Issue - meetings

The Local Authority has a statutory duty, in consultation with Health, Police and Probation, to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan. The Plan sets out agreed actions to help prevent youth offending and re-offending across Bath and North East Somerset.

Due to the current pandemic, the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales has advised there is no requirement to submit the Plan to them this year and therefore no national framework for completion. The Youth Offending Service Management Board has agreed to preparation of a shorter Plan in light of this.

The Council considered the Youth Justice Plan for 2020-21.

On a motion from Councillor Kevin Guy, seconded by Councillor Liz Hardman, it was unanimously

RESOLVED to

1.  Agree the Youth Justice Plan fulfils the requirements of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998; and

2.  Adopt the Youth Justice Plan as part of the Council’s Policy and Budget Framework that can be accommodated within the Council budget.

The Local Authority has a statutory duty, in consultation with named legal partners Health, Police and Probation, to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan. The Plan sets out agreed actions to help prevent youth offending and re-offending across Bath and North East Somerset.

Due to the current pandemic, the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales has advised there is no requirement to submit the Plan to them this year and therefore no national framework for completion. The Youth Offending Service Management Board has agreed to preparation of a shorter Plan in light of this.

Councillor Kevin Guy introduced this report by saying that the Council had a  statutory duty to, in consultation with a police probation and health services (as named in the Crime & Disorder Act 1998), publish annual Justice Plan setting out agreed actions to help prevent offending, and reoffending as a lead partner in the multi-agency arrangement.  Due to the pandemic the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales advised that there was no requirement to submit a plan to them this year, and therefore no national framework has been completed. However, the Youth Offending Service Management Board has agreed to prepare shorter pack. Councillor Guy added that the rate of children coming into the justice system for the first time continued to reduce in B&NES and the rate of custodial sentencing remains low in the area.  There were still some concerns about the rates of reoffending by a minority of children, which was addressed through the continuation of involvement in a wider multi agency work to address criminal exploitation of young people. This was currently being explored through active involvement in the local criminal justice board.

Councillor Guy concluded by saying that the cross-party Children and Young People's PDS Panel endorsed the Plan at their meeting on the 3rd November 2020.

Councillor Kevin Guy moved the recommendations.

Councillor Rob Appleyard seconded the motion by thanking Councillor Guy and the relevant officers for bringing this Plan even though that it wasn’t a requirement for this year and continue to keep the focus on the work they were doing.  Councillor Appleyard highlighted one of the figures in the Plan which was about reduction of first-time offenders; since 2015 the number of first-time youth offenders has been reduced by around 75%.

RESOLVED (unanimously) that the Cabinet agreed to recommend approval of the Youth Justice Plan to Full Council.

The Local Authority has a statutory duty, in consultation with named legal partners Health, Police and Probation, to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan. The Plan sets out agreed actions to help prevent youth offending and re-offending across Bath and North East Somerset.

The Director for Children & Young People introduced this report to the Panel.

She informed them that the Local Authority has a statutory duty, in consultation with named legal partners Health, Police and Probation, to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan. She added that the Plan sets out agreed actions to help prevent youth offending and reoffending across Bath and North East Somerset.

She explained that due to the current pandemic, the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales has advised there is no requirement to submit the Plan to them this year and therefore no national framework for completion. She stated that the Youth Offending Service Management Board has agreed to preparation of a shorter Plan in light of this.

She stated that the Council is the lead partner in the multi-agency arrangements to prevent youth offending, working closely with Police, Probation and Health Services and that all partners have statutory responsibilities to participate in the resourcing of the Youth Offending Service and are maintaining their current level of support.

She said that as the implications of the pandemic became clear the key challenge was to maintain a statutory service whilst ensuring that young people and staff were kept safe from Covid-19.

She said that the Service took early steps to ‘RAG’-rate its statutory and voluntary caseloads in order to identify young people with the greatest likelihood of offending and/or with welfare or safeguarding need. She added that in practice, the most vulnerable young people known have continued to receive a consistent and responsive service.

She added that for most in this vulnerable group, weekly face to face appointments continued, supplemented by telephone contacts and this has meant practitioners have been able to assess and respond to the emerging needs of young people and their families as lockdown continued.

She said that the offending rate within B&NES was low, but that a number of the young people concerned have complex needs that need to be considered.

The Director for Children & Young People replied to some questions from Councillor Liz Hardman that had been submitted in advance.

Q: Referring to paragraph 7.1 of the report - Would it be possible to talk in more detail about disproportionality so we can have a better understanding of it, please and how it manifests itself within the youth justice system?

A: There is an over-representation of young people from dual/mixed heritage backgrounds and this has been a long-standing issue and our exploration of this is ongoing. Sally Churchyard is a member of the LCJB Lammy Sub-Group which reports in the new year and there will be specific actions recommended for all criminal justice agencies and others, focused on young people’s experience and on the staffing as we are not a diverse staff group.

Q: Referring to Page 13 of the Plan, a table at the bottom of the page states that ‘Improvement is required in Transitions’.  Please could you explain what is meant here by Transitions and how it is going to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52