Agenda item

The Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Education and Culture submitted a report for Executive consideration. The report was presented by the Executive Member for Children’s Services in the Deputy Mayor’s absence.

 

The purpose of the report was to update Executive on the three-year partnership with SHiFT, a national systems change charity working alongside Children’s Services within the Council. SHiFT Middlesbrough had started work across the first of two, 18-month Programmes with children and young people caught up in, or at risk of, cycles of crime and exploitation.

 

The report detailed that the costs of the partnership were supported by the sum of £600,000 which SHiFT secured from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, alongside match funding of £600,000 from the Council, invested over three financial years.

 

SHiFT had a strong and growing track record of exceptional practice that was breaking cycles of crime with and for the most vulnerable children. Headlines from SHiFT’s national evidence of impact to date, for children with a SHiFT Guide 12-18 months included:

 

·         41% reduction in proven offences.

·         58% reduction in reported missing episodes.

·         51% reduction in arrests

 

Economic analysis of SHiFT’s work conducted in 2022 that for each child considered, costs avoided in the next five years by breaking cycles of crime now ranged from £1.8m to £164k. For every £1 spent on SHiFT £8 is saved over five years.

 

The SHiFT programme was aligned to the council plan under Safe and Resilient communities. The programme spanned both the promotion of new ideas and community initiatives as well as reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.

 

SHIFT Middlesbrough had been working with children and young people since July 2024. The Practice was already making evidenced positive impacts with and alongside children and young people. Including September 2024 and for the three months prior:

 

·         17 (out of 27) children had no arrests, 22 children had not committed any proven offences and 21 children had not been missing.

·         Children’s Social Care involvement had reduced for four children and four children had now moved back to Middlesbrough, two of whom were previously in custody and two were living in placements out of area.

·         Guide’s ratings of mental health had improved for six (out of 27) children and Guides assessed that the negative consequences of substance use had reduced for eight (out of 27) children.

·         Guides had supported children to access education, training and employment by arranging for children to attend open days, assisting with their applications, and taking them to interviews.

 

There would be an annual partnership review presented to the Local SHIFT Board in June 2025.

 

It was commented that investment in the initiative would be returned and so was value for money.

 

The Mayor commented that the SHiFT initiative was strong step on a journey that would allow the Council to move a more preventative way of working.

 

OPTIONS

 

There were no other options put forward as part of the report.

 

AGREED that Executive notes:

 

1.    A SHiFT Programme had been established in Middlesbrough, with a new staff team successfully recruited, trained and working with children and families.

2.    SHiFT Middlesbrough launched in line with Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government grant funding deadlines. A formal launch event was held in September 2024 and Middlesbrough’s Elected Mayor attended as a key speaker alongside Keith Fraser, Chair of the Youth Justice Board.

3.    27 children and young people were identified and invited for SHiFT support. Children and young people had been building trusting relationships with their SHiFT Guide and there was good evidence of emerging positive impacts on their safety and wellbeing as a result of this work.

4.    A Local SHiFT Board had been created and was meeting regularly to provide effective partnership governance with Joe Tynan, Executive Director for Children’s Services, as its Chair.

 

REASONS

 

While the report was for information only, it was important that Executive were kept updated on the work of SHiFT. SHiFT was an innovative organisation, founded in 2019, with a track record for delivering exceptional outcomes that broke the destructive cycle of children and young people caught up in, or at risk of, crime.

 

SHiFT Middlesbrough provided 1-1 intensive support for 27 of the most vulnerable children and young people in Middlesbrough. Children and young people identified for SHiFT were those for whom, despite the efforts of other professionals, ‘business as usual’ responses had not been able to make the difference needed and where concern about their wellbeing was high and escalating. For over a quarter of the children SHiFT Middlesbrough was working with, their vulnerabilities and professional responses to their management to date, mean that they were, at the start of SHiFT’s work, accommodated in high-cost placements, often a long way from home and not making the difference desired to improve the child’s situation. For all children there are concerns about increasing risk, vulnerability, and the negative impacts this can have on their living arrangements.

 

The total cost of the partnership to Middlesbrough Council was approximately £11k per child for an 18-month Programme of intensive individual support, which included working with everyone important to a child’s world. This represented good value for money given the highly complex needs of this vulnerable group and the intensity and expertise of the work SHiFT was delivering. Within the SHIFT cohort there were eight looked after young people whose weekly placement cost ranged between £3k to £23k as of the end of period nine (December 2024). SHiFT Guides worked alongside existing professionals, including Social Workers, providing a level of intensity that Social Workers are not resourced to be able to deliver. SHiFT had an evidenced track record for delivering exceptional outcomes and in year cost savings and cost avoidance through, for example, reducing reliance on high-cost placements, avoiding children being remanded in custody, and supporting children to return to mainstream education from alternative provision.