one in 2004 and action plans were agreed for all four, to be completed by 2005. The recent validation completed by the Youth Justice Board shows substantially improved practice in three areas and maintained practice in the fourth. Therefore, there is now confirmed effective practice being followed in most cases with respect to the following:

B7 Assessment, Planning and Intervention

B7 Final Warnings

B7 Education, Training and employment

B7 Parenting

Last year, four local priorities were established for youth justice work in Bath and North East Somerset.

Local Priorities for 2005 - 2006

1. Reduce the proportion of secure remands and custodial sentencing;

There is still concern about the proportion of young people being securely remanded and receiving custodial sentences in this area and there is now commitment from the Steering Group to review performance and related issues at every meeting.

3. Ensure young people's, parents' and victims' participation in youth justice work;

The implementation of the Local Preventative Strategy, the work of the Children's Fund Board and early planning for the first Children and Young People's Plan, have all highlighted the importance of ensuring children's full participation in services. This is being incorporated into work on the Parenting Strategy as well, and is a key component of restorative justice work with victims. Publication of a new Youth Justice Bill is anticipated this year and it is expected that this will introduce radical changes to the sentencing framework for young people and the work of the Youth Offending Team. This time of change is an opportunity for young people's participation.

B7 Participation - giving children, young people and their parents more information and choice about the services they receive and more involvement in the planning, evaluation and even delivery of services.

B7 Healthy lifestyles - promoting physical and mental health and emotional well-being.

B7 Early intervention, based on comprehensive assessments of children's, young people's and family's needs and providing services at an early stage before difficulties become entrenched.

B7 Better access to services, including consideration of how children and young people are to travel, the suitability of buildings for work with young people, bringing different groups of staff together to work in a multi-disciplinary way.

B7 Tackling health inequalities, addressing the particular needs of those who are likely to experience poor outcomes.

B7 Promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young people.

Services Planned for the Financial Year 2005/2006

Sources of Youth Offending Team Budget for the Financial Year 2005/2006

Additional Sources of Income

Health Service Contributions to the Youth Offending Team

Programme Resources

Access to specialist services helps the Youth Offending Team and its partner agencies to deliver services against the core youth justice objectives. The team is keen to involve young people in mainstream services that they can continue to use when they are no longer working with the Youth Offending Team. Over the last year, the team has accessed a range of services, including:

B7 PEOPLE, a local education and employment project for ex-offenders

B7 FOTEC

B7 Bath City Farms, a community farm project that provides short placements

B7 Mentoring Plus, a preventative service for 12 - 17 year olds managed by Crime Concern

B7 117 Family Centre, established to work with young people at risk of family breakdown

B7 Attendance Centre [Bristol]

C.4 People and Organisation

The Youth Offending Team benefits from a skilled, committed and diverse workforce, including some very dedicated sessional workers and volunteers. There is now a significant minority of men employed in the core team, whereas 85% of the young people who come to attention are boys and young men. A recruitment drive for Community Panel Members successfully targeted the need for more young men and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and the team also employs a number of male staff on a sessional basis.

Although retention has been an issue in previous years, particularly amongst staff with a social work qualification, this is no longer an issue for the team, and the turn-over in staff occurs at an expected level for the size of team. The position may be further consolidated now that the team occupies substantially better office premises, has increasing access to accredited training opportunities and chance to become involved in more developmental work, such as the Restorative Approaches in Schools project and the Keepsafe project for young people whose behaviour is sexually harmful. Not many staff changes are anticipated in the year ahead, although there are now a number of staff who have been with the team for more than four years.

C.4.1 Workforce Planning

To meet the needs of an increasingly complex workload, the Youth Offending Team has put in place a more coherent management structure, with anticipated improvements in communication and consistency in services delivered. An early priority in 2005/2006 will be managing the changes involved. The whole team has been involved in a local review which has focused on values and priorities.

The processes for recruitment and support of sessional staff have been reviewed, and priorities will be provision of direct Supervision for those engaged in dedicated pieces of work with individuals, ensuring that they are offered appropriate training, and recruiting staff specifically to work at weekends. There are no longer any Community Panel Members from ethnic minority backgrounds, and so the next recruitment round will see more targeting. Further recruitment will also take place to supplement the dedicated group of volunteers who ensure young people's rights are observed during Police interview.

The Youth Offending Team still experiences lack of dedicated resource in some areas, including for parenting work, victim participation, developmental work and data analysis, and insufficient administrative staff time. It is waiting to hear whether any additional national funding will be made available for parenting or preventative work. It will continue to be creative in its partnership work with other agencies and with volunteers, to stop the gaps. For example, the Data Officer for the Community Safety Partnership, has become involved in some Youth Offending work this year, and will continue, partly to support Maternity Leave cover. A volunteer has been trained to take on some additional work in contacting victims.

C.4.2 Workforce Development

All staff are appraised annually, in accordance with local policy, and training and development needs are identified as part of this process. These are linked to the overall aims of the Youth Offending Team contained within the Youth Justice Plan and individual's Job Descriptions. This information is collated by the Practice Manager to facilitate co-ordination of in-year training priorities. Over the past year, the Effective Practice Quality Assurance cycle [EPQA] has also helped in the identification of training needs. The recently completed EPQA highlighted the need to identify some specific areas of training in increasing skills and confidence in providing offence focused work.

The Youth Justice Board's Learning and Development Strategy and National Qualifications Framework has provided a range of accredited and other training opportunities. Three members of the Youth Offending Team have successfully completed the Professional Certificate in Effective Practice, one is currently studying on the programme and staff have been identified for the next three intakes. Staff have also participated in shorter Effective Practice training events, some of which will be open to Community Panel Members, Sessional Workers and Appropriate Adults, giving them opportunity to gain credits towards further study. There is a small local training budget to meet additional training need and this is maximised by the availability of training within the Local Authority, principally through the Area Child Protection Committee [ACPC] programme, which the Practice Manager helps to develop and deliver. Training has also been provided by the Educational Psychology department. Much of the budget for 2004/2005 was used for specialist software training [Young Offender Information System].

One member of the management group has completed the Certificate in Management Practice and another is currently undertaking the same course. Training needs of the whole management group will be reviewed to ensure they have knowledge of local policies and practice and also skills to carry out their management function. Administrative staff, sessional workers and volunteer training needs are also to be reviewed.

Practice development will be the priority in the year ahead. The following priorities will be delivered from the Youth Offending Team budget in 2005/2006:

B7 Group work skills

B7 Further parenting training, linked to resource provision

It will be a priority for all staff to update their child protection training and complete any relevant ACPC courses during the year.

C.5 Partnership Working

The Youth Offending Team is a partner in other service provision which will be further developed in 2005/2006:

have trained staff from a local secondary school and its feeder primary school to

use restorative conflict resolution techniques and are now jointly planning how these

are to be rolled out in 2005/2006. This is a pilot project that is being evaluated in order to see how effective it is in supporting anti-bullying work, addressing some behaviour issues and preventing offending.

DELIVERY PLAN

Section D: PREVENTING OFFENDING AND MINIMISING THE USE OF CUSTODY

D.1: Prevent Offending

Bath and North East Somerset has a commitment to working with young people at risk of offending that pre-dates the establishment of the new youth justice system in 2000. In an area with a relatively low level of offending, there remain young people whose circumstances place them at high risk of offending, and geographical areas where there are public concerns about young people's anti-social behaviour.

The Youth Offending Team is a key partner in preventative work, but the strategic lead is with the Community Safety and Drugs Partnership, under a major government strategy to address prolific offending. The Prevent and Deter Action Plan, developed as part of the Prolific and Other Priority Offenders Strategy, includes actions to prevent young people from entering the youth justice system. This includes identifying levels of need and resources available. The establishment of the Youth Inclusion and Support Panel, with its linked Compass project, is a major strand of this work. The multi-agency Panel meets to review cases of young people identified as being at high risk of offending, and agrees plans for up to six months' work with young people and their parents, to tackle risk factors and help them to access mainstream services for longer-term support. Two Key-Workers have been providing this service for 18-months and it has recently been subject to a positive review and evaluation. The Compass project is funded by the Children's Fund until December 2007 and managed, within the Youth Offending Team, by the Youth Crime Prevention Co-ordinator, whose post is funded by the Community Safety and Drugs Partnership.

Over the past year, the Youth Crime Prevention Co-ordinator and key partners have taken initiatives to establish a crime diversion partnership. This innovative group includes a number of services, such as a local rowing club, that may not, traditionally, have been regarded as partners in preventing youth offending. The partnership meets quarterly to strengthen networks and inter-agency co-operation, disseminate good practice and identify and maximise possible sources of funding for new work. Local politicians and practitioners from neighbouring Authorities, the Bath Racial Equality Council, young people and volunteers, have been involved in meetings, which are open to all agencies working with young people. Members of the partnership also work together to address emerging issues in specific geographical areas, for example, in establishing a number of diversionary activities for young people causing a nuisance in south west Bath.

This partnership includes services with a specific brief to address risk of offending, including:

B7 Positive Activities for Young People: Youth Justice Board grant to Connexions of A316,800 is used to commission Mentoring Plus to provide out-of-school activities in every school holiday apart from Christmas. In the last year, 33 young men and 6 young women attended these activities. The funding is available for one further year.

B7 KEY Project: funded by the Police and Youth Service, this also provides out-of-school activities for those at high risk of offending. Between 2004/2005, 50 young men and 2 young women were involved in this project.

Other, specialist, local projects whose work addresses risk of offending include:

The relationship between risk of offending and anti-social behaviour is not always very clear. Anti-social behaviour is not a discrete kind of behaviour; some can lead on to criminal behaviour and some is criminal in its own right. Dealing effectively with anti-social behaviour can prevent young people from entering the criminal justice system. Therefore it is important that there is a coherent response to both kinds of behaviour by young people in a locality.

This is one of the reasons why, although the solutions for dealing with anti-social behaviour are not the responsibility of a single agency, the Youth Offending Team currently chairs the multi-agency Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy Group. There is local support for an incremental approach to tackling anti-social behaviour, intervening at an early stage to try to stop problems from escalating, and then taking firm action if the anti-social behaviour continues. This is being incorporated into clear, agreed protocols and procedures that ensure full consultation with all agencies involved when there is concern about a young person's anti-social behaviour. These enable information sharing in support of good assessment and help to support positive engagement in school, participation in family activities, parents taking responsibility for encouraging acceptable behaviour and development of social skills.

It is also necessary to engage with prevailing social attitudes about young people. Anti-social behaviour can attract disproportionate attention and increase public fear and wariness about young people, particularly in groups. In promoting acceptable standards of behaviour with a minority, it is important to affirm the significant contribution that the majority of young people make to society - and the positive achievements of even those young people who become involved in anti-social behaviour. Most of the projects who work with young people at risk of offending encourage some form of accreditation for young people to work towards, be that the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme awards, Millennium Volunteers awards, or the new `Young B&NES Award.' These also contribute towards achievement of one of the key outcomes set out in the Children's Act, supporting young people to make a positive contribution.

The wider community can play a role in dealing with anti-social behaviour. Restorative Justice approaches provide opportunities for those directly affected by anti-social behaviour to communicate and agree on how to put matters right. Whilst restorative justice work is well established within the Youth Offending Team and is being introduced into some schools settings, only limited use has been made of it in addressing anti-social behaviour. This is an area for development in the future.

Performance:

The data included here is for all the projects with a specific crime prevention focus - Mentoring Plus, KEY Project, Positive Activities for Young People and Compass Project. Other young people at risk of offending will have attended activities provided by members of the diversion partnership, but this information is more difficult to quantify.

Prevention Action Plan

D.2: Intervene Early

Final Warning practice is well established in this area. Young people who admit an offence to Police and are referred to the Youth Offending Team generally take up the voluntary support offered to them. The team also screens all notification of young people who have received a Police Reprimand, and where there appear to be concerns about risk of re-offending, voluntary support is offered. Analysis of the assessments carried out on these young people show that the areas of greatest concern related to their risk of re-offending are, in order of frequency, thinking and behaviour, lifestyle and drug and alcohol use. Following assessment, young people become involved in work to address these and other concerns. Typical interventions include drug and alcohol advice and information, victim awareness, peer pressure and anger management work.

Final Warnings work has recently been subject to local audit and external validation by the Youth Justice Board as part of the Effective Practice Quality Assurance review cycle. This has evidenced the high quality of work undertaken and confirmed that evidence-based principles have continued to be followed in most cases for a two year period since the initial review.

Performance:

Two year follow-up of young people issued with Reprimands and Final Warnings shows a reduction in re-offending rates from 46% for the 2001 group, to 38% for the 2002 group. Very promising figures for the 12-month follow-up of the 2003 group shows just 11.3% re-offending, suggesting that Police and Youth Offending Team practice is effective in preventing re-offending amongst this group. For the first time, in 2004/2005, the target proportion of young people engaging with voluntary help following a Final Warning has not been met, possibly due to delays in initiating contact. Anticipated changes to the Police issue of Final Warnings will enable Youth Offending Team staff to be present. There is confidence that this will enable all assessments to be undertaken within the National Standard timescale and lead to increased take up.

Early Intervention Action Plan

D.3: Provide Intensive Community Supervision

The local Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme is a joint scheme with the neighbouring Youth Offending Teams in Somerset and North Somerset. For young people whose offences are so serious or prolific that the Court is considering custody, it provides community-based supervision of at least twenty-five hours' constructive activity each week for the first three months, including evening and weekend contact, supported by an electronically monitored curfew. The intensity of contact is reduced in the second three months. The programme is also available for young people denied Bail or released from custody. Yet again, 2004/2005 has been a period of positive service development within Bath and North East Somerset. All developmental work set out in the Quality Assurance Framework Action Plan and agreed with external consultants, was completed or significantly progressed to their satisfaction. The programme also exceeded the required number of starts to ensure its continued level of Youth Justice Board funding.

Two new members of staff have joined during the last year, bringing ideas that have helped shape and develop this area of work. There is now a diverse programme of interventions in place, making good use of community resources. These include use of the Attendance Centre situated in Bristol and a Life Skills course to introduce young people to cookery, whilst teaching them about healthy living, nutrition, budgeting, health and safety. Partnership work with the PEOPLE organisation has enabled young people to join Gardening for Good, an accredited course in which aspects of horticulture are taught, with practical input on numeracy and literacy. Bath City Farms provide a regular community-based project. With the help and dedication of the newly seconded Connexions Personal Adviser, courses such as Forklift Training have been accessed, and drugs and alcohol education and counselling are provided by Project 28. Each young person on the programme also addresses victim issues and has a minimum of two hours' work to specifically address offending behaviour, following a cognitive-behavioural approach. Young people are asked to complete feedback forms for each aspect of the programme, to ensure that it is addressing their needs as well as tackling their offending.

Strong links have been maintained with local Police, including continuation of a 16-hour per week attachment to enable appropriate sharing of information in the interest of prevent offending.

Intensive Community Supervision Action Plan

D.4: Reduce the Use of Custody

The proportionately high level of custodial remands and sentences for young people in this area has received a lot of attention this year, including participation in a piece of major research about young people in the criminal justice system and the Steering Group's agreement to review performance and practice at each meeting. All the actions in last year's Plan have been completed, with the exception of sufficiently promoting the need for foster placements. Of particular note has been the review and renewed focus of the newly-named Remand Worker post, now managed within the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme, to ensure strong links. The Remand Worker now takes proactive action to identify those most at risk of not complying with their Bail conditions and encourages participation in voluntary Bail programmes and constructive activities, including employment opportunities and sport. Magistrates are now provided with progress reports for community sentences and the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme has been developed [described above, in D.3] in accordance with the Quality Assurance Plan agreed with the Youth Justice Board.

Performance:

Performance against the key performance indicator has fallen back on the significant progress made in 2003/2004, when just 8% of young people sentenced went into custody. This is partly a reflection of small numbers, an issue with all reporting for this area.

Reduce Custody Action Plan

B7 100% of those who received community penalties in the last quarter of 2001 re-offended within twenty-four months. There were only eight young people in this cohort, and seven of them were persistent young offenders. This meant they already had a well-established pattern of offending behaviour and were one of the hardest groups to support to make quick changes in their behaviour. Three received Community Punishment Orders, supervised by the Probation Service; one of these committed a less serious offence when he re-offended and two re-offended less frequently. The remaining five received Supervision Orders held by the Youth Offending Team and three of these committed less serious offences and four re-offended less frequently. One of these young people has since completed the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme and is not known to have re-offended since then. The eighth young person in the sample committed another offence five months after being sentenced, and has not re-offended again.

B7 100% of young people who received custodial sentences re-offended within twenty-four months. This represents just two young people, both persistent young offenders. One re-offended less seriously and less frequently following his Detention and Training Order.

Reduce Re-Offending Action Plan

D.6: Ensure the Swift Administration of Justice

There are a number of ways in which Youth Offending Teams contribute to meeting the government pledge to halve the time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders. Occasionally, they assist the Court with information that avoids an adjournment. More often, they support young people's attendance at Court, through voluntary or conditional Bail Support or Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Bail, and produce timely Pre-Sentence Reports. Most Reports are prepared for the local Youth Court which sits weekly, on Thursdays; some are prepared for Youth Courts further afield or for Bristol Crown Court. The Youth Offending Team provides a regular service to the local Youth Court and also attends local Magistrates' Court or Crown Court when decisions are made about young people's remand status or they are to be sentenced.

Data in respect of the government pledge is recorded by Police Force area and the performance in Avon and Somerset is now well within the 71 day target. The most recently published data, for the period December 2004 - February 2005 shows an average number of 58 days from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders. The Youth Offending Team participates in the Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice Board sub group on Youth Issues, where data is reviewed and issues are addressed. The Youth Justice Board has now taken responsibility for monitoring the data, as the `sponsoring agency' of the Home Office.

A number of Pre-Sentence Reports have been commended in the local Youth and Bristol Crown Court, testament to the quality of local practice. All Youth Court reports prepared in 2004/2005 were delivered to Court one day in advance of the adjournment date, in accordance with the local agreement, and all Crown Court reports were sent in advance. Therefore, no Court proceedings were held up by late arrivals of reports. However, the key performance indicator was missed because of Courts adjourning 7 cases for periods outside the National Standards, delays in notification from Court and this not being highlighted within the team at allocation.

Performance:

E: ACHIEVING IMPROVED OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE WHO OFFEND

E.1: Ensure Effective and Rigorous Assessment

The completion of well-evidenced assessment of young people, against the combination of risk factors known to increase the risk of offending is recognised as fundamental to all effective work with young people who have offended. Over the last year, progress has been made against most of the targets set, excellent performance against the key performance indicators has been maintained and the team has improved the quality of work, as evidenced by meeting the Youth Justice Board's target set in the Effective Practice Quality Assurance process.

In addition to ASSET, screening assessments are undertaken with all young people to check for mental health and / or substance misuse issues - these are referred to elsewhere in this Plan [Sections E3 and E4]. The team is also a partner in the multi-agency Keepsafe Project which includes work with young people who have admitted to Police or been convicted in Court of sexual offences. All these young people are assessed using the AIM framework. Common principles are applied in all assessment work in the Youth Offending Team - that practitioners are trained, assessments are based on evidence, that standard assessment tools are used and that they directly inform planning, intervention and review. Auditing of assessments has not happened regularly and there may be some work necessary to improve the quality of review and end assessments.

Performance:

High rates of completion of standard ASSET assessments and achievement of the target rating in the Effective Practice Quality Assurance process, demonstrate high and improving standards.

Assessment Action Plan:

E.2: Support Engagement in Education, Training and Employment

Education, Training and Employment Action Plan

E.3: Support Access to Substance Misuse Services

There is a strong correlation between young people's substance misuse and offending. In this area, this is particularly apparent in offences of alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour. Many young people who misuse substances also have health and mental health needs. Therefore it is fitting that the named substance misuse worker in the Youth Offending Team is the Community Psychiatric Nurse, part-funded by the Youth Justice Board grant. The remainder of this grant has been used to jointly commission Project 28, a confidential drug and alcohol service for young people up to the age of 19. This project is now taking on much of the specialist assessment and intervention with young people, and communication and information sharing with this new project has been excellent. It is also providing a key component of the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme.

During the last year, Youth Offending Team staff have been given refresher training to undertake substance misuse screening and provide general information, at Tier 1 level. Work has also been undertaken on the electronic recording of this screening.

Performance:

Reported performance has improved in the last year, but it is believed that actual performance is better than reported, due to continuing issues with the complex recording procedure.

Substance Misuse Action Plan

E.4: Support Access to Mental Health Services

There are known to be very high levels of mental health issues amongst people who offend. As these can increase the risk of offending and re-offending, then it is important to work to promote good health and to prevent poor health developing. A standard screening tool is used by all Youth Offending Team practitioners to help to identify any emotional or behavioural difficulties or more serious or persistent mental disorders. Whilst all staff are trained to undertake the initial screening and to provide general advice and support [Tier 1], the specialist assessment and treatment is generally provided within the Youth Offending Team by the seconded Community Psychiatric Nurse. She is a member of the local CAMHS team and receives clinical supervision of her work. Her Tier 2 level work includes training and consultation for other members of the team and her Tier 3 work includes treatment of young people with more complex needs. Referrals to this specialist worker are now more appropriate and referrals and protocols are reported to be working well.

The Youth Offending Team is a member of the CAMHS Strategy Group, which has undertaken developmental work recently, to provide a broader membership and a new focus on priorities for Bath and North East Somerset. This group has also commissioned a piece of work to explore integrated care pathways, or the journey through referral, assessment and ongoing support, sometimes from a number of agencies, followed by children and young people in two key areas, one of which is emotional and behavioural. The new standards set out in the National Service Framework for Children, young People and Maternity Services will form a key part of this work, ensuring a clear focus on preventative work and early identification of difficulties.

Performance:

In this area, there were no acute cases in 2004/2005. Of the young people identified as having non-acute issues, 94% were assessed and referred for treatment within 15 working days, compared with 75% in 2002 and 93% in 2003, evidence of improving performance in this area.

Mental Health Action Plan

E.5: Support Access to Appropriate Accommodation

B7 Improving housing opportunities for young people in the local area

B7 Strengthening relationships with housing providers to support young people in supported accommodation

Accommodation Action Plan

E.6: Support Resettlement into the Community

Over the last year, the Youth Offending Team has progressed its partnership work with the secure estate by working more closely with HMP &YOI Ashfield, including by Service Manager participation in quarterly liaison meetings on behalf of teams across the south-west region. This is an important relationship because the number of places available for young people at Ashfield has recently increased and it now has capacity to hold all local young people who serve Detention and Training Order sentences within the prison establishment. This will be of enormous benefit for resettlement work, including enabling easier access for parents and carers to visit and participate in planning meetings. Improvements include the introduction of a new checklist for Initial Training Plan meetings, to identify and address education and accommodation issues at an early stage, twice-yearly staff open days and agreement that a member of the Youth Offending Team can draw keys and have improved access to young people.

A high proportion of young people sentenced in this area go into custody, although the numbers are relatively small - just 19 young people in 2004/2005, receiving 29 custodial sentences between them. Three of these sentences were `Section 91' sentences of over two years, for very serious offences. The key performance indicator in relation to timely joint planning undertaken after sentence shows significant improvement, in an area of practice that has been very difficult to address in previous years - 84.4% planning meetings were held within ten working days, compared to 63% in 2003/2004. This is another reflection on improving relationships between the Youth Offending Team and HMP & YOI Ashfield. However, the follow-up on re-offending rates shows that very high proportions quickly re-offend. In the sample cohorts followed up each year, the re-offending has always been 100%. This is a serious issue for all children's services within Bath and North East Somerset and practice needs to develop to ensure that planning for resettlement is addressed by all relevant partners pre-sentence.

Performance:

There has been substantial improvement against the target that Initial Training Plans [ITP] should be drawn up within the National Standards timescale [now 10 working days], from 63% in 2003.

Resettlement Action Plan

E.7: Support Parenting Interventions

Parenting Action Plan

E.8: Provide Effective Restorative Justice Services

The Youth Offending Team endeavours to provide a service that is restorative, by respecting the dignity of everyone directly affected by a crime. The restorative process encourages the young person to take responsibility for their harmful behaviour in a positive way, to gain insight into the causes and effects of that behaviour on others, to change that behaviour and to be accepted back into the community. A key part of this process is to make some form of reparation to address the harm caused. This is direct reparation where possible. The process also provides the victim with a safe environment to ask questions, receive answers, gain understanding, explain the impact of the crime on them and contribute to the outcome of the process. The team does not have a dedicated victim participation worker, but a number of staff have had specialist training for this work.

A significant piece of developmental work during the last year has been commencement of the restorative approaches in schools project. This is a pilot project, subject to evaluation, to reduce truancy, bullying, victimisation, exclusion and ultimately offending, through effective partnership working and the implementation of restorative justice into mainstream education. Staff in a local secondary school and some of its feeder primary schools, together with representatives from partner agencies, have received training devised by the Youth Offending Team, drawing on national pilots elsewhere. This is to be followed up in 2005/2006 by the provision of continuing support and consultation to staff and the delivery of peer mediation training.

Bath and North East Somerset participates in the Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice Board [A&SCJB] sub- group on Victims and Witnesses on behalf of the five local Youth Offending Teams. It will also be leading on development of a victim contact protocol with the Probation Area.

Performance:

Performance has been excellent in 2004/2005. All identified victims were given opportunity to become involved in a restorative process, and all those involved were satisfied with the outcome.

Restorative Justice Action Plan

E.9: Ensure Equal Treatment Regardless of Race

In 2004, the Youth Justice Board published its commissioned research into whether any differences in youth justice system outcomes for young people from black and minority ethnic communities had any justifiable basis. The major study, undertaken by Feilzer and Hood, concluded that there are large differences between white and ethnic minority young people [and male and female], in the youth justice system. While many of these differences appeared to be accounted for by relevant differences in case characteristics, others were considered to be consistent with discriminatory treatment. This study, together with other evidence provided by NACRO, also suggested that the over-representation of some black and other minority ethnic groups in the youth justice system has worsened in recent years. Three main reasons for this have been identified:

B7 Unfair discrimination occurring at various points within the youth justice system.

B7 Practice with black and other minority ethnic young people being inadequate within the youth justice system.

As part of its responsibility under the Race Relations [Amendment] Act 2000, the Youth Justice Board has now published guidance to Youth Offending Teams and the secure estate to enable them to include race issues in their planning. It has a new corporate target and, in support of this, has introduced a new performance indicator for all Youth Offending Teams:

All Youth Offending Teams should have an action plan in place to ensure that any difference between the ethnic composition of offenders on all pre-Court and post-Court disposals and the ethnic composition of the local community is reduced year on year.

A local race audit has been conducted, in order to establish a baseline against which to measure

progress, assess the adequacy of local policies, decision-making and practices and inform local

action planning and the wider strategic planning process. The audit covered three areas:

B7 Quantitative operational information, for the period October 2003 to September 2004.

B7 Qualitative audit of Youth Offending Team arrangements on race issues.

Whilst the proportions of Black and other Minority Ethnic people in the local population is relatively low, the south west area is becoming more diverse and issues identified may become greater over time. The quantitative audit showed a high recording standard, with ethnicity unrecorded in only 2.2% [n=15] of cases. In most categories of offences, the number of young people from a black or ethnic minority background is no greater than 6 cases. Only in the case of violent crime, are young people from a mixed race background over-represented - 15.5% [n=15] for incidents of violence and 10.6% [n=7] of public order offences. In terms of Court remands, both conditional and unconditional Bail is noted as being over-represented for mixed and black or black British, the overall number of decisions are too small to allow for statistical comparison with the total population. Mixed and black and black British young people are significantly over-represented [47.7%] in terms of custodial sentencing, although the actual number of cases is small [n=4 for young people of mixed background and n=5 for young people from black or black British backgrounds]. Whilst numbers are so small that these over-representations could have happened by chance i.e are not statistically significant, they are still a cause for concern. The qualitative audit highlighted a number of practice improvements for the Youth Offending Team.

It is important to focus on what can be done with young people already involved in the youth justice system, to ensure they receive achieve equivalent outcomes as young people of different ethnicity. There are also underlying issues for all partner agencies in addressing the wider experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic young people, that may increase their risk of offending, for example, engagement in education.

Table A: Signature of approval

Appendix 4: Race Audit Action Plan

Appendix 5: Glossary of Terms