31. Memorandum submitted by
the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales
The note provides background on the role of
the Board, Youth Offending Teams, the juvenile secure estate and
characteristics of young people in custody before outlining key
measures undertaken by the Board to improve the rehabilitation
and resettlement of young offenders from custody. The Board would
be pleased to provide any further information that would be of
assistance to the Committee.
BACKGROUND
The Youth Justice Board
1. The Youth Justice Board for England and
Wales is an executive non-departmental public body. The Youth
Justice Board comprises up to 12 Board members, appointed by the
Home Secretary. It was established under the Crime and Disorder
Act 1998 to:
— advise the Home Secretary on the
operation of the youth justice system; how to prevent offending
by children and young people; and the content of national standards
for youth justice services;
— monitor the operation and performance
of the youth justice system;
— identify and disseminate good practice
in youth justice and in preventing offending by children and young
people; and
— since April 2000 commission and purchase
places for children and young people remanded or sentenced to
secure facilities.
2. The Board has had a central role in implementing
the reforms to the youth justice system set out in the Crime and
Disorder Act 1998 and subsequently in the Youth Justice and Criminal
Evidence Act 1999. Section 37 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
established a new principal statutory aim for the youth justice
system, "to prevent offending by children and young persons".
It is the key objective of the Board to monitor the performance
and develop the ability of the youth justice system to meet this
aim.
3. Since April 2000, the Board has been
responsible for commissioning services for young people under
18 who are sentenced and remanded to secure facilities. The budget
for purchasing places was transferred to the Board. The Board
has established contracts and service level agreements with providers
of secure facilities for young people. The commissioning approach
has enabled the Board to influence the standards of custodial
regimes for young offenders.
Youth Offending Teams
4. Youth offending teams (Yots) were created
under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and implemented in England
and Wales from April 2000. Local authorities with social service
and education authorities are required to work with the police,
probation services and health authorities to establish multi-agency
Yots. Yots are central to the youth justice system—advising
courts, administrating community sentences and interventions,
and working with juvenile custodial establishments. The Board
has monitored and helped develop the teams through grants, guidance
and the dissemination of research and evaluation of effective
practice. The Board provides grants to Yots supplementing local
funding arrangements. Each relevant local authority is require
to ensure youth justice services are available in their area and
to formulate a youth justice plan setting out how these services
are to be provided and funded. The plans are monitored by the
Board.
The Juvenile Secure Estate
5. The juvenile secure estate exists to
provide custodial accommodation for all young people under the
age of 18 who are sentenced or remanded to custody by a court.
The Estate consists of four sectors: young offender institutions
(YOIs), prison service accommodation for girls, secure training
centres (STCs) and local authority secure children's homes (LASCHs).
6. Young offender institutions for boys
comprise about 85% of the available accommodation for juveniles.
About 2,600 boys are accommodated in 14 establishments (12 of
which are run by the Prison Service and two by the private sector).
Although a number of sites are mixed juvenile and adult, a discrete
estate has been developed ensuring separation of boys from adult
prisoners. The Board aims to places older and less vulnerable
young people in this accommodation. They are generally boys aged
15 to 17, although there are currently around 370 18 and 19 year
olds completing a Detention and Training Order or Section 91 order
awaiting transfer to the adult estate.
7. The Board has ensured since the end of
2003 that no girls under 17 years of age are placed in prison
service accommodation. Currently 80-90 girls aged 17 at any one
time are placed in prison in accommodation they have to share
with older prisoners. To address this the Board initiated a development
programme for female only units. The Board and the Prison Service
are working together to develop five of these new units linked
to existing female establishments but with their own separate
staffing, facilities and identity, which would provide a more
suitable regime for girls under 18. The first unit is being developed
at HM Prison Downview and will be commissioned by the Board in
the latter part of 2004-05. Other appropriate sites have been
found but are awaiting formal planning approval. Funding to develop
the further units needed has been made available to the Board
by the Home Office.
8. Secure training centres are establishments
run by private companies under Private Finance Initiative contracts.
There are currently 194 places provided in three STCs. A fourth
STC will be opening in the current financial year providing a
further 80 places. The STCs originally provided accommodation
for 12 to 14 year olds but the Board also places some of the more
vulnerable sentenced and remanded 15 and 16 year olds boys as
well as 15 and 16 year olds girls.
9. Local authority secure children's homes
are mainly owned and managed by local authorities. They provide
places for children from the age of 10 upwards who need to be
held securely for welfare reasons as well as criminal justice
reasons. Following a recontracting exercise the Board is expecting
to reduce the number of places commissioned in LASCHs this year,
while increasing places in STCs. As a result of this exercise
there will be a net increase in places available for younger and
more vulnerable children.
10. An overview of the age profile of the
juvenile custodial population is shown in the table below.
AGE PROFILE OF JUVENILE SECURE POPULATION
AT END FEBRUARY 2004
|
| Boys
| Girls |
Totals |
| Age | Number
| % of Total | Number
| % of Total | Number
| % of Total |
|
| 10 | 0 | 0.0
| 0 | 0.0
| 0 | 0.0
|
| 11 | 2 | 0.1
| 0 | 0.0
| 2 | 0.1
|
| 12 | 12 |
0.4 | 2
| 1.1 | 14
| 0.5 |
| 13 | 30 |
1.0 | 5
| 2.9 | 35
| 1.1 |
| 14 | 129 |
4.4 | 12
| 6.9 | 141
| 4.6 |
| 15 | 363 |
12.5 | 34
| 19.5 | 397
| 12.9 |
| 16 | 707 |
24.3 | 38
| 21.8 | 745
| 24.2 |
| 17 | 1291 |
44.4 | 57
| 32.8 | 1348
| 43.7 |
| >=18 | 375
| 12.9 | 26
| 14.9 | 401
| 13.0 |
| Total | 2909
| 100.0 | 174
| 100.0 | 3083
| 100.0 |
|
Detention and Training Orders
11. The Detention and Training Order (DTO) is the main
custodial sentence used for juvenile offenders. A DTO is half
served in custody and half in the community and that the entirety
of the sentence is served under the supervision of Yots. Supervision,
sentence planning and reviewing standards are designed to promote
that the effective transition from custody to community.
12. Of the sentenced population about two-thirds are
serving Detention and Training Orders (DTOs). The average length
of time that a young person serving a DTO spends in custody is
about four and a half months. The remainder of the sentenced population
are serving sentences for "grave crimes" under Section
90 or 91 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000.
The average time that these young people spend in the juvenile
estate is about 11 months. Many of them however are then transferred
to the adult custody where they spend a significant further amount
of time before being released.
Characteristics of young people in custody
13. Children and young people in custody suffer multiple
disadvantages in terms of historic abuse, inadequate parental
care, poor educational attendance and attainments, physical and
mental health problems and substance misuse. They in general have
a high level of factors in their lives shown to be associated
with a risk of offending and re-offending. The following section
gives an overview of the characteristics of young offenders in
custody from a range of research and information sources:
Education
— Nearly half of those in custody, who are of school
age, have literacy and numeracy levels below those of the average
11 year-old. Over a quarter have literacy and numeracy levels
equivalent to an average seven year-old.
— Between a quarter and a third of juvenile prisoners
have no educational training available to them immediately before
custody.
— In a survey 84% of young people interviewed claimed
to have had periods of exclusion from school, and 86% had truanted.
Mental Health
— Available research indicates that young people
in the youth justice system have a higher prevalence of mental
health needs than the general population of young people.
— Research varies estimating that between 46% and
81% of young people in custody have mental health problems.
— One study indicated that 10% exhibited signs of
psychotic illness.
Drugs and Alcohol
A Board study in 2003 of young people in custody identified
that:
— 97% of the sample had used an illegal drug at
some point in their lifetime.
— 72% of the sample used cannabis on a daily basis
in the 12 months before their arrest.
— 51% were poly-drug users—that is they used
two or more drugs more than once a week.
— Approximately 40% had been dependent on a substance
at some point in their lives.
— 74% of the sample drank alcohol more than once
a week. The majority of drinkers regularly exceeded six units
on a single drinking occasion.
— 38% of the sample felt that their crime was related
to illegal drugs; 29% thought their crime was related to alcohol
use.
Family background
Various studies have found that:
— Between 40% and 49% of young people in custody
have a history of being in local authority care.
— Two out of five girls and one out of four boys
reported having suffered violence at home.
— One in three girls and one in 20 boys reported
sexual abuse. This abuse may have lasting emotional and psychological
consequences for the children concerned, which may impair their
capacity to benefit from regimes which are offered.
14. There are not very recent custodial reconviction
studies for this age group. The Board is undertaking research
on reconvictions, which will become available later in the year,
and research is being undertaken by Home Office RDS. The most
recent information indicated that 84% of young people discharged
from prison during 1997 were reconvicted within two years (Home
Office Prison Statistics England and Wales 2000, 2001).
Promoting rehabilitation
15. The principal aim of the youth justice system is
the prevention of offending by children and young people. The
Board is responsible for monitoring and improving the performance
of the system to meet that aim. It has been an important objective
to seek to improve the standards and services in the juvenile
secure estate in order to make it less likely that young people
sentenced to custody reoffend after their sentence. In order to
achieve this the Board has used a combination of investment, the
setting and monitoring of standards and measures to help improve
performance.
Assessment
16. The Board has developed and introduced a standardised
assessment tool, Asset, for use with young people in the youth
justice system. The tool, rolled out nationally in April 2000,
is used to identify factors associated with offending so that
they can be addressed and the risk of further offending reduced.
It is used to inform pre-sentence reports and sentence planning
with young offenders. Evaluation has shown that Asset has close
to 70% accuracy in predicting reoffending risks when properly
undertaken.
17. A key role of Yots, is to conduct a careful assessment
using Asset of young people entering the system and provide proportionate
and targeted interventions to address the factors underlying the
criminal behaviour of the young person concerned. In relation
to young people in custody, Yots have a critical role in driving
the sentence planning process. They have a responsibility for
making plans to ensure a successful rehabilitation of young people
back into their communities following discharge from custody.
Standards, effective practice and performance monitoring
18. Since the introduction of its commissioning responsibilities,
the Board has had a central role in developing the standards in
the juvenile secure estate. A combination of formal agreements
with providers, performance indicators set by the Board, guidance
on effective practice, and national standards set by the Home
Office on advice from the Board contribute to the framework.
19. With prison service establishments a Service Level
Agreement is agreed between the Board and the Prison Service.
The SLA in turn sets out a agreement that the requirements of
the key Prison Service Order relating to juvenile regimes, PSO4950,
are met. For Local Authority Secure Children's Homes the Board
provides a service specification that is linked to contracts with
the providers. LASCHs are also under mandatory requirements of
the National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes set by the
Department of Health. For Secure Training Centres the operational
specifications of contracts set out the key requirements of the
Board.
20. The Board sets out annual performance indicators
for the secure estate facilities and Yots. In relation to juvenile
secure facilities these include standards of the regimes in custody
including hours of education and learning, literacy and numeracy
attainment, and the development of training plans. Table 2 in
the annex sets out the targets as set for 2003-04.
21. National Standards for youth justice services are
issued by the Home Secretary following advice from the Youth Justice
Board and in consultation with other key departments and agencies.
They are the required minimum standards of practice which practitioners
who provide youth justice services are expected to achieve. The
standards are encapsulated within the contracts and Service Level
Agreements with secure estate providers. The National Standards
complement the Key Elements of Effective Practice and the
Board's performance indicators which seek to monitor the impact
of both of these on outcomes for young people.
22. The Board has published a series of Key Elements
of Effective Practice documents that set out the best understanding
from research and evaluation of the most effective approaches
for tackling the risks associated with offending. Fifteen documents
have been published in the series. Those most directly related
to rehabilitation include the following:
— Assessment, planning interventions and supervision.
— Education, training and employment.
— Offending behaviour programmes.
— Young people who sexually abuse.
23. To accompany the Key Elements of Effective Practice
the Board has introduced a Quality Assurance Framework. This has
been used to enable Yots to asses their level of compliance with
the guidance and to put in place plans to improve their level
of compliance. In 2004-05 the Key Elements of Effective Practice
will be applied to the juvenile secure estate. The SLA with the
Prison Service now includes making Key Elements of Effective
Practice applicable and to pilot the Quality Assurance Framework
in a YOI.
24. The Board undertakes monitoring of the secure estate
to measure performance and standards against key requirements.
A new performance management system for the juvenile secure estate
is currently being developed. A prototype, A Safe Environment,
has been operational since October 2003. This approach has included
the development of a new reporting system that brings together
all strands of secure estate operation and performance providing
a complete and coherent picture. A key area of reporting within
the new framework is both the treatment and conditions of young
people in secure establishments at each stage of the regime from
reception to resettlement.
25. The core framework is designed to focus monitoring
on the individual treatment and care of young people, framed around
each stage of the custodial process. The monitoring programme
and the intensity of the monitoring of individual establishments
will be risk and intelligence led in the sense that judgements
will be made about which performance indicators are to be monitored
and the depth of examination that is required. This is designed
to provide the Board with the ability to undertake more regular
and intense monitoring of any establishments that are indicating
high risk concerns. Following piloting, it is intended to roll
out fully the new Effective Regimes monitoring framework
over the current financial year. The overall aim is to ensure
that performance monitoring effectively contributes to continuous
and measurable performance improvement across the secure estate,
working with secure estate providers to address identified concerns.
Engagement in Education, Training and Employment
26. There is a close association between educational
disengagement and offending. Re-engagement in education, training
and employment is also shown to be a key protective factor against
further offending. Therefore, it has been a priority of the Board
to promote the engagement and re-engagement of young offenders
in education, training and employment in order to prevent offending
and reoffending. In partnership with the providers of secure accommodation
and other Departments a series of improvements in the provision
and standards of education and training in custody have been made
and there has been work to improve levels of engagement in the
community. The key elements of this programme of work have been:
— Targets for Yots to ensure that 90% of young offenders
under their supervision are in suitable full time education, training
or employment, shared with the Connexions Service.
— Targets for secure facilities on hours of education
and training provision, and literacy and numeracy assessment and
attainment.
— A full audit of education and training in Young
Offender Institutions took place in 2000-01 which informed the
Board's reform strategy.
— The PLUS literacy and numeracy strategy has been
developed which is a cross departmental approach to engaging young
people with poor attainment and is part of the DfES Skills for
Life strategy. It is jointly funded by the Board, DfES and Arts
Council England. PLUS provides a new set of high quality learning
materials, including interactive computer based materials specifically
developed to improve the basic skills of young people. In addition
there are resource materials to support teachers and a training
programme for teachers and practitioners. National rollout for
all young people in custody started in April 2003. PLUS will be
available in all custodial establishments and used in all Yots
area by the end of the year.
— There has been significant investment in education
facilities in Young Offender Institutions. Over £13 million
capital funding was provided between 2001-02 and 2002-03 used
to provide new education buildings and workshops.
— Revenue spending has increased to provide new
heads of Learning and Skills in each YOI, 250 additional learning
support assistants and additional specialist expertise including
Special Educational Needs co-ordinators in YOIs.
— A National Specification for Learning and Skills
has been developed by the Board and has been embedded into the
contractual arrangements in all sectors of the juvenile secure
estate. The specification sets out the expectations of the Board
for the delivery of learning and skills. A central principle is
that standards should be comparable to those in mainstream education.
Each young offender is assessed to determine their needs. The
curriculum includes literacy and numeracy, vocational training,
private study and offending behaviour programmes. The application
of the Board's National Specification for Learning Skills across
the juvenile estate from this year will help to ensure there are
uniform requirements subject to minor variations to take into
account of the different delivery contexts in different types
of establishment.
— Information available indicates that during 2002-03
there were 3,757 literacy and numeracy basic skills qualifications
gained by juveniles in YOIs. While there are gaps in reporting
from some establishments, during 2003-04 YOIs reported an average
of 24.1 hours of education, training and personal development
per week.
27. In recognition of identified disparities, the Board
has commissioned a review to look at the allocation of funding
for education provision between different YOIs with a view to
implementing a funding formula approach so that resources available
better match the numbers and the needs of young people in each
establishment rather than being based on historic budgets.
28. The Board is working closely with the Offenders Learning
and Skills Unit at the Department for Education and Skills on
a project to set up new combined service delivery systems for
offender education and training. A new curriculum outline for
juveniles has been jointly developed so that the new service providers
deliver a more consistent range of programmes and that vocational
courses will be available to meet the specific needs of the age
group. The Board are on the Steering Group with the Prison Service
and DfES partners planning the new arrangements for the delivery
of education in prisons and the community to ensure that juvenile
requirements are fully taken into account. The new approach to
delivering prison education through partnership working including
the Learning and Skills Council should ensure beneficial effects
on the mainstreaming of educational delivery, the quality and
consistency of service, the relevance of curriculum and on resettlement
issues, increasing the likelihood of continued engagement in education
and training post release. New prototype arrangements are planned
to be underway by September 2004. A key objective for the Board
is to use this opportunity to improve co-ordination in provision
across the custodial and community parts of a sentence for juveniles.
29. In addition to improving the provision of education
and training within custody the Board is investing £8 million
over three years from 2003-04 in providing Yots and YOIs with
more staff to support young people into education, training and
employment, in particular post release from custody. Part of this
resource has been deployed in 2003-04 through Connexions Partnerships
in eight areas to provide more intensive input, particularly where
young people have special difficulties, into their placements
and support them back into schools and colleges or employment.
In 2004-05 the Board will widen participation in this project
to a further 24 Yots, targeting high risk young people on Detention
and Training Orders and the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance
Programme. This will include extending the work in Wales where
Yots will work with Young People's Partnerships and Careers Wales,
within the policy of Extending Entitlement, to ensure better levels
of engagement.
30. This work builds on the Board's wider strategy to
promote engagement in education, training and employment and to
meet the Board target for Yots on engagement. The target is jointly
held with the Connexions Service and there has been joint work
to promote working between Connexions partnerships and Yots including
the issuing of guidance to education practitioners and Connexions
Personal Assistants working in the youth justice system.
31. While there has been progress in promoting the engagement
of young offenders in education, training and employment on release
to the community there are some identified barriers remaining.
In relation to post 16 sector the following have been identified
and the Board is seeking to address with key partners:
— Inability of colleges to provide roll-on/roll-off
courses with flexible access and geared to the specific needs
of this hard to reach group. A delay of three or four months in
starting a course may cause a young person returning to the community
from custody to become demotivated and resume offending. Early
engagement is more likely to be successful.
— Lack of intensive mentoring support to help young
people get motivated, sort out day to day practicalities of getting
into education and sustaining the placement.
— Shortage of additional support for learning in
colleges in the form of mentors and learning support assistance.
— The need to develop further relations between
Learning and Skills Councils and Yots and the Connexions Service
locally.
Health and Substance Misuse
32. Addressing the health and substance misuse needs
of young offenders has been another priority of the Board in order
to help prevent reoffending and promote rehabilitation. Key developments
have included:
— The development of a mental health screening tool,
Key Elements of Effective Practice guidance and training on mental
health and substance misuse.
— The Board is working in partnership with the Department
of Health and Prison Service on the transfer of health service
commissioning to Primary Care Trusts local to each YOI. With the
added local resources for PCTs and new investment from the Department
of Health, there is an opportunity to raise the standard of health
care for young people in these establishments by building on the
positive work delivered by health teams.
— Targets for secure facilities require that each
young offender is assessed for substance abuse and vulnerability
on arrival at an establishment.
— Agreement between the Board and National Treatment
Agency for a new performance indicator from April 2004 requiring
the identification of young people with substance misuse needs
as they come into the youth justice system and access to specialist
assessment, early intervention and appropriate treatment.
33. Following the 2002 Spending Review £30 million
additional funding over three years has been made available to
improve substance misuse services for young people in custody
and to provide integrated care plans that span both custody and
community parts of Detention and Training Orders. An audit of
existing services and facilities and research into levels and
types of need were undertaken to inform the development of a new
strategy.
34. The research showed that young people in the youth
justice system have the highest prevalence of substance misuse,
including Class A drugs, of all groups of vulnerable young people.
The audit indicated variations in service provisions with 66%
of establishments offering detoxification for drugs and 44% for
alcohol.
35. Central to the new strategy has been the development
of a National Specification for Substance Misuse for Juveniles
in Custody in partnership with the Home Office, Department for
Education and Skills, National Treatment Agency and Department
of Health which forms the basis of new services and will be built
into contractual arrangements with all sectors of the juvenile
secure estate. The strands of the new strategy include work on
the following areas:
— additional specialist substance misuse staff and
managers being recruited within the secure estate;
— improved provision of assessment and screening;
— provision of education and prevention programmes;
— detoxification and clinical treatment available
to all secure facilities;
— support programmes available to assist changes
in substance misuse; and
— improved post-release support.
36. To improve post release support, resources are being
used to develop a number of Resettlement and Aftercare Provision
(RAP) schemes. RAP schemes will be implemented during 2004 and
will provide resources to give intensive support for the resettlement
of high-risk young people with substance misuse and mental health
needs.
Offending behaviour work
37. There has been work undertaken on a juvenile offending
behaviour programme strategy and part of this strategy is to evaluate
the effectiveness of current provision and to ensure that programmes
meet the Board's Effective Practice guidance and are properly
integrated into the wider education curriculum. The National Specification
for Learning and Skills promotes a close relationship between
offence related work and education and training offered in custody.
The primary aim is to ensure that young people in custody are
accessing education that is delivered in accordance with the national
specification. The curriculum should be flexible enough to ensure
that issues to do with offending consequences and rights and responsibilities
are covered within this.
38. There are currently limited opportunities for the
treatment of sex offenders in the juvenile secure estate. Pilot
programmes are taking place in three Prison Service sites and
building on the experience from the pilots, the Board intends
to commission suitable arrangement across the estate to commence
in April 2005.
39. The Home Office has established an inter-departmental
working group (involving the Board, Prison Service, National Probation
Service, Department of Health, and the Department for Education
and Skills) on young people who sexually abuse. The working group
is developing a national strategy for the treatment and management
of young sex offenders. Part of this work also involves examining
current service provision and identifying priorities for service
development. The provision of assessment and treatment services
for young sex offenders in custody has been identified as a particular
priority.
Social Services support in YOIs
40. In November 2002 the High Court ruled unequivocally
that the Children Act did apply to children detained in YOIs and
that duties owed by local authorities to children generally, continue
to be owed to children in YOIs. Following the judgement and also
in response to the publication of the Joint Inspectors report,
Safeguarding Children, a multi-agency review group including
the Board has considered the implications and issued a report.
The Board is implementing a central recommendation of that report
by funding the employment of 25 local authority social workers
to help fulfil local authority duties under the Children Act 1989
for children in YOIs. The Board recognises that it will be vital
that these staff ensure that they are not working in isolation
from key agencies, notably social services and Yots.
Close to Home Placements
41. The Board recognises that if young people can be
placed in custody relatively close to their home area this can
help facilitate links with their families and Youth Offending
Teams, both of which can support rehabilitation. The Board has
aimed to ensure that 90% of children are placed within 50 miles
of home but has faced difficulties in making sufficient progress.
The Board aims to place young people in the most suitable accommodation
available at the time, closeness to home being one among other
factors. Therefore, meeting the aim has had to be balanced against
other considerations including quality of regimes provided in
particular sectors and establishments and pressures on the secure
estate, (a particular challenge in 2002), and the wider need to
make the most appropriate placement of young offenders in relation
to their age and assessed vulnerability. At the end of December
2003, there were 75% of remands and 67% of sentenced juveniles
placed within 50 miles of home. The overall average was 69%.
Staffing and Workforce Development
42. It is the Board's view that to meet its objectives
for the juvenile secure estate that those working in the estate
need to be in a stable workforce, who are motivated to work with
children and who are suitably trained.
43. The Board and the Prison Service have revised the
prison officer indication programme from September 2003 to include
additional period of training focused specifically on working
with children and young people. The Board and the Prison Service
have agreed a new programme of Prison Officer Entry Level Training,
known as the Juvenile Awareness Staff Programme (JASP), which
is now mandatory for all new and transferred staff.
44. The Board has developed a new qualifications framework
for youth justice staff both in the community and in custodial
settings. The core element of the framework is the Professional
Certificate in Effective Practice (Youth Justice) and this will
be integrated into the secure estate from April 2004 through the
SLA. A workforce mapping exercise is being carried out and this
will informed the setting of targets for the proportion of staff
working with juveniles who will take suitable professional qualifications
in line with the national qualifications framework.
45. The Board is seeking to increase mobility between
the custodial and community sections of the youth justice system
so that career development may be facilitated by increasing expertise
and experience in caring for children and at the same time improving
understanding and sharing of skills between the two sectors.
Sentence Planning and Resettlement
46. National standards for youth justice make it clear
that Yots should take the lead in sentence planning for Detention
and Training Orders. The Board's performance indicators for Yots
include requiring that all initial training plans for young people
subject to DTOs are drawn up within the timescales prescribed
by national standards.
47. The ethos behind sentence planning is that resettlement
should build on information gathered at pre-sentence, and at reception/induction
into custody, where issues surrounding a young person's offending
are identified and addressed in liaison with the Yot and appropriate
professionals. Multi-agency working, communication and clarity
of roles are the aims across the estate.
48. National Standard for youth justice include the following
requirements:
— including resettlement objectives into sentence
planning from the earliest stages;
— including all relevant resettlement stakeholders
in the sentence planning process;
— compulsory review meetings one month before discharge
and 10 days after;
— compulsory meeting with supervising officer on
day of discharge;
— minimum of one visit per month by Yot supervising
officer during custodial phase of sentence supplemented by contact
at least twice weekly; and
— minimum requirements for the assessment of need
and the delivery of accommodation, education, health and Connexions
advice and guidance services.
49. However the Board recognises there is room for improvement
in how sentence planning is undertaken in practice and in order
to improve continuity between the custodial and community parts
of a sentence. One new development being undertaken is the development
of an electronic sentence management system that systemises the
sentence planning process within YOIs from assessment, through
planning and into review. The Asset Sentence Management System
(SMS) will hold case files on young people and using Asset will
identify the areas that represent the greatest risk of re-offending
(eg substance misuse, education), and encourage interventions
to be planned against those high-risk areas. Use of Asset in this
way within custody will enable more consistent handover of information
between community and custody at the beginning and end of the
custodial period. The system is being piloted in two YOIs (Wetherby
and Lancaster Farms) and will be evaluated before further roll-out.
Promising practice in sentence planning and resettlement
50. While it is recognised that further work is need
to improve resettlement there are a number of promising initiatives
which, pending evaluation, can inform the development of future
work.
51. The HMYOI Feltham-model is based on co-ordination
and has moved away from direct casework. It was felt that there
were many service providers who could carry out casework, but
there was clearly a lack of co-ordination. The model has resulted
in multi-disciplinary attendance at sentence planning meetings
and diverse information and feedback in young people's training
plans. Feltham also has practical "working agreements"
with all agencies, which have been published. This helps to ensure
multi-disciplinary attendance and input and the agreements have
helped to clarify individual roles and ensure effective communication.
This also promotes an agreed approach to assessing need and risk
and to the allocation of targets in sentence plans. There is close
working with the Head of Learning and Skills and the Voluntary
Services Coordinator and good attendance at the local Resettlement
Committee.
52. Bullwood Hall operates a personal officer scheme
whereby personal officers prepare sentence planning paperwork,
increasingly attend the reviews and liase with family and Yot
workers. An education representative attends all reviews and assists
in planning Education, training or employment placement on release.
Connexions interview young women and then feedback to Connexions
at the local Yot. Provision is made for release on temporary licence
(ROTL) for resettlement needs and community services volunteer
(CSV) opportunities offered where young women are eligible. Custodial
drugs services liaise with Yots and community drug services and
the newly-appointed substance misuse manager will further develop
specification for work in this area. Relevant agencies are invited
to sentence planning meetings. Accommodation issues are addressed
by Yot workers and needs reviewed throughout the sentence.
53. Planned Resettlement into Sustainable Employment
(PRISE) is a European Social Funded initiative formed from a wide
partnership of statutory and voluntary sector agencies. The lead
partner is Rainer and the YJB and Prison Service are major stakeholders.
The initiative has been running since early 2003 and is piloting
holistic resettlement approaches in three areas, London (Greenwich
and Lewisham), Kent and Oldham. The prison establishments linked
into PRISE are Hindley and Huntercombe and the plan is to case
manage and follow 200 young people over the life of the project
and evaluate the results. Substance misuse specialists are now
planned to be employed within each of the PRISE projects.
Mainstream services
54. While there has been progress in integrating the
work of mainstream services in the youth justice system and there
are examples of promising practice, this is a key area that needs
to be further improved if young people are to be resettled successfully
into the community beyond the end of their contact with youth
justice services. There are significant difficulties in accessing
sufficient services on release with regard to education, accommodation,
substance misuse and mental heath that need to be addressed further.
55. The importance of co-ordinating work with mainstream
service providers was recognised in both the National Audit Office
and Audit Commission reports on the youth justice system published
in February 2004. A number of recommendations made, particularly
on health, education and accommodation, have a direct impact on
the resettlement agenda. Amongst the recommendations are the following:
— Schools should retain responsibility for education
of young people remanded or given a custodial sentence—the
funding should follow the young person and only return to school
when the young person does.
— Targets should be set for schools and LEAs and
other agencies to reduce the number of known offenders in the
NEET (Not in education, employment or training) group.
— The Department of Health should ensure better
mental health care facilities for young people transferred from
custody are developed. Clear guidelines are needed on which cases
should be referred to outside agencies and when required which
institution will retain responsibility.
— Government should pilot and develop small supported
units of accommodation with high levels of supervision and care.
Set a joint target for local authority housing and social services
for the provision of appropriate accommodation for the under 18s.
— Connexions should provide extra support for colleges
that deal with difficult young people and should be responsible
for facilitating the link between a young persons school and the
custodial estate.
56. While there has been progress in delivering improved
resettlement and rehabilitation services in the juvenile sector,
in recognition of the complex needs of the client group and the
need to improve the co-ordination of services across different
agencies the Board intends to take the lead in setting up a new
national resettlement steering group involving all key agencies
to provide joint policy direction steer and support co-ordinated
work at the regional level.
Use of Custody
57. It is critical that services in custody and on transition
to the community are as effective as possible. However, the Board
also seeks to ensure that custody is only used where appropriate
and as a last resort. A key aim of the Board has been to promote
the confidence of community sentences. The Board also seeks to
address disparities in use of the custody between different areas
that cannot be explained by the seriousness of the cases before
the courts. The Board aims to reduce the need to use custody for
young people, and in particular short custodial sentences that
can provide particularly ineffective.
58. High numbers of young people in custody can destabilise
establishments, limit the ability to place young people close
to home, and can lead to transfers around the juvenile estate
undermining constructive work with young people.
59. Measures taken by the Board in relation to the use
of custody include:
— the development and rollout in England and Wales
of the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme, primarily
used with community sentences as a robust alternative to custody.
The programme includes at least 25 hours per week constructive
activity during the first three months of programme, in five key
areas (education and training, interventions to tackle offending
behaviour, reparation to victim or the community, assistance in
developing interpersonal skills and family support);
— the publication and dissemination every six months
of information showing the relative use of custodial and community
sentences in each Yot area, highlighting regional variations;
— work in 10 Yot areas where the use of custody
appears to be high—action plans have been developed based
on an analysis of factors underlying the high use of custody and
good practice lessons emerging from this project will be introduced
in all Yot areas in 2004;
— publication of good practice guidance for Yots
working in the courts, which will improve the effectiveness and
credibility of Yots in court in promoting alternatives to custody
(including a video resources for Yot practitioners); and
— steps to improve communication with all those
responsible for sentencing, to promote understanding of the Board's
strategy, and of the robust alternatives to custody that are available.
60. There is evidence to show that young people on ISSP
in the community receive significantly greater access to programmes
to tackle offending risk factors than those on short DTOs. A study
commissioned by the Board in 2003 showed that the 25 hours of
activity on ISSP in the intensive phase compared to a weekly average
of about 13 hours purposeful activity for a young person serving
a short DTO (four month or six months total sentence) in a YOI
during the custodial phase.
61. While the numbers held in the juvenile secure estate
reduced by 11.5% between October 2002 and October 2003 since then
there has been an increase in numbers again, with a particularly
sharp rise in the first three months of 2004 over and above any
expected seasonal trend. The Board is currently investigating
the reasons for the increased use of custody.
Conclusion
62. The Youth Justice Board has been commissioning secure
accommodation for young people for four years, since April 2000.
In that period, there have been significant developments in the
provision of services and approaches to improve the rehabilitation.
However it is evident that there is still scope for further improvement,
in particular in the successful transition from custody to community
and the engagement in the system of other agencies that can provide
services to address the key risk factors in young offenders lives
associated with offending and reoffending.
May 2004
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