To recommend the Youth Justice Plan 2017/18 for approval by full Council.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing introduced the report. He thanked the members of the general scrutiny committee for their work in examining the youth justice plan. The cabinet member noted that very few children were in the criminal justice system but the work done with this small group was important. The review of 2016/17 showed that the number of first time entrants was decreasing and that while the rate of reoffending had increased slightly, the overall cohort size was reducing year on year. Emphasis had been placed on avoiding children coming into the criminal justice system in the first place and on encouraging out of court options. The cabinet member noted that the figures were retrospective and that tracking would take place going forward to highlight issues in real time.

The head of service for West Mercia Youth Justice Service (WMYJS) spoke to the report. He noted that the plan had been prepared in line with the content requirements set by the Secretary of State and that 2016/17 had been a period of considerable change for the WMYJS with new assessment planning tools introduced, the move to the office of the police and crime commissioner and a restructure of staffing.

In response to queries it was noted that:

·         the first time entrant figure was higher in Herefordshire than the rest of the West Mercia area but as the number of young people was very small a single person could have a disproportionate effect;

·         the use of informal sanctions was encouraged for first time offenders and this had shown a positive impact;

·         most of the youth justice board members had changed in the previous 18 months to 2 years and all of the team managers were new, visits by board members and managers to teams had always taken place but particular emphasis had been placed on this activity for 2017/18 to build good relations between these new personnel;

·         efforts to stop reoffending concentrated on use of out of court options for minor first time offences to prevent young people being brought into the youth justice system, it was recognised that once they were in the system they were more likely to reoffend, and on tracking behaviour once young people were in the system in order to evaluate the work of the youth justice service;

·         there was no evidence that authorities were ‘turning a blind eye’ to more minor offences and in fact detection rates were higher in Herefordshire than other areas.

Resolved that:

(a) the Youth Justice Plan (at appendix A) is recommended to full Council for approval.

To endorse the Youth Justice Plan 2017/18 for approval by full Council and consider whether there are any comments the committee would wish to make that would inform the production of the Plan for 2018/19. 

The Committee was asked to endorse the Youth Justice Plan 2017/18 for approval by Council and consider whether there were any comments it wished to make that would inform the production of the Plan for 2018/19.

The Head of Service, West Mercia Youth Justice Service, presented the report. He noted the significant changes the service had recently faced including the transfer of responsibility for the service to the Office of the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), a new client management information system, a new national assessment and planning framework and a team restructure.  He also drew attention to the actions to improve service provision in 2017/18 under 7 main priorities, summarised at paragraph 10 of the report.

In response to questions the HS commented:

·        that the transfer to the office of the PCC had occurred in parallel with a restructure to meet service need on a reduced budget.  This had adversely affected staff morale.  The action plan recognised this with a priority of ensuring team morale was good.  He considered morale was improving.

·        The tool for tracking reoffending of current cases in real time was working well.

·        The small numbers of offenders in Herefordshire did mean that disproportionate swings in the statistics could take place complicating comparison with other authorities.

·        A different model of decision making for out of court disposals was being piloted in Shropshire exploring the possibility of appropriately diverting more young people from formal justice sanctions through offering a wider range of options to support informal resolutions.  If the evaluation concluded this approach was successful it would be rolled out to other areas.

·        A detailed assessment of the role mental health issues played in offending had taken place and the contribution of substance abuse had formed part of that consideration.  Substance misuse had been identified as a risk factor associated with reoffending for 20% of first time entrants.  There was a team of substance misuse workers with one part/time post allocated for Herefordshire.   He confirmed that there was liaison with the public health team through the community safety partnership.  An action plan had been produced to address findings from the assessment of mental health issues.

·        The pattern of male/female offending with some 80% of offenders being male was broadly replicated across the country.  There were a number of studies on this point.  Because there were so few young female offenders in the county there was some concern as to whether the service was meeting their needs.

·        The service was exploring the possibility of developing a programme to assist young people with their numerical and literacy skills.

·        There was a spike in offending at the ages of 17/18.  He confirmed that transitions from the youth offending service to the national probation service were planned in each case.  If it was considered an individual was not mature enough to adapt to a transfer they continued on their current order until it expired.

·        The first time entrant rate was higher than the average rate for West Mercia and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26