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 for England but the numbers were very small.  The number of first time entrants was half that in 2009/10, a significant reduction.

·        The value for money of the service was hard to measure.  One national statistic compared the resource allocated into youth justice services divided by the number of disposals.  On this basis the west mercia service provided one of the lowest cost services compared with statistical neighbours.  The number of people entering the youth justice system had reduced since the establishment of the service.  Crime had reduced but so had the proportion committed by young people.  The statistics took account of informal disposals.

·        Clarification was sought on how statistics quoted in the 2017/18 plan compared with the 2016/17 plan.  It was noted that paragraph 2.4 of the 2017 plan did not reference all the questions in paragraph 2.6 of the 2016/17 plan.  Updated information in relation to paragraph 2.5 of the 2016/17 plan was also requested. It was proposed that a briefing note be circulated.

·        It was requested that the briefing note should also include clarification on the operation of transition protocols and reassurance that there was a seamless and fully effective transition from youth to adult services.

RESOLVED:

That      (a)     the Youth Justice Plan (at appendix A to the report) be endorsed and submitted to Cabinet for recommendation to full Council for approval;

              (b)     the Cabinet Member (young people and children’s wellbeing) be asked

                        (i) to request the West Mercia Youth Justice Service Management Board to review the process for preparing the Youth Justice Plan in order to permit the scrutiny committee to comment on next year’s plan at an earlier stage so that its comments can be taken into account in the plan’s preparation;

                        (ii) to request that an evaluation of informal disposals be included in next year’s plan;

                        (iii) to request that next year’s plan be drafted so as to enable performance year on year to be compared;

                        (iv) to request that mindful of the fact that the low numbers of offenders in Herefordshire can distort statistical comparison with other authorities information be presented within the Plan in a way that enables the circumstances of the Herefordshire cohort of offenders and performance of the service in addressing their needs to be assessed and compared year on year; and

              (c)     a briefing note be requested setting out: how the statistics quoted at paragraph 2.4/2.6 of the draft plan compare in full with the 2016/17plan; and also providing clarification on the operation of transition protocols and reassurance that there is a seamless and fully effective transition from youth to adult services.