Youth Justice Strategic Plan Executive summary

What our young people say

Is there anything at all you think we should know about your experience of YJS?

'Mint worker to work with, helped me loads at times even with stuff that was irrelevant to YOT and I appreciate that. Cheers'

Is there anything else we could have done for you?

'No, everything was cush'

'Made me realise my actions have consequences. And to think before acting where possible'

'I think Gary Payton is a really good Youth Justice worker. I got on well with him and thought he listened and understood me'

'Very good and supportive'

'Frank has been really supportive, as he showed me new skills that I can use further on in life, and in my CV. Gill has offered me tremendous amount of opportunity's and has been the best YOT worker I could of asked for. If I've needed a hand or even just someone to talk to, I knew Gill would always be a call away. She's also helped me develop so many new life skills during the time of my rep and to help me with day to day tasks.'

'On my rep sessions I had to litter-pick around Birtley, which was filthy, filling large black sacks to the top with rubbish. This has showed me how much time I could waste off my life by doing something stupid. I am sorry for what I had done, and it will never happen again. I have learned from my mistakes.'

Case study 1

A 17-year-old young person was referred into the YJS for intervention due to concerns around inappropriate sexual behaviour, however none of these incidents were proven offences. The Police had significant concerns regarding his behaviour but were unable to take formal action. The YJS started to work with him and challenged his behaviour and completed intervention regarding appropriate sexual relationships. There have been no further incidents to date, the young person appears to have insight into his actions, understands the concerns and is aware of the consequences of this behaviour in the future. The young person recently gave some feedback to his case manager, he said "I never thought I would be able to speak to you as openly as I can. I don't think I need to see you anymore as you have helped me get into a better place. Thank You". The YJS will continue to maintain contact with the young person to ensure he remains on a positive pathway.

Case study 2

Two young people were seen on CCTV trespassing on school premises. These two young people have a history of behaviour issues. One young person was previously open to the YJS and the other was receiving intervention from the Complex Child in Need Team.

Both young people have complex family backgrounds, and both were attending the Pupil Referral Unit. They were offered the opportunity to take part in restorative work with the YJS in relation to them trespassing on school property. Both successfully engaged in this intervention and apologised for their behaviour. As a result of this intervention the police were not contacted, and these young people were not criminalised for their behaviour.

Case study 3

This young person finished formal intervention with the YJS approximately 18 months ago. There was a recent incident within the family home which was reported to police. A Child Concern Notification was submitted, there were no imminent safeguarding concerns, so the YJS agreed to contact the family. The case was allocated to the original worker and when he rang the family, they remembered the work he did. The worker supported the family over the phone until they felt that the issues had been resolved and they did not require any further intervention. The family were comforted by the offer of support and the follow up from the same case manager they had worked with previously. This case demonstrates how agencies worked together to offer support.

Case study 4

This young person was permanently excluded for having drugs in school. He is being investigated by police for Possession with Intent to Supply. This young person has no previous Out of Court Disposals or court interventions. He is predicted excellent GCSE results.

The YJS worked with the young person, family, education department, substance misuse services, voluntary agencies and Children & Young Peoples Service to put a plan of intervention in place to support him. A representative from the YJS attended an education meeting and advocated that he should be allowed to return to mainstream education in a managed way. As a result of this the young person was accepted into another mainstream school.

Case study 5

Young female (14) attacked a student in school; filmed by peers. Early Help worker is undertaking the 'Fired Up' programme along with victim awareness work and consequential thinking using the Teen Talk resource and using the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme 'Twisted Thinking' traps and losses/gains scaling tools. The worker has supported a managed move to a new school and reports increased reflection and emotional stability from the young person.

National Standards Audit

The National Standards Operational self-assessment considered over 60 cases. Each case was audited against the specific standards, a percentage of compliance was ascertained using this method. This audit demonstrated that the service was largely compliant with all elements. Some relatively simple amendments needed to be made to practice ensuring there was robust evidence of compliance on all the operational standards. A development plan has been put in place to support the recommendations that came out of the audits.

The National Standards strategic self-assessment was completed by two volunteers who sit on the Gateshead YJS. All board members were consulted on the National Standards audit and a number of recipients were also interviewed to get a greater understanding of their knowledge of the YJS functions. Some areas of understanding were highlighted as areas of weakness in knowledge, but these were taken into account at a subsequent development session with the board. The outcome of the audit was positive but a lot of the development that has taken place over the past two years has been in relation to these findings.

HMIP annual review of Youth Justice Service, HMIP COVID-19 Thematic Inspection and the YJS annual review

In December 2020 it was agreed that a benchmarking exercise would be undertaken by Gateshead YJS against recent HMIP Annual review of Youth Justice Service, HMIP COVID-19 Thematic Inspection, Recent HMIP inspections and the YJS annual review. An in-depth analysis of the recommendations in these reports were cross referenced against Gateshead YJS. The results of these finding have been put into a development plan and have fed into the priorities in this report for the next two years. Gateshead YJS has taken the learning from these reports to ensure service delivery is robust.

Key findings showed that there was not significant court delays however this is being carefully monitored, and will be escalated to the Board if it becomes an issue. Gateshead YJS continues to work in a number of ways with young people including remote contact, face to face, walk and talk, telephone and email. The team have employed creative approaches and utilised community venues. Even if a case manager cannot enter the young person's home (due to shielding or other COVID-19 related issue), the worker is undertaking doorstep visits. The service has requested (and provided) several laptops to young people as a direct result of a board decision. We have bought low cost mobile phones to support young people to maintain contact. Virtual meetings are working well and have had a positive impact on attendance and engagement.

From the spring of 2021, HMIP will be introducing a specific new standard on the quality of resettlement work from custody. All partners have been made aware of the importance of working together for the best outcomes for this small cohort of young people. Trends in the severity of young people's offending is considered as part of the performance subgroup and escalated to the board if there are concerns. Intelligence regarding County Lines and the exploitation of young people is to be monitored and shared. Health, Education and Looked After Children are areas where regular reports would be helpful to understand what is available to young people in Gateshead and what the current position is.

Other key findings in the reports have been taken to the performance subgroup for further exploration of the data.

Exploring racial disparity - local data analysis

The YJS published 'the disproportionality journey of the child', in August 2020. The over-representation of BAME in the youth justice system is a complex issue. The findings of the recent work shared in August 2020 concluded it remains clear that nationally ethnic disproportionality remains a concerning issue. Black children are still more likely to be arrested, more likely to be held in custody on remand, receive generally harsher penalties and, shockingly, children from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds now make up more than half of all children in custody.

The Gateshead picture

Gateshead's Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)1 estimates that around 3.7% (7,500) of the population are from a black and minority ethnic (BAME) group. The BAME population has increased from around 1.6% in 2001. This does not include Gateshead's Orthodox Jewish community. Over 3,000 people state that their religion is Jewish, although this also includes the non-orthodox Jewish population.

In order to understand if BAME children were over-represented in Gateshead some work was undertaken to profile the ethnicity of those children and young people who were involved with Gateshead YJS between April 2017 and August 2020.

The local analysis showed that between April 2017 and August 2020:

• 672 children and young people were open to the service, of which 19 (2.8%) had a BAME background
• 2.8% with a BAME background is lower than the Gateshead BAME population estimate of 3.7% in the JSNA, suggesting BAME young people are not overrepresented in Gateshead YJS cases
• a difference was noted with 53% of BAME young people within the period receiving statutory interventions (e.g. youth caution, referral orders, custody etc) compared with 39% from a white ethnic background. However, while these figures would indicate BAME young people are more likely to receive a statutory outcome the actual number of cases is very small so caution needs to be exercised when drawing any conclusions i.e. 10 BAME cases (out of 19) and 255 white British cases (out of 652)

The work of the YJS asked YJS teams and partners to look at the evidence and ask ourselves, "are children from BAME backgrounds over-represented in my area? If so, can I explain why that is, and if I can't, what am I going to do about it?". The conclusion of the group was children and young people do not appear to be overrepresented in the Gateshead YJS system.

Benchmarking exercise

There are signs in some of the YOTs we have inspected over the last year that teenage knife crime may be coming back under control, but the most recent national knife crime statistics show that knife crime continues to increase year on year.

Of all offences committed by young people open to the Gateshead Youth Justice Service the number of proven offences involving weapons, and specifically knives, has remained relatively low since 2018. It is worth noting that since 2018 the total number of offences has decreased meaning the proportion of weapon (and knife) offences has increased.

National data shows that in England and Wales for 2019/20 there were 4,400 knife and offensive weapon offences committed by children and this was a 1% reduction compared to the previous year. In Gateshead there was in the same period there was a 1% increase which was an increase of 3 offences year on year for weapon offences of which there was an increase of 1 knife offence (also 1%).

The data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 are subject to change due to offences occurring within the report period that have not yet received an outcome (i.e. are not proven) and the potential impact of this is shown in the tables below:

Annual number of offences with weapons

 
As YOT caseloads have shrunk, they have become more dominated by violent offences. These made up 50 per cent of the court cases of the 16 services we published inspection reports on in the last year. They account for 30 per cent of all proven offences by children in the national statistics - an increase of 10 percentage points since 2009. Violence is also the most common type of offence in out-of-court disposals (47 per cent of the cases we looked at in these samples). Gateshead cohort size has shrunk from 123 to 44 between 2016 and 2021. In 2009 the cohort size was 520 which further illustrates the reduction in the number of young people coming into the service. As the cohort sizes have reduced the nature offending has predominately remained the same violent offences have become a more significant proportion of proven offences. For the year 2020/21 Violent offences accounted for 55% of the court cases in Gateshead (72 of 132 disposals) an increase of 31% since 2009.

Impact of COVID-19

It is worth noting that the average year on year reduction in the total number of proven offences since 2009 is 9% yet for 2020/21 there was an increase of 9% which equated to 11 disposals. This may have been impacted by the backlog of court cases after the end of national lockdowns.

OOCD

In Gateshead violent offences make up 36% of out-of-court disposal since the process began in January 2019 (41 out of 114 cases with offences)

Breakdown of the 29 Violent offences in 2019/20:

• there were 20 different offenders committing the 29 offences

Offences with same dates:

• only 2 of the offences had the same victim recorded
• there were 3 offences committed on a particular date

The fact that an increasing proportion of all first-time entrants to the youth justice system are now coming into that system because of crimes serious enough to go straight to court (45 per cent of all FTEs in the year to March 2019, compared with 10 per cent in 2009) is a concern, and suggests that these children are not getting adequate preventative interventions earlier on. This needs to change.

Between 2016 and 2021 the number of First Time Entrants (FTEs) in Gateshead has been reduced by 76% and the proportion of FTE cases going straight to court has not been no more than 18% until 2020/21. In the last year the number of FTEs reached its lowest level with just 18 however, the proportion of these 18 cases going straight to court increased to 61%.

In the year 2018/19 we saw only 15% (7 out of 48) of our FTEs going straight to court which is significantly lower than the 45% Nationally.

When comparing 2009/10 to 2018/19 the data shows a 49% reduction in the number of FTEs and a significant change in the proportion of cases that go straight to court. In 2009/10 cases going straight to court were 66% (62 out of 94) compared with only 15% (7 out of 48) in 2018/19.

2009/10 FTE outcomes

2018/19 FTE outcomes

It is also of concern that youth reoffending rates remain high and again show little correlation with our judgements of YOS quality. Although national youth reoffending rates fell 2.5 percentage points, to 38.5 per cent in 2019, this was still higher than 10 years previously. And those children who do reoffend are doing more of it, with the frequency of reoffending rate now the highest it has been in the last 10 years.

In Gateshead the Youth Reoffending rate historically has been high (but still in line with National rates). Over the last two years our rate has been reduced from 38.2% (2018/19) to 16.44% (2019/20) a reduction of 21.8%.

Impact Factors: Introduction of OOCD at the start of 2019, start of Outcome 22 (diversion away from court process), National COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent National/Regional Lockdowns.

Over the last 10 years the reoffending rate in Gateshead has been significantly reduced from 34.38% (2010/11) to 16.44% (2019/20). The most recent rate for 2020/21 shows a further reduction at present however, this is subject to change as there are offences awaiting outcomes.

The other key cohort of young people that has received long overdue attention this year are children from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background. The Black Lives Matter debate has refocused public attention and concern on the disproportionate number of young black men, in particular, who enter the criminal justice system and their treatment by that system.

Young people with a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background represent a small proportion of the cases open to the Gateshead Youth Justice Service.

Between April 2017 and August 2020 there were 19 young people with a BAME background as shown in the chart below. Over this period there were a total of 672 young people open to the service which consists of; 652 (97%) White - British/English and 19 (3%) BAME (there was 1 case where the information had not been obtained). This reflects the overall diversity of the population of Gateshead with a significantly higher percentage of white residents compared to BAME residents.

There were no young people with a BAME background that received a custodial sentence between 2017 and 2021.

Police

Gateshead YJS continues to have an excellent working relationship with Northumbria Police. There is regular communication and joint working in relation to the prevention of offending and reoffending by young people and intelligence sharing linked to this. Together we are able to work on individual cases as well as looking at cohorts of young people causing significant concern across the borough. The relationship between the services has grown and developed to ensure that regular, formal and informal approaches can be made across both teams for the benefit of dealing with young people who have committed offences. There is always an open communication between the services that enables any issues to be quickly resolved or strategies employed to be able to solve any issues that may arise. There is significant representation from the police on the Gateshead YJS and operationally the YJS seconded Police Officers are supported by their senior management. Senior police officers are represented on a number of linked agendas, this crossover has resulted in positive outcomes for LAC and has reduced the numbers of these children coming through the formal criminal justice system.

Outcome 22

The Out of Court Disposal Panel was launched in Gateshead in April 2018. Since then we have built a robust structure to deal with young people Out of Court. Following the Home Office introduction of a new police outcome code - Outcome 22, from 1 April 2019 this has been an option for the panel. The outcome is designed to be recorded on the Police National Computer as follows: 'Outcome 22 - diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action. The use of this disposal has ensured that young people are assessed and have intervention that best meets their individual needs. Working with the young person and their family it has been possible to divert a significant proportion of children away from the formal youth justice system, which has a huge impact on the number of young people becoming FTE into the Criminal Justice System.

Out of Court Disposal Scrutiny Group

Gateshead YJS has been a part of the out of court disposal scrutiny panel across Northumbria for a significant period of time and continues to be an active member. This panel allows a randomly selected number of cases across Northumbria to be discussed and for additional scrutiny on the outcome. Gateshead YJS attends this meeting at Team Manager level to discuss both operationally and strategically as to what the benefit of particular outcomes have been to young people and to challenge where outcomes appear to be disproportionate. In relation to Gateshead cases discussed at the panel there has been a significant level of congruence with the outcomes that have been given against the expected outcomes ratified by the scrutiny panel. This level of oversight gives assurances to the public, community, YJS and the board to ensure that the service is working as expected.

Divert from Charge

Divert from Charge is a new referral process which will no longer see young people being charged by police unless in extreme cases, such as offences that could lead to a remand. Instead these cases are referred through to a panel process before a final decision is reached. YJS Police officers apply an eligibility test which will assess whether an Out of Court option is appropriate. If the young person in question is eligible and willing to engage, they will receive either a Youth Conditional Caution (YCC) or an Outcome 22 (deferred prosecution). The "Divert from Charge" Panel is a bolt on to the existing Out of Court Disposal Panels and it has responsibility for:

• deciding on a disposal for each young person
• developing a diversionary plan for them
• reviewing compliance
• and finally closing completed cases or referring a young person to court for non-compliance

There are a number of beneficiaries from the Divert from Charge arrangement. Young people will not be labelled as offenders, this will help to prevent young people from forming deviant or delinquent identities that may interfere with their development. It will avoid unnecessary disproportionality in the criminal justice system and tailored diversionary interventions will be therapeutic, targeted, and appropriate whilst avoiding the stigma of conviction. Criminal Justice Partners and the community also benefit from Divert from Charge as it reduces demand and cost associated with file preparation and court proceedings. Partners are able to support children and young people who would otherwise become repeat and/or more serious offenders. This innovative way of dealing with young people went live in May 2021 and will be reviewed in 6 months to ensure it is working effectively.

Child Criminal Exploitation

There are several initiatives already in place; Op Victus is a multi-disciplinary group set up as part of the VVECG (violence, vulnerability, exploitation and co-ordination group) with the purpose of early identification and prevention of criminal exploitation of children and vulnerable adults. Through intelligence sharing, data analysis and collaborative working Op Victus seeks to identify those most vulnerable to exploitation - with key partners involved there is consideration to the safeguarding/ support in place. This includes early intervention to diversionary programmes such as YOLO, EDGE NE and SideStep. Op Victus co-ordinates the policing activity to deter and pursue these high harm offenders; in cases where significant criminal capability is evidenced it will be escalated to Op Sentinel process. Op Sentinel manages the response to mapped criminality and serious organised crime.

In addition to the operational responses there are thematic multi-agency groups running; the central drugs alliance sets out to build an intelligence profile and share information on drug supply at both regional and local levels. Key partners have instigated intelligence sharing protocols and meet regularly to identify hotspots, share disruption activities and identify key messages to be share when incident trends are identified.

The priorities moving forward are to fully embed the central drugs alliance and other collaborative partner meetings, maximise access and use of information/intelligence held by all partners and develop a whole system approach to problem solving in order to further reduce silo working.

Violence Reduction Unit - Youth Navigators (new role)

The Northumbria Violence Reduction Unit is funding a number of Youth Navigators who will engage and work with young people who are referred to the service for support. Gateshead YJS will have a part time post in place to work the force area and also work in a peer group with other existing staff who are engaged with young people and who run ASB programmes in order to share knowledge, skills and ideas for achieving progress. This worker will be attached to the YJS but will be employed by Family Gateway and will carry a caseload. The young people they will support will be identified as those on the cusp of escalation and who require a new and community-led programme of early intervention and prevention support to help them reflect and engage with new diversionary activities to move from negative behaviours to more positive outcomes and aspirations.

Released under investigation

Released under investigation has been a significant issue for YJS' across the country. This is when young people are investigated for an offence but released pending a decision being made as to whether any positive action will be taken. Through working with Northumbria Police, it has been possible to significantly reduce the number of young people subject to this. The Gateshead YJS representative for the police took this as a priority and considered all relevant cases, the number of young people released under investigations was reduced by 50%. This was made possible by working in partnership and having the dedication and commitment of police staff to understand the agenda in relation to young people within the YJS. By prioritising this cohort, it ensured that they were not unnecessarily released under police investigation for significant periods of time and cases that were not going to proceed were not continued. This was achieved due to joint working on our priorities through the Gateshead YJS.

Police Custody - one hour

Gateshead YJS is working with the police within the custody suites across Northumbria to ensure that young people who are detained in police custody are dealt with as swiftly as possible. We are working together to agree a memorandum of understanding which will enable us to share relevant safeguarding information at the earliest opportunity and provide the police with information that will lead to an appropriate adult being identified within the shortest possible period of time. This will also help to highlight any potential issues that a young person may face whilst in custody and will enable the local authority to support the police in dealing with the young person and releasing them at the earliest opportunity.

PACE bed

Gateshead YJS has worked with the other five Youth Justice Services across Northumbria to ensure a coordinated approach to our young people. This has included Gateshead YJS being involved in the commissioning of a PACE bed through Kyloe House Secure Children's Home. This provision will be available for young people in police custody who would benefit from a PACE bed overnight. This would avoid young people having to stay in the police station overnight and instead would allow them to stay in a child centred environment for the evening. The arrangement is in place for young people who are subject to ongoing police investigation or who need to be held overnight to be produced before the court the following morning. Although this bed has not needed to be used (as of yet), it has been requested on occasions however due to COVID restrictions at Kyloe House it has not been possible. It is anticipated in the future that this will not be a barrier to providing a better service to children who need to be secured overnight pending further investigation or court hearing.

Sexual offences

Due to working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service it has been possible to expedite sexual offences cases that were taking significant periods of time to come to fruition. These cases had been investigated but were pending decision's by police and CPS. Gateshead YJS completed a piece of work looking at the time from allegation to charge for young people accused of sexual offences and it was apparent that some young people were waiting for significant length of time for a decision to be made. This needed to be reviewed as a matter of urgency, by liaising with senior police and the Crown Prosecution Service it was possible to review these cases and determine outcomes. In some cases, this meant that there would be no further action was taken but in others there was significant evidence that should lead to a charge. For the young people accused of these offences it was then possible for the YJS to support them through the Criminal Justice System and assist with assessment and sentence.

This was seen as a priority for Gateshead YJS as the victims of these offences had been left without justice for a significant period of time and it was felt that this would help with them finding some level of closure.

National Probation Service

Gateshead YJS has a strong working relationship with the National Probation Service, we work jointly together with young people who are due to transition from children services into the adult arena.

Within the team there is a 0.8 probation officer post seconded. This worker takes responsibility for high risk cases and young people over 16 years old who are likely to transition to the Probation Service. There are service level agreements in place and regular meetings take place across the South of Tyne to ensure this is being adhered to. The Probation Officer within the YJS holds appropriate cases and enhances the service that can be given to young people approaching adulthood. In addition to this we have also gained the 0.3 post of a Probation Support Officer. The YJS and the National Probation Service have decided to use this post to help young people transition between youth and adult. This offer is in addition to the traditional transition between services. These young people are children who have offended previously, and then as young adults have further offended.

Ordinarily these young people would fall outside of the transition arrangements. By providing additionality through the Probation Support Officer, it enables us to provide support to young adults who have previously worked with YJS but who are now experiencing Probation Services as an adult. It is appreciated that some of these young people may need additional support and by virtue of this post will be able to receive it. It is hoped that this will have an impact on the reoffending rates of young people who have turned 18 during the monitoring period. There is an appreciation of all the issues young adults face when transitioning between children and adult services. The Probation Officer role within the team is extremely important and has provided expertise and knowledge of the adult Criminal Justice Service and provided support and intervention to young people approaching their 18th birthday within the wider team.

Looked after children

Gateshead YJS works alongside Children's Services LAC Team to ensure that young people open to both teams have co-ordinated plans to avoid duplication and to ensure the young person's needs are met. Both teams are co-located, and this provides easier communication which ensures the young people are supported in the most effective way to try and avoid escalation through the Criminal Justice System. Each service attends planning and review meetings so the most up to date information is shared and there is a shared responsibility across the case management of the young person.

Gateshead YJS sits on the corporate Parenting Partnership Board and the LAC Service Manager has a reciprocal arrangement to ensure the needs of the LAC offending cohort are represented in the YJS Board. Both teams recognise the need to work together to promote the recovery, resilience and wellbeing of young people and to work together to prevent unnecessary criminalisation. Restorative approaches are used by police in Gateshead to avoid young people becoming involved in the Criminal Justice System for matters that can be dealt with by an alternative method. Following the publication of the National Protocol on Reducing Unnecessary Criminalisation of Looked-After Children and Care Leavers, Gateshead YJS and the LAC Team are working together to ensure the recommendations in this protocol are considered and additional strategic and operational practice reflect the principles outlined. Using the Out of Court Disposal panel and Divert from Charge pathway, LAC are always considered for alternative out comes rather than being sent to court.

YOLO

The YOLO (YOU Only Live Once) project was set up in 2019 to give an early intervention approach for young people aged 8-14 years. It seeks to identify young people on the periphery of the criminal justice system rather than those who have already entered it. The 1:1 mentoring provides a consistent presence over a longer period of time to allow the young person to build a trusting confidential relationship with their mentor, complete key interventions which is expected to increase engagement, and result in better outcomes. The YOLO project works with Gateshead YJS and they complete the assessment of the young person and their family. Their knowledge, experience and thoroughness assist in the foundations being laid to plan a structured bespoke approach for the young person and their family.

YOLO case study

The male was 12 years old at the point of referral and was referred due to Adverse Childhood Experiences (witness to extensive domestic violence, neglected by parents and stability within relationships). The young person was also referred due to being in possession of a 10-inch kitchen knife in the community, attendance at school was 71% due to a reduced timetable and frequent truancy. Work began with the young person to understand the root cause of these issues and problems, and to help the young person understand the consequences of their negative choices. Work took place within school and the community, where the young person was taken for community-based activities such as football and boxing. A strong relationship was also built with the young person's guardian, who would regularly update the mentor on both positive and negative things that were happening. The young person did go through a significant period of exclusions from school, but the mentor worked closely with education to help provide the young person with learning aids to support his needs.

Eventually the decision was made to put the young person into an alternative provision where they have since flourished and attendance is high. The young person engaged with education during all COVID-19 lockdowns and also asked for further resources from his mentor which we were able to provide. The young person has had no further missing person episodes, has not been in possession of a knife again and is now engaged in school on a full-time basis. We have recently closed this young person's case due to his significant improvements in a number of key areas for him.

He is now making positive choices and understanding the negative impact that poor choices can make on his current and future development.

Restorative Justice

Gateshead YJS offers every victim of youth crime a voice. Each victim is contacted by the Victim Liaison Officer to seek their views in relation to the offence and try and understand the impact it has had on them. In line with the Victims Code, Gateshead YJS offers a variety of reparative interventions including direct and indirect programmes. Where it is appropriate victims are offered face to face restorative justice conferences, shuttle mediation and letters of apology. Reparation is delivered in line with the wishes of victims. There are a number of community-based reparation sites that are used when there is no specific victim request. The services looks to deliver reparation projects with young people that are creative and relevant to the offence committed. Victims are also asked to complete a short survey at the end of their intervention to ascertain their views, understand their experience of the service and to help us improve services in the future.

In 2018 the YJS successfully renewed the Restorative Service Quality Mark (RSQM) award for a further three years, until February 2022. YJS have trained all practitioners and volunteers in restorative approaches through the recognised Restorative Justice Facilitator training.

National Probation Service

Health Services are well represented on the Gateshead YJS board, partners attend from the Newcastle and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group, National Health Service, Public Health and the Clinical Director for Children, Young People and Families (Gateshead) also sits on the board. It is promising that representatives on the board are extremely enthusiastic about how services can be developed to best meet the health needs of young people within the youth justice service. As part of the plan we anticipate that a significant amount of time and resource will be spent completing a health needs analysis of our cohort of young people. Once this is completed, we will understand the health needs and the gaps within services that have in Gateshead. Gateshead YJS wants to work towards a framework where young people's health needs are clearly identified and are met within reasonable time skills so they can be supported during the period of youth justice intervention and as an exit strategy from statutory services. There are plans in place already to expedite this area of work and it is hoped that this will have significant benefit to all young people in the near future. The development of the health agenda will be closely monitored through the Gateshead YJS board.

Gateshead YJS currently has links and pathways into the Children Young People Service, Speech Language and Communication needs, Liaison and Diversion, Forensics Child and Adolescents Mental Health Service (FCAMHS) and Substance misuse services. There is representation from Gateshead YJS on the Child Be Healthy Partnership. The purpose of this group is to improve the physical health, emotional wellbeing and mental health outcomes of children, young people and their families in Gateshead. By working together, we will discuss and develop new ways of working that ensures a joined-up approach in the commissioning and delivery of Children and Young People's Services (CYPS). The Child Be Healthy Partnership group is an operational group which focuses on service provision for our children, young people and their families by working with and through those who access and provide services. This group reports to the Gateshead Children's System Board.

Young people who are open to the YJS receive thoughtful, comprehensive assessments and treatment within the CYPS service. The CYPS workers liaise with young people's care team, including YOT workers, who work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for the young people of Gateshead.

Newcastle and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group

Newcastle and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group and the YJS have established good working relationships. There is potential for joint working in relation to using young people within the criminal justice system to help develop a child centred resource specifically for older young people. This resource will be called the "big orange book" and will enable young people to become aware of health services which are available locally and what support they are able to access. The Newcastle and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group is developing transitions from 14 years old, to make sure that young people have the relevant diagnosis to support them getting the right service moving forward. It is also recognised that digital resources need to be developed for young people to be able to access, notwithstanding some of our young people live in digital poverty.

Kooth

In response to COVID-19 and the changes in the way services deliver intervention remotely, Gateshead YJS is linking up with Kooth to support young people's emotional health. Kooth.com is a free, safe and anonymous online community and support service that has been commissioned by NewcastleGateshead ICB, offering emotional and mental wellbeing advice and support to young people, the age range for Newcastle and Gateshead is 11-25. The service allows access to optional support from qualified counsellors and practitioners, the chance to gain support from peers, join forums and learn coping skills to manage mental health in a safe and supportive way. Kooth is a service which gives children and young people the opportunity to access a web-based online chat function with trained professionals. The website also offers a wealth of advice, including online articles and various tools for support such as moderated discussion boards.

Criminal Justice Liaison Service

The Criminal Justice Liaison Service is now open to individuals of all ages and is being commissioned by NHS England. Liaison and Diversion is embedded within police custody suites across Northumbria.

Young people from Gateshead are generally taken to Forth Banks police station in Newcastle. Young people in police custody are offered a health screening through the Liaison and Diversion team. This screening helps to identify any unmet health needs and offers an opportunity for young people to be supported and referred into other agencies as required. Gateshead YJS works closely with the Liaison and Diversion team and we are able to share information where consent has been agreed in order to best meet the young person's health needs.

Platform Gateshead

Platform Gateshead is a commissioned service which provides young people in Gateshead with an opportunity to receive support in relation to their substance misuse. In addition, the team works with young people to improve health and wellbeing, reduce smoking, alcohol and drug use. The service also provides educational advice around the legality of illegal substances, in addition family support can be offered where appropriate. Gateshead YJS and Platform work jointly with young people where substance or alcohol is a significant issue or is linked to their offending. The services have good relationships with each other and work jointly on intervention plans to ensure young people's needs are met.

Psychology Offer

Gateshead YJS is working with the Looked after children team within children's social care to deliver clinical psychology and advanced mental health practitioner support to staff and children in the specified children's residential homes. The service will support a pilot cohort, using the same approaches, for young people within the youth justice system. The service specification has been completed and recruitment is due to start. Interventions for children and young people may include individual assessment, individual therapy, group therapy, intensive group therapy, progress monitoring, individual programme planning, training of involved others, implementation and monitoring. In delivering the service, the provider will support residential and YJS staff and provide training to help to build resilience of staff teams and children and young people to enable the development of individualised, client-centred approaches for developing skills and give a sense of self that young people may lack due their adverse early life experiences.

Children and young people who are LAC and YOT, often have complex histories of survival, attachment and relationship disruption. The psychology service will support looked after children and the staff who support them to better understand the psychological and social factors that impact on behaviour and how these behaviours are understood in the context of their lived experiences. This support will utilise trauma informed approaches, based on the understanding that many of the children and young people who have experienced adversity and trauma may consequently find it difficult to develop trusting relationships with staff providing care and feel safe within services. Psychology support will use this for basic training, reflective practice and support for staff to help recognise and focus on the impact of trauma on young people and their support systems.

Early Help and Youth Crime Prevention

The Early Help Service's Targeted Family Support Team provide a whole-family intervention service for vulnerable families with dependent children.

Referrals are taken from a variety of sources across the early help system, including police, education, housing, health and social care. For the previous 12 months (May 2020/21) this includes:

• providing a duty response to the families of 1,942 children featured in new police contacts - 221 of which transfer to worker caseloads
• responding to 696 police contacts on existing, open family cases
• supporting 1,253 children as part of a whole-family plan

The diversity of the referral base and the capacity to deliver an early, targeted response enables risks to be proactively identified and managed for between 820-850 families per year.

Supporting Families Programme

The prevention of young people from entering the youth justice system is a key objective of the service and is included in the eligibility criteria for the national Supporting Families programme.

The whole-family working approach is evidenced in local data on the low number of families referred to statutory social work services within 12 months of Early Help case closure (10.7% - May 2020/21) - a strong proxy measure of how intervention has led to sustained progress among families - and in the national evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme which reported on a comparison and programme group to look at how the whole-family working approach impacted on change

For crime, juveniles receiving custodial sentences - 0.8% of the comparison group received custodial sentences compared to 0.5% of the programme group, a 38% difference in the 24 months after joining the programme; and juvenile convictions 4.6% of the comparison group received custodial sentences compared to 3.9% of the programme group, a 15% difference in the 24 months after joining the programme. (MHCLG, 2015-2020: Findings & Evaluation Overview Policy Report, p.4).

Locally agreed identification criteria for the programme under the crime and anti-social behaviour headline, as set out in the Gateshead Supporting Families Outcomes Plan, includes:

• child who has committed a proven offence in the previous 12 months
• young person in a secure unit (who will be returning to the family home) who is less than 12 months from his/her release date
• young person receiving a Community Resolution or Triage
• a child involved in a gang; county lines linked crime and exploitation; serious violence (including knife crime) in the previous 12 months, as either victim or perpetrator

While there may be a degree of co-working between Early Help and the Youth Justice Service YJS for the above issues as part of a whole-family plan, non-statutory family intervention services are more likely to be positioned towards the following criteria alongside other needs or risks identified by the referral agent - poor school attendance, for example:

• young person (aged 15 or under) known to local services as having perpetrated an incident of adolescent to parent/expectant parent violence and abuse in the last 12 months
• adult or child who is involved in an ASB incident (formal or informal) in the last 12 months
• children nominated by professionals because of their potential to offend or offending behaviour is of equivalent concern to the indicators above

Whole Family Working and Prevention

The Early Help Service uses the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) to explore needs and analyse risks, forming the basis of a CAF Support Plan which is reviewed in a multi-agency Team Around the Family (TAF) process.

Whole-family working aims to incorporate and/or lead to:

1. Individual-focused prevention - support to manage anger, impulsivity, lack of empathy
2. Family-focused prevention - helping parents/carers set clear expectations and boundaries for behaviour
3. School-focused prevention - providing the Team Around the School (TAS) model to identify early concerns, including risk-taking behaviours

Early Help staff are trained to deliver a range of specific, evidence-based interventions known to reduce the risks of offending behaviours, including:

• respect Young People's Programme (RYPP) - aimed at young people who exhibit aggressive or abusive behaviour towards their parents/carers and recognised by the YJS Effective Practice Unit
• assessment Intervention Moving on (AIM) - framework for the assessment of and intervention on harmful sexual behaviours

These approaches may be supplemented further through practitioners utilising strategies from:

• manualised programmes such as Teen Triple P, Family Links Nurture, Teen Talk
• motivational interviewing techniques
• making family agreements and developing safety plans

Family stability and reducing relationship distress are central to the whole-family working approach, including:

• psycho-educative parenting programmes to develop nurturing parenting styles, set clear boundaries and routines
• specific provision for parents of children with ADHD, recognised by the Association of Psychological Therapies

Support for family stability has been enhanced further by the DWP funded Reducing Parental Conflict Programme which offers four evidence-based pathways to improve relationships between couples and co-parents. Three of the programmes listed (Family Check Up, Incredible Years Basic/Advanced and Parenting When Separated) have strong effectiveness ratings within the Early Intervention Foundation 
(EIF) Guidebook for preventing crime, violence and anti-social behaviour. 

This is significant because, according the EIF evidence review into parental conflict: One of the most common outcomes for children across all ages who witness severe and/or ongoing inter-parental conflict is an increase in a broad set of negative behavioural issues known as externalising problems. Externalising problems are characterised by behavioural difficulties such as aggression, hostility, noncompliant and disruptive behaviours, verbal and physical violence, anti-social behaviour, conduct disorder, delinquency and vandalism in the extreme. (What works to enhance inter-parental relationships and improve outcomes for children, Harold et al, 2016, p. 20). 

The strength of the whole-family approach towards youth crime prevention can be summarised as:

• seeks to identify, assesses and intervene early on emerging risks, taking referrals from a wide variety of sources
• agrees goals with families and works towards clear, named outcomes on risk-taking and pre-offending behaviours
• works with the individual as part of the family system, considering the influences and impacts of carers and siblings
• able to draw upon a range of evidence-based approaches, deployed in face-to-face, group and remote formats
• early Help operates in the same, integrated management structure as the Youth Justice Service and Children's Social Care

AIM3, Technology-assisted harmful sexual behaviour and intervention

Gateshead YJS has worked with colleagues within Children's Services to develop a procedure for dealing with young people with sexually harmful behaviour. Two routes for assessment have been identified, one through child concern which will stay within Children's Services and the other is through the criminal justice route. There will be joint working across services to ensure the most appropriate workers undertake these assessments and deliver interventions. Within the last 12 months all staff within the YJS have been trained in Aim 3 or technology assisted sexual behaviour assessments and in delivering interventions. The need to develop multi-agency risk management and care plans is not just restricted to those who have committed criminal offences. Rather, there is often a need to intervene before the young person's behaviour requires the intervention of the criminal justice system or when the criminal justice system is not seen as the most appropriate method of dealing with sexually harmful behaviour.

Many young people with histories of sexually harmful behaviour are placed, by other local authorities, within Gateshead or they may receive services from agencies within Gateshead. It is equally important that these young people receive the same level of multi-agency response as any other young person and that risk management plans are as equally robust.

The link between online behaviour and harmful sexual behaviour may also be a cause for concern. Technology-assisted harmful sexual behaviour (TA-HSB) can range from developmentally inappropriate use of pornography (and exposing other children to this), through to grooming and sexual harassment. Online behaviour may be a trigger for sexual abuse and the long-term effect of exposure to pornography can affect the ability to build healthy sexual relationships.

Edge North East and community safety

Gateshead Community Service has been working with Gateshead YJS to secure some funding to commission Edge North East to work with young people at risk of exploitation to county lines, weapons and serious violence. EDGE North East are a specialist youth mentoring service staffed by lived experience specialist mentors and specialist mentors with a vast amount of experience and passion for working with young people involved in serious violence, child criminal exploitation and organised crime. The aim of the organisation is to engage the hardest to reach young people and create opportunities for them to change their lives and take a more positive path. The beneficiaries of the teachable moment project face barriers of diversity and accept their lifestyle as a cultural norm, the young people come from a cycle of family lifestyles and beliefs that are difficult to break away from. EDGE North East create interventions that prevent young people reaching a point that they are serving a custodial sentence because of their lifestyle or become a victim of a serious attack both physically and sexually.

Targeted outreach

The REAL (Relate, Engage and Listen) Project will deliver targeted outreach youth work in areas across the borough for three evenings a week. The aim of the Project is to engage with young people in recognised hotspot areas, offering them safe faces, support and guidance alongside signposting to specialist services. Hotspot locations will be co-ordinated via the multi-agency Operational Planning and Tasking Group co-ordinated by Community Safety and will allow partners to identified problem areas and to be better sighted on community intelligence and information from EDGE to help inform future work and/or further partnership intervention.

Mentoring

Although the REAL Project provides a diversionary activity to prevent violence and anti-social behaviour; there is a cohort of young people who are identified as being at greater risk of, or involved in, child criminal exploitation, serious youth violence, gangs and gang culture. To help support these young people, a specialist mentoring project has been established that will provide tailored 1-to-1 support from a lived experience mentor.

Educational links in Gateshead

Gateshead YJS has a specific identified link in every secondary school in the borough. Every young person referred into the YJS has an education check completed with the school where they are on roll. Information is shared in relation to school attendance, behaviour and academic ability, in return the YJS offers basic information in relation to why the young person is open to the service and together schools and case managers are able to ensure that there is joint planning around the young person's education.

There have been numerous examples of where case managers have been proactive in ensuring the attendance of the child by transporting them to school and completing supervision sessions during the journey. Case managers are regularly welcomed into schools to complete interventions on their premises. Gateshead YJS has good relationships with its secondary schools and work together to put plans in place which will support a young person attending education and achieving the best outcomes academically. There is an information sharing protocol and privacy notice in place between the schools and the YJS which ensures the legal requirements in relation to information sharing are adhered to. In addition, the team manager of the YJS attends the Pastoral Deputies meeting by exception to provide an update in relation to any developments within the service. Across the Education Department and the YJS there are good working relationships and examples of completing work together. A representative from the Education Department sits on Gateshead YJS also attends the performance subgroup.

Working together representatives from Education and YJS completed a deep dive of the education provision of statutory school age children open to youth justice. The aim was to consider these young people's education provision, attendance, exclusions and SEND needs. The key themes that came of out this work were that significant amount of young people were not in mainstream school, attendance was low across the cohort (although given that this period was over COVID-19 and schools were closed during some of this time, therefore this data should be used with caution). Almost 40% of young people had identified Special Educational Needs and most pupils had at least one exclusion in the past 12 months.

SEND

The SEND landscape is complex and can be difficult to navigate for children, parents and professionals. Gateshead Children's Services have two key challenges of ensuring SEND related actions across all organisations and sectors is of quality and has a positive impact and the SEND system is transparent to all that are involved within in it. Our four strategic priorities: improving inclusion for all young people and children with SEND; ensuring SEND provision fully meets the needs of the children; to support young people to have high aspirations, become as independent as possible and are supported at key transition points and for children with SEND to enjoy good mental health and wellbeing.

In this cohort 37% of young people open to the YJS were identified as having Special Educational Needs or have received SEND Support. Gateshead YJS is working with the SEND Department to develop performance data and further analyse the needs of the offending cohort with Special Educational Needs. The Chair of the Gateshead YJS (also the Strategic Director of Gateshead Children and Adult Services) and the Deputy Director of Children Services both attend the SEND panel and also the YJS so there is awareness of both agendas and joining up of strategic objectives. Every young person referred to the YJS is checked against the SEND register so Education Healthcare Plans can be consulted when completing assessments and interventions can be tailored to meet the young person's individual needs.

Educational Inclusion panel

The Education Inclusion Panel (EIP) meets each month to place young people with barriers preventing them from attending mainstream school, in appropriate learning provision. It is a multi-disciplinary panel and consists of representatives from council services including Children's Services, Early Help and YJS, as well as Education. It also includes services external to the council such as CYPS, Health and Platform. As data sharing is agreed, either legally or through parental permissions, informed appropriate joint decisions can be arrived at.

Those young people whose cases are presented to the panel usually fall into one of two categories; either they are unable to attend school due to medical reasons, such as mental health or post-operative recovery, or have been expelled from their schools and need a new educational placement. As well as providing experienced and expert advice on the appropriateness of options for these pupils, the panel also serves to alert, and therefore align, services to the involvement of other partners working with them. This in turn provides for a more cohesive and complimentary approach to support, with members attending TAFs, Core Strategy groups, Complex Abuse panels and Child Protection as appropriate.

Complex Pupil Panel

The Complex Pupil Panel meets bi-monthly and is attended by representatives from various agencies including Children's Services, Early Help, YJS, Health and Education. This panel is concerned with identifying, understanding and meeting the needs of some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people within Gateshead. By definition the Complex Pupil Panel deals with children who have experienced difficult backgrounds, this often includes trauma and adverse childhood experiences. This panel provides an opportunity to try and put in place practical educational help and support for these young people and ensure they have access to suitable placements which will help them achieve despite complexities they have experienced and may display.

Pupil placement Panel

Every local authority must have a fair access protocol to ensure that vulnerable young people secure a school place in a timely manner. The protocol also ensures that schools take their fair share of vulnerable young people. The protocol aims to support Gateshead Council's Thrive agenda with a particular focus on supporting those with challenging behaviours or poor attendance who are seeking admissions into a mainstream school or Academy. The protocols may be invoked to support admission into a mainstream school following a permanent exclusion, or to pre-empt such an exclusion.

In practice, the panel meets on a monthly basis to discuss children who meet the fair access criteria. The panel is made up of a number of professionals from the local authority including the YJS, as well as head teachers and pastoral leads from Gateshead secondary schools. At the panel information is shared and the young person is allocated a school place. The young person is then supported into their new school setting by an Education Support Officer. The Panel may support managed moves between Gateshead schools, if this is felt to support the needs of the young person.

Social workers in schools

The 'What Work's for Children's Social Care' (WWCSC) are trialling an intervention that involves Social Workers being based Within Schools (SWIS) in order to help address safeguarding issues. The SWIS trial builds on a set of pilot studies completed in 2019/20 which explored the feasibility of putting Social Workers into schools.

The SWIS programme aimed to embed social workers in secondary schools to reduce referral rates to children's social care, and reduce the numbers of safeguarding concerns and investigations, along with the overarching aim of reducing the number of children in care, and improving educational attainment. It is hoped that this will also promote better inter-agency working between schools and the children's social care system.

In respect to Gateshead, the SWIS pilot has seen Social Workers becoming practice leaders in schools, modelling collaborative and relational approaches to working with families; this is a key motivation for us. This is a leadership profession and in Gateshead we have created a culture in which Social Workers are leading major shifts in practice towards relational, systemic, restorative and strengths-based approaches. We have developed a bespoke model for Children and Families Social Work called Gateshead CAN; where CAN stands for Context, Action, Narrative. The SWIS project will enable social workers to share the model with education professionals and can become a critical strand in our overall implementation. SWIS allows us to facilitate effective interventions with children and families at the least intrusive level possible and decrease unnecessary escalation of cases by providing timely responses to school concerns.

Stakeholders include the six control schools in Gateshead, 0-19 Service within the Health service, the YJS, Gateshead Education and CYPS, continue to view the inclusion of the team and the overall project as very positive. Designated school leads from the control group now attend monthly Operational Leadership Group meetings; their feedback is positive and reflects the relationships that are being forged between the Social Workers and the various schools. Information is shared across the SWIS project and YJS on a weekly basis to ensure young people in common are provided coordinated intervention between services that benefits the young person.

Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA)

Gateshead Children Services continues to recognise the impact of Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA) which not only impacts parents but carers and extended family members.

We have adopted the RESPECT programme, Respect Young People's Programme (RYYP) which is recognised by the YJS Effective Practice Unit where in collaboration with Northumbria Police Crime and Commissioner we have been successful is accessing further Ask and Act Training for staff across all areas of Gateshead Children Services. We have a robust referral process into the programme which requires a relevant assessment and a Risk Indicator Checklist along with a specialist consultation before the programme commences to ensure the efficacy of the programme. This process incorporates adult safeguarding where appropriate. The programme is delivered within a joint allocation model from staff in Youth Offending, Early Help, Looked After, Referral and Assessment and Safeguarding and Complex Child in Need with referrals being accepted from wider Children's Services and external partners including Education. The focus of the work is to preserve life, prevent serious harm, reduce interfamily relationship breakdown and reduce the numbers of children entering the care system.

Workforce development

There is a team within Gateshead Council who focus on the workforce development of the Children's Services which includes the YJS. We work jointly to ensure that core training needs are met, and we develop further training resources to enable staff to be able to carry out specific interventions and have the necessary training and skills to work effectively with our young people. In addition to this the Workforce Development Team commission training on behalf of the YJS to ensure the specific training requirements of our staff are met. This arrangement has worked particularly well over the past two years and staff have been trained in various accredited programmes. The YJS has developed occupational standards which are being cross referenced with the local offer to ensure that the needs of staff, volunteers and board members alike are all met effectively.