Youth Justice Strategic Plan Executive summary

Contents

Introduction

Child First

Governance, Leadership and Partner Arrangements

Resources and Services

Performance and Priorities

Education

Overrepresented Children

Prevention

National Standards

Challenges, Risks and Issues

Appendix 1 - Service Improvement Plan

Appendix 2 - Evidence Based Practice and Innovation

Introduction

Vision and Strategy

Gateshead Youth Justice Service will continue to work towards the nine priorities as set out in our 2-year plan 2021 - 2023. This summary document highlights the progress against the plan and details our ambition for the next 12 months. 

"Making Gateshead a Place Where Everyone Thrives"

"We will ensure a child centred approach recognising the needs and rights of every young person and their potential to make a constructive, positive change and engage with their community"

The vision of the Gateshead Youth Justice Board will help us to achieve our vision for Gateshead's Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This is centred on tackling the inequalities that exist in Gateshead, in order to improve the outcomes and life chances of all Gateshead residents, including children and young people working with the Youth Justice Service. We want to enable all children, young people, and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives.

Local Context

Gateshead is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town is famous for contemporary art and architecture such as Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Sage Gateshead, and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Gateshead is also home to the Metro Centre, one of Europe's largest shopping centres.

The Gateshead Youth Justice Service has a stable and committed workforce with a good understanding of local demographics and an enthusiasm to work with young people and their families to reduce re-offending. 

Gateshead Youth Justice Service has strong working relationships with statutory and non-statutory partners. Positioned within the Children's Social Care and Early Help directorate of Gateshead Council, the Youth Justice Service is actively engaged in joint planning and service delivery within the authority.

Child First

What we are doing to put children first

• reduce the number of young people going to court by using Divert from Charge and Outcome 22
• involving young people in assessment, intervention, and supervision
• developing narrative practice to help explain how intervention sessions were delivered and why decisions were made in ways that are easy for the child or young person to understand
• the Gateshead Youth Justice Board is consulted where there are significant issues and concerns around particular children and young people by presenting cases of concern
• Gateshead Youth Justice Service is fortunate to have three advocates that can provide additional practical and emotional support for young people
• Gateshead Council has three new Young Ambassadors. They will be making sure that care experienced children and young people in Gateshead are represented in various meetings and forums to help improve services.

Voice of the Child

Young people attending the Youth Justice Service Board

Young people have attended Gateshead Youth Justice Board meetings to tell their story and outline their experiences of the Youth Justice Service. 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 Youth Justice Service board meeting and members provide challenge and partnership working to ensure the needs of the young people are met.

Governance, Leadership and Partnership Arrangements

The Youth Justice Service is positioned within Gateshead Council's Children's Social Care and Early Help directorate. This has facilitated strong working relationships with early intervention and safeguarding teams including Contextual Safeguarding Team and those supporting Children in Our Care.

The service is led by the Youth Justice Service Manager and Assistant Manager and comprises five Youth Justice Case Managers, three Young People's Advocates and a recently recruited Restorative Justice Practitioner.

As a multi-agency partnership, Gateshead Youth Justice Services contains specialists, or access to specialist provision for children being supervised, this includes:

• two Police Officers are seconded from Northumbria Police and co-located into Gateshead Youth Justice Service
• a Probation Officer is seconded from the National Probation Service (North East) and co-located into Gateshead Youth Justice Service. The Youth Justice Service also has access to a Probation Support officer (shared regionally)

An annual financial contribution from health partners supports the delivery of the Youth Justice Service in Gateshead. A recent additional contribution from the Clinical Commissioning Group has enabled the Youth Justice Service to work in partnership with local provider North East Counselling to upskill staff and access services for young people.

The Gateshead Youth Justice Board is chaired by the Assistant Director of Children's Services this is an interim measure pending the appointment of a new Director of Children's Services.

Councillor Gary Haley, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People is also a full and active member of the board.

Resources and Services

Working in a challenging financial climate the Gateshead Youth Justice Board will work collaboratively to ensure that service delivery is not compromised and that disadvantaged children are not further marginalised. The budget is split between delivering statutory Youth Justice Services and providing a Prevention offer for young people at risk of offending. 

The cost of a custodial remand continues to be a financial risk to the service, Gateshead Youth Justice Service has the ability to deliver high quality, intensive bail packages, however if the offence was so serious there may be no alternative to a remand.

Income and Expenditure

Remand

Performance and Priorities

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) prioritised their reporting accordingly which meant the FTE data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 was not available at the time but has since been published and the data is shown in the chart below.

The latest published data for the period 2020/21 shows that Gateshead saw a 53% decrease in the number of FTEs (20 young people) entering the Youth Justice Service. When we compare the latest period 2021/22 (data taken from Gateshead Youth Justice Service) to the earliest reported period (2017/18) this calculates as a 62% reduction (48 young people).

First Time Entrants (FTE) data source - Police National Computer (PNC) & Gateshead YJS (Where stated)

The most recently published 12-month reoffending data from the PNC is for Apr 2019 - Mar 2020 and reports Gateshead's binary performance (percentage of young people who go on to reoffend) at 31.5%. When we compare this data to the previous year of 36.5% (Apr 2018 - Mar 2019) the binary performance has decreased by 5%. This rate for Gateshead was marginally higher than the regional and PCC rates but lower than the national rate.

As PNC data for reoffending in Gateshead is provided on a delay and not yet been published by the MOJ for 2020/21 and 2021/22 the data has been taken from Gateshead Youth Justice Service.

Historically Gateshead has experienced a gradual increase in the use of custody for young people, but this rate has decreased over the last two years. It is worth noting that although the number of custodial sentences has increased, some young people have received more than one custodial sentence due to the number and severity of their offences.

Education

Contextual Information

There are eight secondary schools in Gateshead (XP Free School opened in September 2021). Of these seven are academies, one maintained secondary schools, one CTC (City Technology College) and one free school.

Gateshead also has one Secondary Alternative Provision Academy and one secondary SEMH (social, emotional, and mental health) special school.

Youth Justice Cohort

In June 2022 the active cohort of young people involved with the Youth Justice Service were considered in a deep dive audit of education provision. It showed that the average attendance was 72% which is significantly lower than what is expected. Permanent exclusions were 17% but 33% of the cohort had been excluded within the past 12 months. Young people moving schools can be a significant transition, 27% of the Youth Justice cohort had been offered a managed move and only 62% were in a mainstream school. 

Following the HMIP joint inspection of education, training and employment services in youth offending teams in England and Wales, Gateshead Youth Justice Service will be considering the findings and working with partners to improve outcomes of children and young people.

Overrepresented children

Exploring Racial Disparity - Local Data analysis

Gateshead's Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) 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 3000 people state that their religion is Jewish, although this also includes the non-orthodox Jewish population.

Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) In Gateshead April 2019-March 2022

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 Youth Justice Service between April 2019 and March 2022.

The chart shows a year on year increase in the number of BAME cases coming into the Youth Justice Service with a binary percentage for 2019/20 1.7%, 2020/21 2.5% and 2021/22 increasing to 7% which is almost double the BAME estimate of 3.7% by the Gateshead Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). The overall figure for the three year period is 3.8% (16 BAME cases from a total of 419).

Gateshead Youth Justice Service Cohort Characteristics 2017-2022

Gateshead Youth Justice Service records the characteristics of those involved with the service to highlight and monitor changes in trends. The data below outlines the demographic trends of the young people that become involved with the service. The chart shows the number of females and males coming into the service.

Prevention

Our local partnerships work to identify children - and their parents/carers - who may be displaying behaviours associated with offending, anti-social behaviour, or vulnerability, to safeguard children and promote positive outcomes to prevent entry to the formal youth justice system through a combination of early and targeted prevention approaches.

These approaches can be described as:

Early Prevention - support for children (with no linked offence) to address unmet needs / welfare concerns.

Targeted Prevention - specialist support for children who have had some contact with criminal justice services but are not currently being supported through diversion, an out of court disposal or statutory order.

Supporting Families Programme

The prevention of young people from entering the youth justice system is a key objective of our local early help system and is included in the eligibility criteria for the national Supporting Families Programme.

Targeted Family Support

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.

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 multiagency Team Around the Family (TAF) process.

Support plans seek to adopt a 'Child First' approach and address issues known to expose young people to an increased likelihood of offending and risk-taking behaviours.

Diversion

Divert from Charge

Divert from Charge is a 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. 

Youth Justice Service 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). 

Early Prevention

In Gateshead there have been a total of 1134 proven offences between April 2017 and March 2022 of which 47 are deemed as Serious Violent Offences. The Youth Justice Board defines serious violence as violence against the person offences (which encompasses homicide and weapon offences), robbery and drugs offences which have a gravity score of 5 and above.

The data shows there appears to be an overall decrease in the number of violent offences with a gravity score of 5 or higher since 2017/18. With the exception of 2020/21 here has been a year-on-year reduction in the offences. However, there are 12 young people with a total of 20 offences outstanding from 2021/22. These offences are all serious violent offences (gravity five or higher) that are awaiting outcomes. Some of these offences may change to lower offences with lower gravity scores, be discontinued or withdrawn.

Weapon/Knife Crime 

National data shows that in England and Wales for 2020/21 there were 3,500 proven knife and offensive weapon offences committed by children and this was a 21% reduction compared to the previous year (4,400). In Gateshead, in the same period, there were the same number of weapon offences as 2019/20 however due to there being less offences in total this represented a 1% increase year on year. Of the proven weapon offences, the number of knife offences increased by two, increasing the proportion of offences involving knives.

Operation Victus

Operation Victus is a regular multi agency meeting with the aim of identifying young persons involved with Peer crime groups and serious violence to disrupt criminal exploitation, safeguard/divert those at risk and pursue high harm offenders.

Multi Agency Exploitation Hub (MAEH)

A physical hub located in the Newcastle LA which has key stakeholders from all 6 LA areas within Northumbria Police force area embedded within the hub to identify individuals and wider patterns/hot spots of exploitation across the force area.

Released Under Investigation data 

Youth Justice Service and Northumbria Police hold a regular management meeting to discuss the number of youths currently RUI with particular focus on those that relate to serious violence or have been RUI for over 12 months. Due to the additional level of scrutiny placed on these cases the RUI numbers are kept to a minimum.

YOLO

This VRU funded intervention works with children and young people (CYP) aged 8-14 years who are, or are likely to become involved in serious violence, gang related offending or knife related crime.

Teachable Moments Intervention Programme

Teachable Moments proactively engage young people 10-17years who are brought into Police custody to determine the degree in which serious violence, exploitation, and vulnerability features, or is likely to be a factor in the future. 

Education and interventions

The Violence Reduction Unit Education Team offer education sessions to key stages 3 and 4 on various violence reduction themes such as Exploitation and County Lines and Knife Crime. In addition, they do more targeted longer-term interventions in Pupil Referral Units and offer a Knife Crime Awareness for Practitioners session which staff have attended.

Restorative Justice

Gateshead Youth Justice Service offers every victim of youth crime a voice. Each victim is contacted by the dedicated Restorative Practitioner 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 Youth Justice Service 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.

National Standards

The standards for children in the youth justice system define the minimum expectation for all agencies that provide statutory services to ensure good outcomes for children in the youth justice system. They are set by the Secretary of State for Justice on the advice of the Youth Justice Board (YJB).

Standards for Children findings

A National Standards audit of 53 cases took place in May 2022. The results of the audit demonstrated good compliance with the National Standards in all five domains. There was significant evidence of young people and families being involved with the assessment, planning, and interventions. There was evidence throughout the standards of good relationships being built with young people, their family and case managers.

Challenges, Risks and Issues

Cost of living crisis

Gateshead is ranked 47th most deprived out of 317 local authorities in England. Within Gateshead there are 21 areas which fall within the 10% most deprived areas in England, equating to almost 32,700 people or 16% of the population of Gateshead. Much of this deprivation is based within the central and eastern urban areas of the borough.

The cost of living is rising rapidly, putting huge pressure on people across the country and this will have a significant impact on families in Gateshead. Families will have less disposable income and those already experiencing financial hardship will be further affected. A key challenge in the year ahead will be to try and prevent young people entering the criminal justice system. As outlined earlier in this document we plan to extend the prevention offer in a number of ways, including developing intervention in school, communities and with individual young people and families.

Appendix 1 - Service Improvement Plan

Priority 1

Ensure our young people are Children first and offenders second.

The Voice of the Child and Family needs to be at the centre of the work that is carried out with our young people. Further development of this will include greater liaison with young people when making changes to the Youth Justice Service. We will do this by supporting young people to take part in exit interviews and encouraging them to attend the Gateshead Youth Justice Service or make a film/write an account of their experiences.

We will also use the work produced by young people in public spaces. Life story work is being developed across Gateshead Children Services, case managers and advocates will have the opportunity to attend this training and apply the principles to their intervention with our young people.

Priority 2

Ensure Looked After Children are not overrepresented in the Criminal Justice

Service

Decriminalisation of Looked After Children (LAC) is a key priority and an area where there has been significant development. However, there is more work to be done and by linking up with Children's Homes, police, Independent Return workers and Social Work colleagues so we can further push this agenda to avoid these children coming into the Criminal Justice system. There are plans in place to develop a psychology offer which will help us to develop the Enhanced Case management model.

Priority 3

Identify and intervene early with young people to address behaviours that could lead a young person into the Criminal Justice System.

Prevention needs to be everyone's agenda. Young people at risk of offending need to be able to access services to support their needs at the earliest opportunity. There needs to be co-ordination of what is available to young people in Gateshead.

Priority 4

Ensure education teams effectively meets the needs of young people within the criminal justice system.

We are going to continue to complete deep dive education audits twice a year to be able to monitor the progress of how we are responding to the needs of children. This work will include looking at attendance, placement, exclusion and SEND. The Youth Justice Service will continue to work with schools and education providers, we will also advocate of the behalf of young people at the various education panels that we attend for the benefit of our children. Priority 5

Promote the health and wellbeing of young people in the Youth Justice System.

A health needs assessment of children open to Youth Justice Service is currently underway with a view to identifying what other health provision is needed within the service and work with our partners to provide some additionality.

Priority 6

Support young people transitioning between Children's and Adults Services.

The newly formed post of a Probation Support Officer will help young adults who fall out of the transition arrangements to have the support put in place that they need to ensure compliance with probation orders and reduce re-offending. This work is being monitored by Gateshead Youth Justice Service.

Priority 7

Understand and intervene with young people experiencing criminal exploitation.

County lines and the Criminal Exploitation of young people continues to be a concern. Gateshead Youth Justice Service will work with voluntary and statutory partners to ensure that information is shared appropriately, and resources are used to help support these vulnerable young people.

Priority 8

Understand Serious Youth Violence in Gateshead and what can be done to reduce harm to the public and manage the risk

Knife Crime and the use of weapons will feature in the intervention planning that we do in the coming 24 months.

Priority 9

Build our understanding of the specific problems faced by young people in Gateshead.

Disproportionately of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children will continue to be monitored through the performance subgroup and reported to the board.

Workforce Development 

Gateshead Council launched a new learning management system in May 2022. The Learning hub is the central point to access all learning and development opportunities available to council employees. The hub provides face to face, virtual training, E-learning, and resources. The Youth Justice Service has been working with the councils Workforce Development Team to ensure the training and development needs are met. Mandatory and desirable training has been sourced centrally and delivered in a number of ways including Youth Justice Service specific or as part of Children's Social Care.

There are several current joint training initiatives including trauma informed approaches, narrative practice and reflective supervision which all support collaborative working and maintain consistently high standards across all services.

Board Development

Gateshead Youth Justice Board meets bi-monthly and has representation from statutory and non-statutory partners. Gateshead Youth Justice Board ensures appropriate Youth Justice Services are in place within the local authority area. The board agenda has several key standing items including finance, performance, and cases of concern. There are several examples where challenges have been escalated to partner organisations through the board to better meet the needs of children and young people.

Development sessions have taken place with the board regularly. The next scheduled development day is in September 2022, this will provide the opportunity for board members to develop their understanding of the important role they have in supporting and challenging the Youth Justice Service. The development day will also introduce the new Director of Children's Services who takes up post in August 2022.

Gateshead Youth Justice Board Performance Subgroup 

The purpose of the Performance Subgroup is to inform and supplement the delivery of youth justice provision in Gateshead and enable the Gateshead Youth Justice Board to effectively fulfil the statutory duties as set out in the practice guidance for England and Wales: Youth justice service governance and leadership. Members of the group are accountable to the Gateshead Youth Justice Board and clear terms of reference are in place.

Appendix 2 - Evidence Based Practice and Innovation

Outcome 22

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 looking forward

Contextual Safeguarding

Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to understanding, and responding to, young people's experiences of significant harm beyond their families. The development of a dedicated contextual safeguarding team is underway in Gateshead to support young people where there is a need for intervention due to the young person experiencing harm beyond their families. This will include issues with peer groups, within the local neighbourhood and schools as well as young people at risk of exploitation and extra familial harm.

Exploitation - Women and Girls

To help tackle and support young women and girls involved in exploitation Gateshead

Children's Social care has applied to the Women and Girls fund to employ a specialist worker. Young women and girls across the north-east are being drawn into County Lines drug gangs, becoming trapped and vulnerable to criminal and sexual exploitation, and traumatised by their experiences.

Young Person Violence Advisor Service - Domestic Abuse Team 

A Young Persons Violence and Abuse Advisor (YPVA service) is being developed in Gateshead this will provide a safe and supportive response for teenagers experiencing serious harm from intimate partner abuse or familial domestic abuse. This could include domestic abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse from gangs, peer on peer abuse and young people who cause harm to others, honour-based violence, forced marriage and cyber stalking.

© Produced by Youth Justice Service, July 2022