Agenda item

The Cabinet is asked to recommend approval of the Youth Justice Plan to full Council.

Cllr Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, introduced the report, moved the updated officer recommendation, and made the following statement:

“I’m pleased to propose that the Cabinet endorse the Youth Justice Plan for 2024 to 2026 and it will be a recommendation through to the full Council that will make the final decision.

The overall goal of the Plan, and the Youth Justice Service, is to help make Bath and North East Somerset a safer place and support local children to live crime-free lives.

Our annual Plan is developed through the Bath and North East Somerset Youth Justice Service – a statutory, wide partnership with Avon and Somerset Police, the Probation Service, NHS Bath, Swindon, and Wiltshire (BSW) Integrated Care Board (ICB), Oxford Health, housing, Curo, housing, colleges and the Youth Bench plus other members. It is a wide partnership. 

This year’s plan comes in an important year for the Youth Justice Service. Our long-standing and very much valued head of service has retired, and an external inspection is scheduled for later this year, so it’s vital we have a robust plan in place.

There are four strategic priorities for 2024 to 2026, as affirmed by the Youth Justice Service Partnership Board.

Firstly, working to reduce disproportionality – this means working to reduce the over-represented groups in B&NES who are in the Youth Justice service, such as children with Special Educational Needs and from minority ethnic backgrounds. We have clear targets for our future efforts to tackle overrepresentation.

Secondly, strengthening participation for children and families within the service and continuing to develop a more collaborative approach. This includes initiatives such as focus groups, new ways of gathering feedback, and more support.

The third strategic priority is embedding ‘Child First’ Principles to addressing offending behaviour. This will include offering individually tailored assessments, plans and interventions that are trauma-informed and recognise the child’s needs.

Finally, and importantly, we aim to reduce serious violence.  The issue of knife crime is still high on the agenda and high in residents’ concerns. This has been a focus over the past year, with continuing weapons awareness work with children, education in schools, Street Doctors first aid and safety training as well as targeted prevention services. Four knife crime awareness events for parents and carers have taken place and further events are planned.

Reducing serious violence and making Bath and North East Somerset a safer place will continue to be an important priority. We are looking forward to the report from the Children, Adults, Health and Wellbeing Panel task and finish group later this year.

I also want to highlight that we have low numbers of children in the formal justice system – a real plus for this area. The Youth Justice Team does incredible work ensuring that children and young people avoid custodial sentences and steer away from offending again. Bath and North East Somerset has a low number of first time ‘entrants’ compared to the average in the South West and across England and Wales. In addition, reoffending rates are falling and are lower than our comparators, which is very encouraging.

In addition to the strategic priorities already mentioned, the Service will continue to ensure that children and their families are prepared for court and children are treated fairly, ensuring reports prepared for court reflect the impacts on the victims. And will ensure the workforce delivering the plan have the right training and support to make a difference to the children they work with.”

Cllr Alison Born seconded the motion and made the following statement:

“The service provided by the Youth Justice team is truly multi-agency in nature, which enables it to provide supportive, holistic, child-centred interventions that help the young people and their families engaged with the service to make the changes they need to reduce the likelihood of further offending.

By intervening earlier, there is far greater chance of changing patterns of behaviour which is reflected in the outcomes achieved.

This is a model of intervention that has been eroded as budgets have been cut in recent years, but it is something that we should seek to replicate in other services wherever possible.”

Cllr Tim Ball stressed the importance of keeping children out of the Youth Justice System and thanked the Youth Justice Team for the valuable work that they undertake.

RESOLVED (unanimously):

To recommend that full Council approves the Youth Justice Plan 2024-26.