33. Third supplementary memorandum submitted
by the Home Office
In the course of evidence to the Home Affairs
Select Committee on 8 March, I undertook to provide further information
on a number of points around parenting, individual support orders
and anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs).
PARENTING
The Committee asked about funding for parenting
orders. Parenting orders are one element in the cross-government
drive on parenting in general.
The DfES Green Paper Every Child Matters
(September 2003) and Every Child Matters: Change for Children
(December 2004) set out the Government vision for children's services.
The reforms aim to shift services toward prevention and intervention
in an integrated way, before the child reaches crisis point. These
papers also highlighted the critical importance of family support
and parenting in determining outcomes for young people.
The Parenting Fund was first announced in the
2002 Spending Review: £25 million over 2003-04 to 2005-06,
to go to voluntary and community sector organisations. The objectives
of the Parenting Fund include increasing parenting provision,
strengthening sector infrastructure and increase provision and
access for groups currently less well served, including Black
and Minority Ethnic and faith-based community organisations, fathers,
families of older children and parents with special needs.
The Parenting Fund is being delivered in a number
of ways:
— In 2003-04, 12 national organisations
were awarded £1.7 million, mainly for infrastructure development
and helpline projects.
— Over 2004-05 to 2005-06, £4.6
million was awarded to five Voluntary and Community sector helpline
organisations (led by Parentline Plus) to improve helpline provision
to parents.
— Over 2004-05 to 2005-06, the bulk
of the Parenting Fund (£16.4 million) has been made available
in an open bidding round, with targeting for certain groups and
geographical areas. This part of the Parenting Fund has been managed
by an external fundholder, the National Family and Parenting Institute
(NFPI). NFPI assessed the bids, and announcements of the funding
to 139 projects were made on 12 October 2004.
PARENTING ORDERS
Parenting Orders were introduced by the Crime
and Disorder Act in 1998 and are available where a child safety
order is made in respect of a child under 10, where a child or
young person is convicted of a criminal offence, where an anti-social
behaviour order or a sex offender order is made in respect of
a child or a young person under 18 or a parent is convicted of
an offence under the Education Act 1996 in connection with school
attendance.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 strengthened
requirements on courts to make a parenting order where an ASBO
is made for a 10-15 year old, allows Local Education Authorities
(LEAs) to apply for a stand-alone parenting order in cases of
exclusion or serious misbehaviour and for a YOT to apply for a
parenting order where a child or young person has engaged in anti-social
or criminal behaviour. The Act also provides a statutory basis
for LEAs and YOTs to enter into parenting contracts.
Parenting, through voluntary programmes, contracts
and orders are therefore used as part of local action on anti-social
behaviour in various circumstances—attaching a parenting
order to an ASBO is not the only means. For example, a court may
decide that a parenting order is not necessary where parents are
voluntarily participating in a parenting programme, or where a
contract is in place.
The YJB, through YOTs, are largely responsible
for the delivery of parenting interventions in relation to crime
and anti-social behaviour. Funding comes from the YJB, local authorities,
the probation service and other statutory agencies. YOTs are on
course to deliver around 8,000 programmes in a full year at a
cost of £5 million.
YJB figures for all parenting orders and voluntary
interventions by YOTs over the period April—December 2004
are as follows:
| PO—Crime |
PO—Education | PO—Referral Orders
| Parenting Order—ASBO | Parenting Order—Sex Offender Order
| Parenting Order—CSO | PO—Applied for by YOT
| PO—Applied for by LEA | Total
|
| Totals | 739 | 194
| 155 | 20 (May 04-Dec 04) |
0 | 0 | 41 | 13
| 1,162 |
| Voluntary Parenting Interventions
| Contracts | |
| | | |
| |
| Total | 4,551 | 659
| | | |
| | | |
| | |
| | | |
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Mr Clappison asked about resources provided in relation to
parenting orders attached to ASBOs. It was expected that additional
parenting orders would be made as a result of changes to parenting
orders in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act. £83,125 for these
additional orders is being provided to the YJB and this is being
paid during 2004-05 and the situation will be kept under review.
Funding is based on the assumption that an additional 175
parenting orders would be made each year at a cost of £475
each. In the nine month period for which we have figures (April
to December 2004) only 20 such parenting orders have been made,
though the cost of the parenting programmes provided under the
orders has since been calculated as £625. This figure takes
account of average YOT costs for the management and delivery of
parenting programmes whether on a group work or individual basis.
We expect that numbers will increase as practitioners become more
aware of the use of parenting orders linked to ASBOs and more
familiar with them.
£1.5 million was also provided to the YJB during 2003-04
for additional parenting work associated with anti-social behaviour.
YOTs spent a significant proportion of this funding on measures
such as staff training, which will increase their capacity to
deliver parenting orders in the future.
In addition to parenting orders and parenting interventions
on a voluntary basis the Anti-social Behaviour Unit is active
in promoting other types of family support.
Since October 2004, the Together Trailblazers have been establishing
new projects to work with families involved in anti-social behaviour
to support them to change their behaviour. These anti-social behaviour
family support projects work with families who have been evicted
because of their behaviour or who are on the cusp of eviction.
They combine enforcement and support to ensure lasting changes,
breaking the cycle of anti-social behaviour that damages communities,
neighbours and the families themselves. The projects prioritise
the families who are most heavily involved in anti-social behaviour,
for many it offers a "last chance" to engage with services
and turn their lives around. Flexible packages of support are
offered, including parenting support, parents groups, anger management,
counselling and help with particular issues like drug and alcohol
misuse.
The Home Office made £400,000 available to support Trailblazer
anti-social behaviour family projects in 2004-05, and a further
£1 million in 2005-06. In February 2004 the 50 Together Action
Areas were also offered funding to set up anti-social behaviour
family support projects. A total of £1.25 million of Home
Office funding has been set aside for this.
In total, in 2005-06, the Home Office is providing £2.25
million to support projects that work with families involved in
the most serious neighbourhood nuisance on estates and in other
residential neighbourhoods. It is expected that Home Office resources
will be enhanced by other funding at local level—including
from local authority and regeneration budgets.
INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT
ORDERS
Individual support orders (ISOs) were created by the 2003
Criminal Justice Act. They have been available since May 2004
to be used alongside ASBOs for 10 to 17 year olds. ISOs ensure
that support is provided to enable people to stick to the terms
of their ASBO, and to help them address underlying issues and
stop anti-social behaviour in the long term.
ISOs, like parenting orders, can only be attached to ASBOs
made on application in the magistrates' court.
The YJB have committed to absorb the first £500k of
the costs of ISOs into their mainstream budgets. The YJB are keen
to see ISOs used effectively within local strategies on anti-social
behaviour and will be working with YOTs to ensure that this intervention
is used to its full potential at local level. Forthcoming YJB/Home
Office joint guidance will highlight the importance of ISOs as
a crucial element of effective local action to tackle anti-social
behaviour among young people. In April 2005 the YJB will start
gathering information from YOTs about the use of ISOs at local
level; this information will be valuable in monitoring the use
of ISOs and promoting their use.
Information gathered by the Home Office as part of the process
of collecting ASBO statistics indicates that only five ISOs were
made between May and September 2004. We expect that numbers will
increase, as practitioners become more aware of the existence
of ISOs and more familiar with their use.
ASBOS
The Committee asked about figures around consecutive and
concurrent sentences for ASBO breach. I refer to the committee
to the table at Annex A which gives data on breach and sentencing
for ASBOs for the period from June 2000 to December 2003 (latest
data available) during which period 1,892 ASBOs had been issued.
The table is broken down by age (10-17 and 18+).
THE COST
OF KEEPING
JUVENILES IN
CUSTODY
The Committee asked about the annual cost of keeping somebody
in a young offenders' institution. The annual cost is £50,800,
(estimated by the YJB and quoted by the National Audit Office
in its report Youth offending: the delivery of community and
custodial sentences).
17 March 2005
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