Memorandum from the Youth Justice Board
1. This memoranda covers:
(i) how the Youth Justice Board expects juvenile
secure facilities to discharge their duty of care to young people
in their care (paras 4-5);
(ii) what improvements are planned (para
6-7);
(iii) how we expect local services dealing
with young offenders to assess risks to young people (para 8);
and
(iv) how we quality assure those processes
(para 9-10).
2. Background detail on the youth justice
reforms is at Annex A.
3. The Youth Justice Board believes children
and young people need to be safe before their behaviour can be
addressed effectively. In advising the Home Secretary on national
standards for youth justice, and in negotiating contracts with
providers of secure facilities, the Board has emphasised:
— assessment of children and young
people entering the youth justice system using the Board's assessment
tool, Asset; and a risk of serious harm assessment to be completed
if Asset indicates there is a risk of the young person committing
serious harm to him/herself or others;
— ensuring assessment information is
received by establishments on reception of a young person;
— assessment on reception into custody
including an assessment of mental health needs as well as an assessment
of substance abuse. Where withdrawal treatment is needed the young
person must be referred to a specialist doctor or nurse and a
drug or alcohol worker;
— key workers to be allocated to each
young person to provide advice and assistance during their period
in custody; and
— all establishments should have procedures
to identify and manage those at risk of self harm and suicide
and these should be regularly monitored, reviewed and updated.
4. The Board expects youth offending teams
and juvenile secure facilities to design interventions based around
the initial assessment to reduce any risks to safety and to reduce
the risk of further offending. The Board sends regional managers
to visit secure establishments once a month or once a quarter
to check its expectations are met.
(ii) planned improvements
5. The Board has set out procedures and
standards and helped and supported local services to deliver them.
Ensuring the training of managers and staff to know why those
standards are important and how to deliver them is crucial. So
is effective performance monitoring and quality assurance. And
each time there is a death in the youth justice system the Board
commissions a report to examine all the processes to check what
lessons need to be learned.
6. As a result of feedback from these sources
the Board currently plans to:
(i) ensure all managers of juvenile secure
facilities are trained and experienced in dealing with young people.
This is not the case at present. But dealing with young people
presents different challenges from dealing with adults.
(ii) ensure policies on safeguarding young
people are juvenile specific and that safeguarding policies across
different areas are sufficiently linked up with establishments,
including management oversight and accountability.
(iii) Introduce young advocacy to all secure
facilities so there is a supportive figure young people can turn
to with problems.
ASSESSMENT OF
RISK
7. The Board developed an assessment tool
for use with the young offenders (ASSET) which focuses on the
risks associated with offending including whether in education
and training, use of leisure time, substance abuse, family factors
and attitudes to offending. Subsequently the Board articulated
the risk factors it looks at when deciding where to place a vulnerable
child. These factors include whether the young person has been
on the child protection register, whether they have been looked
after by the local authority, history of self-harming and history
of being bullied.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
8. The Board issued an effective practice
note on Assessment, planning and supervision in November 2002.
The note has five sections: background, what staff should so,
what managers should do, what steering groups should do and 10
quality assurance indicators. During 2003 we asked every youth
offending team (YOT) manager to assess performance in their YOT
using those quality assurance indicators and to develop a plan
to improve. YJB staff then spent one day reviewing the self assessment
and discussing the action plan. In 2003 we will repeat the exercise
to check improvement.
9. This activity is supported by training
for staff which can lead to a certificate in youth justice effective
practice at NVQ3 level. We have liaised with national training
organisations and other professions to ensure this qualification
is portable between services dealing with young people so it is
attractive to staff.
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