Youth Justice Strategic Plan 2023
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 and those supporting Children in Our Care.
The service is led by the Youth Justice Team Manager, an Assistant Manager, 6 Youth Justice Case Managers, 3 Young People's Advocates and a 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)
Governance
Governance of Youth Justice Service in Gateshead is delivered by a defined Gateshead Youth Justice Board. The Youth Justice Board is chaired by the Director of Children's Services, Helen Fergusson. Councillor Gary Haley, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People is also a full and active member of the Board. All statutory partners are represented alongside, Police, Probation, Children's Social Cre, Health and Education. Members hold sufficient seniority to be able to commit resources and make necessary decisions. The board meets face to face on a bi-monthly basis.
Gateshead Youth Justice Board have a forward planner which is used to schedule reports and updates from internal and external partners. Terms of reference and membership of the Gateshead Youth Justice Board were reviewed in January 2023.
In addition to bi-monthly meetings, bi-annual development sessions take place to review membership, consolidate partner relationships, strengthen roles and responsibilities of board members, and develop priorities for the year ahead.
The Gateshead Youth Justice Board membership is linked with other local inter-agency structures ensuring clear lines of communication and a collaborative approach to shared responsibilities and aims. These include:
- Gateshead Safeguarding Children Partnership
- Gateshead SEND Board
- Gateshead Community Safety Partnership
- Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee
- Gateshead Corporate Parenting Board
- Newcastle Gateshead Integrated Care Board
- Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board
- Gateshead Multi Agency Exploitation Hub
Gateshead performance subgroup supplements 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. Membership consists of representatives from statutory and non-statutory partners and are accountable to the Gateshead Youth Justice Board. The function of the group is to;
- review performance data
- shape the analysis and agree the content of the board reports in advance of Gateshead Youth Justice Board meetings
- monitor progress against strategic priorities
- ensure performance standards are met against HMIP inspection criteria
- support the Board in preparing for any inspection activity
- inform service improvement
Board development
Following some changes in the Board membership, in September 2022 Gateshead Youth Justice Service held a Board Development Day, this was well attended by all statutory partners and the majority of other board members. This session focused on providing the Board with a good induction into the role of members and the importance of advocating for young people within the Youth Justice Service, in their respective organisations. The session used the YJB's Youth Justice Service governance and leadership guidance, HMIP inspection criteria and reports to plan and deliver the session. In May 2023 HMIP found,
"There is a thorough induction and continued development for board members, who understand their role and responsibilities well. The partnership is invested in and advocates for the YJS. We saw effective collaboration between the YJS and the police, children's social care, and the probation service".
In line with the YJB new Key Performance Indicators, Gateshead YJS will record the number of senior partners attending board meetings and will report on partners which have presented data which has identified areas of disproportionality. In the recent HMIP inspection they found there was "representation of appropriate seniority from all partners".
The annual YJS Strategic Plan is developed with partners and key priorities are identified jointly and progress against these are monitored through the board. Board members, YJS staff and volunteers are all invited to these sessions to provide joint planning and development. HMIP reflected that "there are effective relationships between the management board and the wider service. Staff are invited to and attend the board regularly; they feel that their views are heard and responded to. They have a good understanding of the board's activity. Board members are aware of the day-to-day activity of the YJS and have shadowed work".
Members of Gateshead Youth Justice Service Board are involved in audit of cases and practice. This ensures board members have a good operational understanding of the service and it develops relationships between operation staff and strategic leaders. Audits are reported through the board to ensure a wider understanding of the findings.