Agenda item

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

Councillor Paul May introduced the report to the Panel. He explained that the current two-year Plan had been presented to the Panel, Cabinet and Council in July 2024 for approval. He said that the Panel were now receiving a progress report on the two-year plan ahead of a refreshed version of the Plan being presented to Cabinet and Council in July.

He added that the service recognises the issue of over-represented groups in B&NES who are in the Youth Justice System and informed the Panel that these were groups of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and children from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services addressed the Panel. She stated that it had been a successful year overall and highlighted the following areas.

Inspection Outcome – HMI Probation

·  Overall ‘Good’ Rating

·  3 areas = Outstanding, 9 areas = Good, 1 area = Requires Improvement

Performance Indicators

·  Rate of Custody Jan 2024 to Dec 2024

o  There was one custodial sentence in this reporting period. Our rate has reduced to 0.00 per 1,000 in the population.

o  The B&NES custodial rate is better than all Comparators. The rates for Comparators are: South West Region (0.07), PCC Area (0.08) and England and Wales (0.10).

·  First Time Entrants Jan 2024 to Dec 2024

o  The rate of First Time Entrants has increased in this period from 108 to 137(46.6%) per 100,000 in the population. This equates to 24 individual children compared with 16 in the previous reporting period (Jan to Dec 2023).

o  The rates for our comparators are: South West (135), PCC Area (122) and England and Wales (161).

·  Re-offending Binary rate April 2022 to March 2023

o  The B&NES binary percentage of re-offending has reduced by 5% for the period April 2022 to March 2023. There were 20 children in the previous cohort, 6 re-offended, compared with 20 in the current cohort of which 5 have re-offended.

o  The binary percentage of re-offending is showing as 25%, which is lower than all of our Comparators.

o  The percentages for our Comparators are: South West Region (31.3%), PCC Area (28.9%) and England and Wales (32.5%).

• Re-offending Frequency April 2022 to March 2023

o  The rate of re-offending for this period is 2.00. This is a reduction from 3.67 (-45.5%).

o  This is due to there being fewer children in the cohort and fewer children re-offending. There were 6 re-offenders in the previous reporting period committing 22 further offences and 5 re-offenders in the current period committing 10 further offences.

B&NES Youth Justice Service Priorities

·  1.Reduce Disproportionality – over-represented groups in B&NES include children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and children from minority ethnic backgrounds.

·  2.Strengthen Participation – youth justice work is most effective when it consults children, parents and carers and those harmed by children’s offending and works with them to co-create and develop the service.

·  3.Embed Child First Principles – This principle is the corner stone of our approach moving forward, so appropriately it remained as a strategic priority the plan for 2024 to 2026.

·  4.Reduce Serious Youth Violence – From participation work with children, parents and carers, it is clear that this is a key issue for them and so it remains a strategic priority for B&NES YJS. Children have shared that knife crime and the threat of serious violence are utmost in their minds.

Youth Justice Service Key Achievements in 2024 / 25

Reduce Disproportionality – Ethnicity and SEN

·  Anti-Racist Vision Statement and Action Plan

·  Local Good Practice Guide for working with children from minority ethnic background, based on participation work

·  Continuous cultural competence and diversity training for all staff

·  Speech and Language and Health Screening for all children

·  Training for staff on communication and interventions and Neuro Diversity

Reduce Disproportionality

·  Increased staff confidence with interventions with children with SEN

·  Evidence of consideration of diversity in assessments and case work

·  Continued Case Audits to scrutinise for any bias and opportunity for learning

·  Develop Education Psychology input into YJS to ensure children’s needs are fully understood and responded to

Strengthen Participation

·  Increased participation in reparation work

·  Children on all practitioner recruitment panels

·  Planning parent / carer drop-in support sessions

Embed Child First Principles

·  Writing Referral Order reports to the Child

·  Implemented the YJB Prevention and Diversion Assessment Tool, which has a child first focus

·  We are working with more children on an out of court basis and on diversion programmes

·  Continue to work in partnership to reduce the times children are in police custody overnight

·  Continue to work in partnership to ensure timely justice for children and victims

Reduce Serious Violence

·  Multi Agency Partnership to Prevent and Reduce Serious Violence

·  Updated Knife Crime resources, and as a partnership created a Toolkit for Parents

·  Identified learning and areas for improvement in plans re: safety and wellbeing and plans re: safety for others and implemented an action plan accordingly

·  Build on our offer of support to victims, in particular young victims

Positive feedback from Children, Parents and Carers

Update on the Work of the Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP)

·  Strategic Needs Assessment completed

·  VRP Delivery Plan submitted to the Home Office for approval for 2025/26

·  Work plan to include continued engagement with the community including a survey for children and young adults about knife crime and serious violence

·  Close links between VRP and Education teams, SEND and AP Advice Service.

Councillor May commented that he has the partnership working in practice and how effective it is. He explained how the team work with young people and build relationships between them and their families. He added that HCRG was also active in the partnership.

Kevin Burnett referred to page 63 of the agenda pack and asked if confirmation could be given on whether Turnaround funding had ceased in March 2025.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that they had received confirmation from the Ministry of Justice that they would be in receipt of funding for a further 12 months, but only two thirds of their previous amount.

Kevin Burnett referred to page 75 of the agenda pack and questioned if Children Looked After should also be considered a priority area for the Plan.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that the refreshed Plan would see them included as a priority area as there is a degree of over-representation.

Kevin Burnett commented that a lot of store is placed upon Trauma Informed Practice.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied thatthis is something that the team is very passionate about, to be able to learn from those that have directly experienced trauma.

Kevin Burnett asked if any CEOs of the Multi Academy Trusts were part of the decision making process of the Youth Justice Partnership Board.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that the Principal and CEO of Bath College are members of the Partnership Board

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that there was not a direct representation for all schools on the Partnership Board.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked for any additional comments regarding the finance / budget of the Youth Justice Service.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that there is an overspend within the combined budget as costs have risen, but the level of contributions has not. She added that this matter is included on their risk register.

Councillor Hardman referred to the disproportionality of those young people from BME backgrounds and with SEND who are within the Youth Justice System. She said that there were a lot of school based issues that the Local Authority cannot tackle directly and asked to what extent can we work with schools.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services acknowledged that these were some of our most vulnerable children and that an increase has been seen as more young people are being identified with these needs. She added that this was a concern and that they need to ensure that they work in a preventative way to identify and meet their needs where possible.

The Interim Director of Children's Services added that a range of services are available for schools to access across the Council. He said that permanent exclusions have decreased and that the work of the BME Support Group was ongoing.

Councillor Hardman asked if the Youth Offending Team were able to identify at an early enough stage those children and young people who might be at risk of entering the Youth Justice System.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that mechanisms to attempt to prevent children and young people from entering the system are in place. She added that the Youth Justice Service works in partnership to prevent children entering the youth justice system, through the Compass Service. She said that referrals are also received from schools and that Prevention Partnerships were in development.

Councillor Lesley Mansell thanked the officer for the report and welcomed the Equalities Impact Assessment and the recommendations / actions within it. She asked for any examples of working with HCRG.

Councillor May replied that Val Scrase, HCRG Regional Director for the South-West had recently taken the role of Chair of the Partnership Board.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services added that they do work closely with HCRG, in particular the role of the School Nurse and Speech and Languages.

Councillor Mansell commented on the high number children and young people within the system from a BME background.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that she could circulate the Youth Justice Anti-Racism Action Plan to the Panel.

Councillor Joanna Wright commented that the increase in the number of children and young people within the system with SEND was likely due to more being diagnosed than ever before. She said that parents / carers needed better resources in place to be able to find the support they need.

She asked why the 0.16 FTE Probation Service Officer post had not been filled for over 3 years and how many youth workers were employed in B&NES.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that this post had not been filled due to a lack of funding, which was a national issue. She added that Youth Services were delivered in many different ways across the Council.

Councillor Ruth Malloy asked for further information relating to Volunteer Panels / Mentors.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that volunteers could either work on areas such as Referral Orders and meet with the child / parent to address how these should be progressed or as representatives within their local community. She added that some volunteers will also act as mentors.

Councillor David Harding asked if delays in diagnosis of conditions such as ADHD were leading to an increase in numbers entering the justice system.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that she did not feel that this was necessarily a factor.

Councillor Michael Auton commented that he had recently spoken with a local police officer and Youth Connect South West about lack of provision within Midsomer Norton for safe places for young people to go to.

Kevin Burnett stated that in terms of prevention support that most support services within schools would not be at capacity.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that the service supports prevention where possible and said that all of Children’s Services work in that way to a degree. She added that it was important to provide the required help as soon as possible. She explained that work can commence within the Youth Justice Service from the age of 8.

The Chair said that she felt it was important for young people to have positive role models to work with.

The Head of Young People's Prevention Services replied that where possible they would look to have mentors with a lived experience.

The Panel RESOLVED to note the progress against the two-year plan and the delivery of youth justice services in the year ahead.