Youth Justice Strategic Plan Executive summary

The principal aim of the youth justice system established by Section 37 of the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) is to prevent offending by children and young people. Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) were identified as one of the main vehicles by which this principle aim would be delivered.

In 1998 guidance outlined the statutory responsibility for local areas to establish a steering group; this is the Gateshead YJS. The initial function of the Gateshead YJS was to oversee the establishment of the YOT. In order to build on this and ensure that supporting arrangements are sufficiently robust and flexible to respond to local priorities, but also to the public service performance agenda emerging from the Youth Justice Board and central Government, the Gateshead Youth Justice Board needs to ensure the following responsibilities are addressed.

Gateshead Youth Justice Board must ensure suitable governance arrangements are in place for the YJS.

• the Gateshead Youth Justice Board is chaired by the strategic director for children, adults and families. This group should be able to use YJS management information to inform strategic planning decisions aimed at preventing youth crime, safeguarding children and young people, and protecting the public

• reporting requirements to other stakeholders need to be clearly defined and understood, including those to local authority members, the police authority, national probation service, safeguarding children partnership, clinical commissioning group etc

• the Gateshead Youth Justice Board is responsible for ensuring the delivery of the local Youth Justice Plan. It agrees the draft Youth Justice Plan and receives progress updates as to implementation

• the Gateshead Youth Justice Board monitors quarterly updates from the YJS head of service on performance against key targets and initiatives

The Gateshead Youth Justice Board must:

• ensure that the YJS is adequately resourced with equitable contributions from all partner agencies in order to deliver effective services and ensure infrastructure needs are addressed as stipulated in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• facilitate the development of an appropriately qualified staff group ensuring access to appropriate training and development opportunities to address any competence deficits identified
• ensure that a significant proportion of total staff from the five statutory agencies remain in the YJS to form a core staff group and in addition, that seconded staff are rotated from time to time, providing access to up to date expertise
• actively monitor YJS performance against YJS performance measures/targets as well as locally agreed targets and takes corrective action in response to underperformance as appropriate
• actively ensure that the young people the YJS works with have access to mainstream services
• consider operational difficulties in relation to services for young people and hold partners to account
• ensure that prevention services are being offered to young people at risk of offending
• oversee the YJS' business planning process including the Youth Justice Plan and the commissioning of local services
• integrate the YJS performance system with those, applying to local criminal justice boards, community safety and children's services

The Gateshead Youth Justice Board requires clear lines of communication with other inter-agency structures to support it in reducing youth offending. These include:

• crime and disorder partnerships
• safeguarding children partnership
• community safety partnership
• local criminal justice boards
• probation boards
• clinical commissioning group
• health and wellbeing board

With the complexity this level of activity creates, members of the Gateshead Youth Justice Board will represent the YJS' issues in these groups to ensure that they contribute to preventing youth crime.

The Gateshead Youth Justice Board must be chaired by a Chief Officer and:

• comprise of all statutory partners and other agencies that can make a significant contribution to the youth crime prevention agenda
• ensure that board members are at chief officer level or representatives with sufficient seniority to be able to commit resources and take necessary decisions
• ensure that board members have corporate ownership of the YJS and the youth crime prevention agenda

The statutory partners are:

• the local authority
• police
• probation service
• health (health is defined as a "clinical commissioning group" or "local health board" by the Crime and Disorder Act 1988)

In line with recommendations in 'sustaining the success' and local needs, non-statutory members on Gateshead YJS include:

• courts
• education
• voluntary sector
• public health
• volunteers
• other identified local departments

Shared values

• listening and responding to young people, parents/carers, victims and volunteers is integral to Gateshead YJS

• young people, parents/carers, victims and volunteer's views are taken seriously

• young people, parents/carers, victims and volunteers should be involved in new or existing initiatives and their views inform those activities

• young people parents/carers, victims and volunteers are provided with timely feedback about how their views and comments are being responded to

Young people attending the YJS Board

We have asked young people to attend the YJS board meetings to outline what their experiences of the YJS has been. This has offered the opportunity to board members to understand the journey of the child through the criminal justice system and it has also helped them to understand how their agencies have had an impact on a child's life. By meeting with a young person face to face it has been possible to ask questions about service delivery and areas for improvement.

The circumstances of some of our most complex young people are discussed anonymously within the YJS board meeting and members provide challenge and partnership working to ensure the needs of the young people are met.

Parent/carer representation

Gateshead YJS has parent/carer representation on the board, which has allowed for a greater appreciation and understanding of the Youth Justice System experience from a different perspective. This has helped us to understand what works well and to consider areas for development in the way in which we engage with young people and their families during all phases of assessment and intervention.

Self-assessments

Case managers employ interviewing skills which allow them to explore with the young person their own story. Each young person completes the YJB self-assessments as part of their assessment. These documents are used to understand the young person's perspective, their strengths and challenges. Parents and carers are also asked to complete these forms so it can help us understand how we can best meet the needs of their young person and support the family.

Exit interviews

All young people are contacted towards the end of their intervention to seek their views through an exit questionnaire. This questionnaire helps us to understand what the young person perceived their order to be, what interventions they participated in and how useful they found this in avoiding further offending. Young people are also asked how services could be improved to better meet their needs.

Championing our young people

Gateshead YJS advocates on behalf of young people who may not otherwise be heard. Case managers and advocates are extremely skilled in engaging with young people. By listening to the young person and putting them at the centre of all the work we do we can build trusting relationships and effect positive change. Working together with other agencies and voluntary organisations makes it possible to ensure that the voice of the child is heard and a co-ordinated approach to intervention is achieved. Members of the YJS sit on various panels and ensure that individual young people are brought to the attention of those making decisions about their future.