Agenda item

Paul Harrison, Partnership Manager will provide the Annual update to the Board, with specific reference to the work South Tees Youth Justice Service provide and offer support for children looked after.

The report outlined the offer to children who were looked after and also open to South Tees Youth Justice Service.   Some brief caseload demographic information was included to provide some context to the Board.  The report also focussed on the key achievements in the last twelve months and planned future development.

The vast majority of looked after children and care leavers did not get involved with the justice system, however they remained over-represented compared with others in the criminal justice system.  In December 2022 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published information which showed that children in care appeared to enter the justice system earlier than children who had not been in care.  Whilst imprisonment was a relatively unusual outcome, a high proportion of those in custody had Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Information contained within the Local Authority Interactive Tool, showed that in Middlesbrough in 2023, 3% of children who were looked after had been convicted or were subject to a Youth Caution.  This was in line with the North East (3%) but above the national (in England 2%) figures.

The breakdown of open cases between 1 January and 31 December 2023, was included at paragraph 10 of the submitted report.  The largest proportion of children open to the service were white British boys aged fifteen or over.   13.3% of children open to the service in 2023 were children looked after.  The STYJS Executive Management Board met on a quarterly basis and scrutinised caseload information relating to first time entrants to the system, re-offending and use of custody.  This multi-agency Board offered challenge to the service in relation to the data and had responsibility for monitoring and responding to any disproportionality issues.

The Service had successfully introduced three key new projects within the last 12 months: Turnaround, Immediate Justice and Custody Navigators.

Turnaround was a new programme developed by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), providing funding to Youth Justice Teams to enable them to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for children on the cusp of entering the youth justice system.  The overall aims of the Turnaround programme were to:

•           Achieve positive outcomes for children with the ultimate aim of preventing them going on to offend.

•           Build on work already done to ensure all children on the cusp of the youth justice system were consistently offered a needs assessment and the opportunity for support.

•           Improve the socio-emotional, mental health and wellbeing of children.

•           Improve the integration and partnership working between YJS’s and other statutory services to support children.

Turnaround went ‘live’ in January 2023 and was funded until March 2025. STYJS had been given a target number of children to work with,  and to date only 1 out of 45 successful closures had gone on to re-offend.  Sadly, the eligibility criteria for Turnaround precluded Looked After Children, however it did allow the service to work with children subject to Early Help and Child in Need, and therefore the service worked closely with colleagues in those services with the aim of preventing escalation in both children’s care and the criminal justice system.

In relation to Immediate Justice, the Government published the ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan’ in April 2023.  The Cleveland Police Force area was identified as one of four areas to receive funding in respect of ‘hot spot policing’ and additionally ‘Immediate Justice’ as part of this government plan.  In partnership with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the other two Cleveland Youth Justice Services (YJS), a model of service delivery for Immediate Justice was developed.   Known locally as ‘Making Good’, STYJS now worked with children from the age of twelve who were referred in by Community Safety colleagues following a second incident of anti-social behaviour, thus working with them in a pre-crime space to prevent escalation in to the criminal justice system.  Educational and Restorative activity took place alongside reparative activity, which was victim led.  The criteria for this project was less restrictive than Turnaround and all children including those who were looked after were offered this intervention.  The project was funded until 31st August 2024.

With regard to Custody Navigators, in conjunction with Cleveland’s Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV), the three YJS’s in Cleveland had developed a ‘Custody Navigator’ model focussed on providing immediate interventions when young people presented at custody, followed by advocacy to ensure appropriate longer term local support is offered and accessed.  Four case workers were now placed into the custody suite in Middlesbrough to support people who had been detained because of a serious violence offence.  This offered the opportunity for ‘reachable and teachable’ moments to engage with young people involved in serious violent offending, and at an earlier point than ever before.  Navigators sought to identify opportunities to develop a trusting relationship whereby the detainee could be referred to appropriate support through a tailored service plan that connected them to services such counselling, mentoring, or help with conflict resolution, employment or substance misuse.  Navigators would liaise with Social Workers of Looked After Children and share information about the custodial episode, and could continue to provide ongoing support to individuals beyond release where appropriate. This pilot would operate across Cleveland until March 2025.

A further key achievement for the service had been the introduction of the ‘Inclusion pathway’.  The Pathway created a mechanism which enabled Case Managers to access support for young people who were at risk of disengagement from education.  The pathway had been designed to promote engagement in the education system, improve attendance, prevent exclusions (fixed-term and permanent), improve attainment and deliver well-targeted educational support.  The STYJS Inclusion Pathway was endorsed by the Middlesbrough Council scrutiny panel as a means of raising the needs of young people at risk of exclusion.  The Education specialist within the service advocated for Looked After Children in such circumstances to make sure their voice was heard and any additional needs taken in to account.

Since January 2023 STYJS had commissioned a highly specialist speech and language therapist (SALT) to meet the needs of the YJS service.  The role of the SALT therapist included direct speech and language therapy intervention with young people, further assessment of children’s speech, language and communication needs including the development of personalised plans and recommendations which would influence their experiences within the justice system (Court or Police), and indirect speech and language therapy intervention.  The SALT therapist had reviewed all the written information and correspondence used by the service with children and families, and offered staff training to raise awareness of Speech Language and Communication Needs and strategies to support children. This provision was highly valued by staff, and positive comments had been received by parents and carers in relation to the service provided. The importance of this work could not be underestimated when such high numbers of children in custody had additional, and often undiagnosed, needs.

The three projects were all time limited, with funding due to end by March 2025.  The risk was that funding might not continue, and these highly valued projects might be lost which would be detrimental to the children who could benefit.  The challenge for the service would be to find a way to either mainstream the projects into the service, or maintain some elements, which of course would need to be funded.  The longevity of each of these projects would be determined by external evaluation and consultation with external bodies (such as the Ministry of Justice (MOJ)).

The Service would engage with all external evaluations relating to time limited/funded projects in order to maximise involvement and contributions to consultation processes. The STYJS Board would also be kept abreast of developments on a quarterly basis and might need to escalate discussions to a more strategic level depending upon the outcome of decisions made by external bodies.

STYJS would continue to deliver targeted staff development sessions to raise awareness of working with Looked After Children within the criminal justice system, and also continue to deliver sessions as part of the Principal Social Worker’s ‘Hot Topics’ sessions to raise awareness of work within the Children’s Social Care workforce.

AGREED that the information provided was received and noted.