Agenda item

The Local Authority has a statutory duty, in partnership with Health, Police and Probation, to produce an annual Youth Justice Plan. The Plan sets out how services will be organised and funded and what functions they will carry out to prevent youth offending and re-offending across Bath and North East Somerset.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Servicesintroduced the report to the Panel. She explained that the Local Authority has a statutory duty, in partnership with Health, Police and Probation, to produce an annual Youth Justice Plan. She said that the Plan sets out how services will be organised and funded and what functions they will carry out to prevent youth offending and re-offending across Bath and North East Somerset.

She informed the Panel that this year’s plan incorporates a number of work streams commenced last year and includes work that will continue beyond March 2024.

The Development Plan is shorter this year, to enable sufficient attention to be given to each action and because it is accompanied by an Anti-Racism Plan.

It is set out according to the strategic priorities that have been agreed with the Partnership Board and the Youth Justice Service:

1. Strengthen participation – a continuing priority as youth justice work is most effective – perhaps only effective – when it accurately addresses the needs and views of children, carers and those harmed by children’s offending.

2. Address disproportionality – a continuing priority as children from some ethnic backgrounds and with Special Educational Needs are still over-represented in the youth justice system (locally and nationally).

3. Embed Child First principles – a new priority, but not new work. This reflects the YJB’s strategic approach and central guiding principle.

4. Address serious violence – a new priority, but not new work. This also marks the introduction of the Serious Violence Duty.

She stated that much of this work can only be undertaken in partnership with other organisations and with the active support of the Partnership Board. The plan will be reviewed regularly by the Partnership Board at its business meetings and it will report on successes and escalate issues to the Community Safety and Safeguarding Partnership.

Kevin Burnett commented that he felt that the figures in relation to Looked After Children that reoffend were high and asked who led on this work and what preventative measures were in place.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that it was important to remember that the figures in reality are a small number of children. She said that Social Care would have the main responsibility for them, but that support would be provided by a lead worker from Youth Justice to assist with custody work.

She added that projects such as Compass (B&NES) and Turnaround (Ministry of Justice) are in place to attempt to prevent youth offending alongside a range of other workstreams across the Council.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that it was good to see that the number of First Time Entrants continued to be low and that no custodial sentences have been required. She referred to page 61 of the agenda pack and asked how disproportionality issues for children with SEND in the youth justice system had been progressed.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that this has been a concern for a number of years and that this work follows on from the national report by David Lammy in 2017 into the criminal justice system which addressed disproportionality.

She added that the Avon & Somerset Criminal Justice Board commissioned a specific piece of work across all of its services and a report entitled ‘Identifying Disproportionality’ was published. She stated that around 80 recommendations were made within the report and that a framework was being developed to address them.

Councillor Hardman asked if there was work ongoing with the Police with regard to pupils that become permanently excluded that are likely to offend.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that children that are excluded from school are vulnerable and at greater risk of offending if unsupervised. She added that there are supervision arrangements in place, but if they choose not to accept them there is a risk that they can mix with people that can lead them astray or be exploited.

She explained that work was ongoing in relation to Out of Court Disposals and how children are treated before they come to a court. She said that this was taking place across the five Local Authorities to see if any processes can be streamlined, in particular use of Outcome 22.

Kevin Burnett asked if funding for a pilot through the Home Office was in place to support schools in avoiding exclusions.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that this could have been linked to work that is now taking place through the Violence Reduction Partnership. She added that a Strategic Worker had been appointed locally to work schools and their young people who have been excluded or at the risk of exclusion and that Local Authority have within the past month confirmed this role as a permanent position. She said that a Key Worker had also been appointed for a period of time to work directly with children and their families.

Councillor Joanna Wright asked for clarification as to whether this work was carried out in all schools, state and private. She added that she felt that there is an element of socio-economic pupil interaction to be understood as this issue moves forward.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that they do work with all schools and that the issue raised could be picked up as part of the upcoming Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

The Chair asked for the Corporate Parenting Group to also discuss the issue of the disproportionality of Looked After Children within the Youth Justice System at a future meeting.

The Panel RESOLVED to:

i)  Approve the annual Youth Justice Plan 2023-24.

ii)  Note that Council will be asked to agree the Youth Justice Plan fulfils the requirements of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and can be submitted to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.

iii)  Note that Council will be asked to adopt the Youth Justice Plan as part of the Council’s Policy and Budget Framework that can be accommodated within the Council budget.

iv)  Note that the Youth Offending Service Partnership Board is responsible for ensuring delivery of the Plan.