Youth Justice Strategic Plan 2023

Our local partnerships work to identify children and young people displaying behaviours associated with offending to prevent entry into the formal youth justice system and offer a combination of early and targeted intervention. This is delivered through specific, evidence based interventions from the Early Help Service, support for young people suffering abuse in personal/intimate relationships from the Domestic Abuse Team, the YOLO Project (You Only Live Once), Criminal Justice Liaison Service and targeted health and substance misuse services.

Turnaround

Gateshead Youth Justice Service was allocated funding to deliver the Turnaround Programme. "Turnaround was developed by the Ministry of Justice, is based on similar principles to those underlying the Supporting Families programme, including the view that children on the cusp of offending often have complex needs. Turnaround funding will support YOTs, and their local strategic partners, to expand best practice in early intervention" MOJ. The delivery model adopted in Gateshead is through our Early Help Service.

Divert

DIVERT provides support to Children and Young People aged 10 - 18 years who come into police custody for any offence or attend as a voluntary attender for a violent offence that are ineligible for the Turn Around Programme. The primary aim of DIVERT is to contribute to the reduction of, and risk serious violence and knife crime. Gateshead Youth Justice service has committed to offering an accessible service that will support hard to reach and underrepresented individuals across our communities. We will deliver services using evidence-based approaches and to develop innovative practice to reduce individuals being drawn into criminality and reduces serious violence within Northumbria. Gateshead YJS is involved in the co-production of a serious youth violence intervention programme which can be used one to one or in groups. 

Divert Charge

Divert from Charge is used to prevent children and young people being charged by police unless in extreme cases, such as offences that could lead to a remand and instead, cases are referred through to a panel process before a final decision is reached. As a result of the Divert from Charge arrangement, young people are not to be labelled as offenders, this helps to prevent young people from forming deviant or delinquent identities that may impact on their development. The process avoids unnecessary disproportionality in the criminal justice system and enables tailored diversionary interventions which are therapeutic, targeted, and appropriate whilst avoiding the stigma of conviction. 

Outcome 22

Outcome 22 continues to be used as an Out of Court disposal.  This intervention is a deferred prosecution, meaning the young person will not come through the formal criminal justice system unless they fail to comply with the program. 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 First Time Entrants into the Criminal Justice System.

Education

Young people in the YJS cohort

In Gateshead Youth Justice Service 44% of young people open to the YJS of statutory school age were in mainstream school, 38% were in the Pupil Referral Unit and 18% were in an alternative provision. (data taken from open case load in May 2023).

On the current case load 24% had been permanently excluded. In the current cohort 38% have SEN support and 15% have an EHCP, this gives a combined total of 53% this is also an increase from June 2022 when the total was 38%.

In this cohort 41% of the YJS statutory school age case load is receiving part time education, no young people were elective home educated.

Children in our Care account for 15% of the cohort, this figure is high but incudes young people currently on remand who now have CIOC status, these young people were not previously open to Children's Social care. Within in this cohort 3% of young people were BME and 26% were female.

Access to education, training, and employment (ETE) opportunities is fundamental to the future prospects of children on youth justice service caseloads and to their desistance from further offending, but the recent HMIP thematic and local inspections show gaps in provision and major barriers to participation for some children.

To support young people receiving a suitable education that meets their needs, Gateshead YJS has created a Case Manager post to take the lead on education. The role is split between half Case Manager and half Education Officer.

The role involves:

• point of contact for YJS and building relationships with the schools and staff
• undertaking SLCN screening tools with young people
• responsibility for the young person's YJS education plan
• supporting YJS young people in accessing education provision
• supporting the school in recognising children's needs in relation to ETE
• challenge and address any barriers to the young person actively engaging or attending education provision
• support EHCP reviews
• working towards YJB ETE KPIs
• attending relevant ETE meetings, including the pupil placement panel and complex cases meeting

In the recent HMIP inspection it was acknowledged that "the YJS is working proactively to develop the partnership's response to ensuring education, training, and employment provision meets the needs of children. However, at the time of the inspection we found that escalation routes to raise concerns when provision was not adequate were not always having an impact. The YJS needs to monitor this routinely and provide context about the children's experiences." Gateshead Youth Justice Service is working with education partners to improve better outcomes for young people, ensuring young people have access to suitable education provision is a key priority for the year ahead.

Restorative approaches and victims

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. Gateshead Youth Justice Service is starting to gather data for the new victim's key performance indicator. Gateshead Youth Justice service has created a reparation booklet which showcases the projects that young people can attend to complete activities.  The YJS use the booklet to show victims of youth crime the projects that young people are involved in and what the impact is on the local community. There are various projects across the brough, this enables victims and young people to complete reparative activity in their community.

Gateshead Council is one of 75 local authorities who have been funded to develop Family Hubs which will provide a welcoming space for families and the wider community.  Gateshead Family Hubs will support families of children up the age of 19 and to age 25 for young people who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The hubs are also open to other members of the community who may need more help. There are six identified community hubs across Gateshead, the YJS is supporting the centres to provide support through reparative activities. It is envisaged that this will help young people to be more invested in their local communities.

The recent HMIP inspection found that Gateshead Youth Justice service have developed reparation provision, but "further work is needed to ensure that all projects are meaningful, structured, and give children opportunities to learn and develop skills".

In 2023 / 2024 Gateshead Youth Justice Service is going to be working with Birkshead Wild. Birkshead Wild is a community project which enables young people to learn new skills in the upkeep of livestock, growing fruit and vegetables, horticultural projects and the recycling of unwanted or bikes in need of repair. 

Satisfaction surveys have told us that victims were very satisfied with the service they had received, and the process helped them to understand the young person's motivation to offend against them.  They felt listened to and had their views taken seriously. 

Serious violence and exploitation

The Serious Violence Duty has been introduced as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC), alongside Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVRO's) and Homicide Reviews. The duty acts as a key part of the Government's programme to adopt a multi-agency approach to prevent and reduce serious violence.

The Duty requires specified authorities to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence, there is a requirement for all specified authorities to prepare a Serious Violence Needs Assessment that identifies the key hotspot areas as well as the specific types of violence that are most prevalent. There is also a need for authorities to develop a Serious Violence Strategy which will bring together all elements of activity and will be monitored throughout the year.

• Police
• Local Authorities
• Youth Justice 
• Fire and Rescue 
• Health authorities 
• Probation

Educational institutions and prison/youth custodial institutions will be under a separate duty to co-operate with core duty holders. There will be a requirement for the local partnership to consult with such institutions within their geographical area. Duty holders will work together to establish the local strategic needs assessment and will be required to develop and publish a local strategy which outlines the collective action they intend to take, this will include:

a)   A summary of the local need's assessment

b)  How the chosen partnership structure will work together

c)   Actions including specific interventions and agreed preventative   action

d)   Engagement plans with voluntary and community organisations as well as young people

e)   Identified funding streams and resources to support this work

Plans for Northumbria Police Area Command

The Violence Reduction Unit are implementing arrangements for the Serious Violence Duty, there is a requirement to produce a revised strategy by January 2024 that encompasses local arrangements and priorities. As part of the process there is a requirement to work with all specified authorities to agree this strategy.  This will include agreement on our definition of serious violence and measures of success. There will also be an opportunity for wider consultation and engagement with stakeholders including young people and the wider community to ensure that the strategy meets their needs. It has been agreed that local implementation of the duty will be co-ordinated by the Violence Reduction Unit.

Learning from Serious Incidents 

Findings from recent partnership learning reviews triggered by serious incidents have included recommendations in relation to improved use of pre-existing information to support a wider understanding of the young person and their needs. This was found to be important when making decisions around thresholds. When young people move into Gateshead from other areas information is gained from the previous authority to provide a full assessment of the young person needs. Closer working relationships with the missing and return home team have been developed and regular intelligence sharing, and joint working takes place across the teams.

Working with the Violence Reduction Unit

Gateshead Youth Justice Service is working with the Violence Reduction Unit to develop a whole-system approach to children and young people, aged 10- to 18-years, carrying weapons or knives. Gateshead YJS will work collaboratively with the other YJS across Northumbria, the VRU and Public Health to co-produce a consistent person-centred response to knife crime. There is a need for a more consistent trauma-informed approach to support children and young people referred to YJS for weapon/ knife carrying and related incidents. It is envisaged that a six-to-eight week / modular programme with a toolkit, comprising age-appropriate resources will be produced for use by YJS practitioners. The aim is to co-produce an intervention for pilot delivery in September 2023.

Operation Pecan

Operation Pecan is the Northumbria Police and partner response to Urban Street Gangs (USG). To tackle serious violence and related criminality and safeguard those at risk of exploitation. The inception of the dedicated operation arises due to an identified trend of offending, across the Newcastle and Gateshead areas. There are links to USGs within all 6 Local Authority areas within the Northumbria Police area. In conjunction with the violence reduction unit, statutory partners, youth, third sector and voluntary organisations, identify opportunities support and divert vulnerable young persons from engaging in USG criminality in order to prevent offending and re-offending.

Released Under Investigation

Northumbria Police and Gateshead YJS hold regular performance meetings to monitor the number of young people currently released under investigation. Scrutiny is placed on young people who have been RUI for over 6 months, RUI for serious category offences and RUI for multiple offences. Recent changes have come into force following the introduction of the Bail Act 2022 which now has a presumption for bail instead of RUI, this is and will continue to reduce the number of young persons on RUI with no end date and replaces this with effective suspect management through clearly defined bail conditions.

MAPPA and Prevent

Gateshead Youth Justice Service refer cases to MAPPA that have met the MAPPA criteria. All MAPPA meetings are attended and YJS has been represented at a senior level. The service is involved with the Prevent agenda and ensures appropriate information sharing and attendance at relevant meetings to support the government's counter-terrorism strategy and protect the public.

National Referral Mechanism

Northumbria Police service have established the missing and Exploitation Hub and have developed positive information sharing and multi-agency working with the wider partnership which results in more robust co-ordinated partnership response to safeguarding concerns and targeting adult perpetrators who are exploiting children or engaging them in acts of serious youth violence. Gateshead Youth Justice Service have made several referrals to the National Referral Mechanism for young people who we suspect are being criminally exploited. A number of these referrals have resulted in positive decisions which has significantly impacted on sentencing and interventions with these young people.

Contextual Safeguarding

Understanding teenagers is an area of specialism that not all workers have, the Contextual safeguarding team as an adolescent hub that can provide varying layers of support across children services. The team is made up of experienced social workers and family advocates who can assess and intervene to address both intra and extrafamilial harm. A Girl and Young woman's advocate is able to offer a targeted response to those at risk of grooming/ exploitation. The Gateshead Youth Justice Service works closely with the contextual safeguarding team as several young people are open to both services simultaneously. Joint planning and delivery meetings take place to avoid duplication of interventions and to ensure the young person and family receive the right support from the right service at the right time.

Operation Victus

Operation 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 Operation Victus seeks to identify those most vulnerable to exploitation, with key partners involved there is consideration to the safeguarding / support in place. Operation Victus co-ordinates the policing activity to deter and pursue these high harm offenders.

Detention in police custody

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. There is a memorandum of understanding in place which enable the sharing of relevant safeguarding information at the earliest opportunity. This helps 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. Gateshead Youth Justice Service provides an appropriate adult service Monday to Friday during office hours, outside of this time the emergency duty team fulfil this duty.