The Youth Justice Plan is prepared on an annual basis on behalf of Herefordshire Council and Worcestershire County Council.  The basic plan preparation is undertaken by the Youth Offending Service according to the deadlines and guidance from the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB).

The Cabinet Member Corporate Strategy and Finance advised Cabinet that the Youth Justice Plan was prepared on an annual basis on behalf of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Councils and was prepared inline with guidance from the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.  The Cabinet Member added that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had recently looked at the Youth Justice Plan and had made the following recommendation.

That: Cabinet be advised that the link between the Youth offending Service and the Probation Service needed to be strengthened to ensure that there was shared data about those who were reoffending after age 17; and that links to the review of the Youth Service needed to be borne in mind in relation to preventative work.

In discussion the following points were made:

·         The Vice-Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny stated that the Committee had looked at the average age of a young person, which was 15-16 years old, and noted that any data relating to a young person was only held for those two years, which was felt to be insufficient and needed to be retained beyond the age of 16. 

·         The Director for People’s Services advised that national performance data was used by the Youth Offending Service and the Probation Service, but there was currently no system to track any changes.  New performance measures would rectify this, which would be collated by the West Mercia Police with the involvement of Chief Probation Officers.

·         The Chief Executive reminded Cabinet that the Youth Justice Plan was one of  a number of documents within the Council’s policy framework which was required to be approved by Council.  The list of budget and policy framework items had been reviewed and inline with government requirements and in future the Youth Justice Plan would no longer be required to be approved by Council.

·         Cabinet was pleased that the performance figures for Herefordshire and Worcestershire had been separated in the report and the figures were more relevant as they focused more on the welfare of the young person.

·         It was stated that it was felt there was a lack of youth services in rural areas for young people.

RESOLVED: That the Youth Justice Plan as prepared be endorsed and that it be recommended within the Policy Framework that the plan be approved by Council at its meeting on 18 November 2011.