North Yorkshire Council
Annual Performance Update on the Youth Justice Service for the Corporate & Partnerships Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 11 September 2023
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Our Youth Justice Service is located within the broader Early Help offer, supporting a single, coordinated pathway for children presenting risky or challenging behaviour.
1.2 The key principles of the national youth justice practice model have been blended with the advanced, child-centred & strength-based approach used by Children’s Services, achieving consistency and transferability of our assessments, plans & interventions.
1.3 North Yorkshire services work closely together across a breadth of other key partnerships to develop and deliver this coordinated approach. This has been further advanced by a Unitary Council structure that began in April 2023.
1.4 Our single, overarching vision for our services is to focus our work within communities, schools, and families to support early, creative and sustainable positive change. The more effectively we do this, the fewer people will develop complex, costly, or risky needs later. This is especially important for our children, who are prioritised in every strategy.
1.5 Our partnership within our Youth Justice Service reflects these values and is illustrated in our key object to reduce the number of children who get into trouble, and wherever possible to divert them to positive support. For the small cohort of children who present persistent or serious offending - and invariably have substantial, complex unmet needs - we want our Youth Justice Service to work alongside our children, their families, schools, and communities to find positive change.
1.6 We have a highly skilled, hardworking, well trained operational workforce. We are proud of the successful HMIP Inspection. We regularly receive feedback from the service’s QA processes, and independent analytical reports provided by the CYPS Strategy & Performance Team. We confidently know that our frontline teams are providing a high standard of assessment, planning and support for the children. Recent thematic audits and learning conversations have continued to inform us that we are continually striving for excellence for the children and families we serve.
2.0 Performance
2.1 It is important to first highlight the significant and valuable improvements that have been achieved against the three National Youth Justice indicators.
· The First Time Entrant rate has continued to decrease with a 29% reduction seen between the 2020 and 2022 calendar years.
· The April-June 2021 cohort was the 3rd successive cohort where the binary reoffending rate has been 30% or lower. Each of these rates has been below the national rate – a significant improvement compared with previous years.
· Only 1 custodial sentence was given in 2021/22 followed by only 2 in 2022/23 – both years were a significant improvement on the 9 received in 2020/21.
2.2 First Time Entrants (FTEs)
· We are pleased that our FTE rate continues to improve, the latest official data for the 12 months ending December 2022 showed a further decrease in the rate of FTE’s (r=131) into the criminal justice system in North Yorkshire compared with the rate 12 months previously (r=157). The rate of 131 relates to 72 young people and places North Yorkshire in the 2nd Quartile nationally
· 16 fewer young people entered the criminal justice system for the first time in the 12 months ending December 2022 when compared to the same period 12 months earlier
· The current rate in North Yorkshire is lower than the national (r=148) and regional (r=175) rates but higher than the family group average (r=113). The rate in North Yorkshire has decreased at a faster rate than any of the 3 comparators since 2020.
· We have continued to work hard to improve the quality and impact of our diversionary Youth Outcomes Panel (YOP) and maintain closely detailed analysis of YOP throughput, outcomes, and re-offending. We know that the 2022 cohort had a significantly increased rate of diversion from recorded criminal outcomes – increasing from 48% in 2021 to 73% in 2022, primarily through greater use of ‘Outcome 22’.
2.3 Prevention & diversionary activities
· The Early Help Service continues to lead on the delivery of a 2-year Test & Learn Pilot Programme of work as part of the Regional Health & Youth Justice Vanguard. The primary focus is to build on existing work delivering action that brings about a reduction in the number of First Time Entrants (FTE’s) into the criminal justice system as well as positively influencing the trajectory of those young people at risk of re-entering the system. Recent data suggests that this approach is having a positive impact. Our Test & Learn site has now received confirmation of an additional one year of full funding, which means the offer in place has now been extended through to March 2025. We also remain hopeful of a further extension beyond this period.
· Funding for the Turnaround Programme was announced by the Ministry of Justice in October 2022 with a launch date of January 2023.
· The Programme is a three-year programme which aims to improve outcomes and prevent offending for children who are on the cusp of the youth justice system and who do not meet the threshold for statutory support.
· We have been able to build on shared learning from our Change Direction programme (part of the test & learn pilot) and will continue to work with North Yorkshire Youth to refine and improve the programme as we move forward. We have planned and embedded:
o A Turnaround pathway agreed with by our local policing teams to gain the right referrals at the right time.
o Close links to ensure the right ethos and embedding of the criteria is in place with North Yorkshire Youth.
o Creativity with the work North Yorkshire Youth will carry out upon receiving a referral around diversion and prevention sessions.
o Regular meet ups with the Ministry of Justice programme team to update them on North Yorkshire’s plans to deliver our local Turnaround programme and express and highlight gaps and areas to improve as well as share good practice.
· This highlights a major change of focus and practice for the operational Youth Justice Service, pivoting from historical high-volume/light-touch casework to a more sustained and detailed engagement with far fewer but much more complex children.
2.4 Work with girls
· We are concerned by the unusually high representation of girls in our FTE cohorts (29.2% in the most recent cohort) significantly exceeding national trends. It is also notable that female FTEs present a higher prevalence of primary violent offences (63% girls v 39% boys).
· Our data tells us that the town and Eastfield areas of Scarborough are particularly significant, both in the extent of social exclusion and the impact of this upon anti-social behaviour (ASB) and crime trends. Some of those Wards are ranked in the lowest of the national Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), and local children have grown-up in systemic, multi-generational social exclusion. This is reflected throughout our performance monitoring systems, where we see much higher First-Time Entrant (FTE) rates and reoffending there, and a concerning over-representation of girls.
· We are at the early stages of developing specific work around our female cohort. North Yorkshire has taken the lead alongside Leicester Youth Justice Service to develop a national focus group exploring work with girls coming to the attention of Youth Justice Service. As part of this development, we are aiming to explore examples of good practice, examine what is already working and enable the opportunity for sharing resources and evidence-based practice. We have been contacted by the Youth Justice Board who have now joined this focus group as they are keen to be part of this learning. We recently jointly organised and chaired the first national meeting with over 500 participants. There are subsequent dates in the diaries to drive this forward.
3.0 Reoffending
3.1 For the 3rd consecutive cohort, the Binary reoffending rate has remained at 30% or lower. This is the 1st time this has occurred in North Yorkshire and highlights the significant progress that has been seen since the very high rate of 50% was seen in the July-September 2020 cohort. Although the covid-19 pandemic is likely to have impacted on offending, that will obviously have been the case nationally and, as the chart below highlghts, the binary rate in North Yorkshire has moved and remained below the regional and national rates in each of the last 3 cohorts.
3.2 The current rate rate of 30.0% is lower than that seen regionally (32.2%) and nationally (31.7%) but remains higher than the family group average (29.6%).
3.3 The percentage of females in North Yorkshire cohorts remains a concern, with the 17 females in the April to June 2021 cohort being 28.3% of the overall cohort. This compares with the national average of approximately 14%. We have contacted other Youth Offending Teams with a view to carrying out a review of our practice in relation to supporting young females and to try and identify the best practice that is occuring elsewhere. See 2.5
3.4 We had planned to establish a local dashboard system which applied PNC reporting rules to real-time case outcomes. However, due to notice being given on Careworks, the development of a dashboard has paused until a new case management system is in place.
4.0 Custodial sentences
4.1 Reduction of custodial sentencing has been a key North Yorkshire priority for several years, and we are delighted by the sustained progress our partnership has achieved. Only one custodial sentence was given in 2021/22 followed by only two in 2022/23 – both years were a significant improvement on the nine received in 2020/21.
4.2 The chart below shows the significant decrease in the actual number of custodial sentences in North Yorkshire in the last 5 years. The 24 custodial sentences received in the 12 months ending March 2019 equated to a rate per 1,000 of the 10-17 population in North Yorkshire of 0.45, compared with the then national rate of 0.30 and the regional rate of 0.39.
4.3 Whilst the rate of custodial sentences has also decreased nationally in recent years, the current national rate (r=0.11) and regional rate (r=0.12) are both higher than the 0.04 in North Yorkshire.
5.0 Child First
5.1 Our North Yorkshire practice model is fully engaged with the Child First values. We distinguish children from adults and treat them with special care, recognising their young lives and potential. We take all possible steps to divert children from formal criminalisation, and where that is unavoidable, we foster trusting and influential relationships to support them through positive, strengths-based change.
6.0 Voice of the child
6.1 North Yorkshire has a comprehensive engagement and participation approach. Within Children’s Services this is led by our Youth Voice and Creative Engagement Service, comprising of 5 specialist participation workers who support and facilitate the voice of young service users. This includes a number of consultative ‘voice groups’, a team of Young Inspectors, and a Children in Care Council. As described in this plan, our partnership approach to Youth Justice does not distinguish or stigmatise children who commit offences. Some of the children supported by youth justice are involved in Youth Voice projects, but we do not have (or want) a separate strand which primarily labels them as criminals.
6.2 The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner also funds a very active Youth Commission project facilitated by Leaders Unlocked, which gathers a wide range of views from all young people aged 10-25 across York and North Yorkshire through the delivery of peer-to-peer workshops and consultation events.
6.3 North Yorkshire Children’s Services have for some time been using the award-winning online ‘Mind of My Own’ to gather individual wishes and feelings, service feedback and development insight from young people. Mind of My Own comprises a suite of tailored modules for different ages, circumstances, and journeys, but until recently this did not include youth justice. We are very proud to have secured grant funding to extend Mind of My Own, and that our staff and service-experienced young people led the design and piloting work.
6.4 North Yorkshire Youth have recently used grant funding as part of Turnaround monies to purchase Mind of My Own to ensure the voices of Children and Young People they support have the opportunity to be heard.
7.0 Humber Coast & Vale - Trauma based project.
7.1 Our Test & Learn site has now received confirmation of an additional one year of full funding, which means the offer in place has now been extended through to March 2025. We also remain hopeful of a further extension beyond this period. All three delivery elements (Change Direction, Trusted Relationships, and PIPA), remain fully staffed and operational. For year one of the programme (including the mobilisation period), 158 young people accessed this support offer for the first time.
7.2 We continue to focus on work delivering action that brings about a reduction in the number of first-time entrants into the Youth Justice System as well as positively influencing the trajectory of those young people at risk of re-entering the system. Through our PIPA Clinicians, we are also working with young people across services, where multiple complex and complicating risk factors are negatively affecting their lives and decreasing their opportunities to change track.
7.3 Our ARC Trauma Informed development of practice journey continues with both regional support and within the partnership through Community of Practice Groups. Senior Leaders in all Local Authority Children & Young Peoples Services involved in the Programme have recently been offered an opportunity to participate in some Leadership Training around the ARC Framework. Preparations for internal roll-out of the ARC Training Framework to staff are underway led by our Clinical Psychologist and Advanced Practitioner, in conjunction with the Training & Learning and the Head of Effective Practice. We are currently working towards commissioning a two-phase rollout over the next couple of years, with Early Help and Youth Justice Teams being in phase one.
7.4 The Participatory Appraisal element of the programme has been scheduled for a week in February 2024 and is expected to take place in Eastfield/Scarborough Town. This is a social action research model where workers and young people pair up to jointly go out into the local community.
8.0 My Assessment Plan (MAP) – (alternative assessment)
8.1 The MAP model has been periodically refined in the light of evidence and learning and continues to be used for most children supported by the service. We are confident that this concise family-centred and strengths-based approach is defensible and effective, and our internal performance monitoring is very encouraging.
8.2 The MAP evaluation project has begun with the collating of the required data. A number of individuals within NYCC have participated in an interview so far (thank you to them) and recruitment of further participants is underway. The necessary YJB data has been shared and analysis will begin soon. Contact has also been made with other YOTs across the country who are undertaking alternative assessment models and they have been very helpful in sharing their model and evaluations with Rachel Vipond (Project Lead, School for Business and Society, University of York).
9.0 Careworks – Case Management system
9.1 We have had some significant developments in respect of strategic decisions to explore, source and implement a new case management system. Youth Justice Service are expected to migrate when the Careworks contract expires on the 31st of March 2024.
9.2 Procuring a new system is a timely process. A project group has been established bringing together a number of focus groups involving practitioners from YJS, business support services and business intelligence, performance and technology and change, to refine each element and function to ensure we secure a case management system that is fully aligned with our strengths in relationship practice model.
9.3 We are trying to shape the Youth Justice module as we need it, for example making sure MAP integration is embedded. We are keen to ensure we are taking the right strategic option for long-term integration. We are eager to develop a more child-centred, inter-operative system.
9.4 Development capacity is a critical barrier, but we are working towards this with a clear plan in place. Compatibility between partnership case management systems is a continuing barrier to collaborative, integrated working. We have learnt that most other Youth Justice Services have moved to a systemic strengths-based, child & family-centred practice, and there is an increasing consistency of language and process which facilitates joined-up, trauma informed working.
10.0 New Key Performance Indications
10.1 It is essential whilst securing a new product that we are able to report on the following new Key Performance Indicators introduced in from April 2023. As the first submission is required August 2023, business intelligence are currently pulling data from a number of systems to enable accurate submission to be achieved. Youth Justice Services are being asked to include any supporting data, if available, regarding:
· suitable accommodation
· education, training and employment
· special educational needs and disabilities/additional learning needs
· mental health care and emotional wellbeing
· substance misuse
· out-of-court disposals
· links to wider services
· management board attendance
· serious violence
· victims
10.2 Local performance targets are also being encouraged. This can include any local targets that aim to improve the outcomes for children in North Yorkshire Council.
11.0 Quality Assurance
11.1 Quality assurance - We have completed migration into the overarching Children’s Services Quality Assurance model, and a process of regular “Learning Space” reviews now take place with all case-holding practitioners to develop holistic, reflective practice. The outcomes are fed into an integrated reporting system which informs strategic planning and leadership.
11.2 In April 2023 the YJB introduced a new Single Oversight Framework. The framework has been developed to clarify how the YJB will undertake their function of oversight across the youth justice system, support understanding of their expectations of standards and performance, whilst providing ministers with an accurate assessment of the youth justice landscape.
11.3 This framework emphasises the importance of delivery against both the local priorities agreed between local partners and the national expectations set out primarily through the standards for children in the youth justice system, the terms and conditions of the youth justice core grant, and national key performance indicators
11.4 The purpose of the new framework is to:
· ensure priorities across the delivery of youth justice services (YJSs) and wider system partners are aligned
· identify effective practice and/or where individual YJSs may benefit from, or require, support, and how to provide this
· provide an objective basis for decisions about when and how intervention is needed
· drive improvement across the youth justice system through supporting the dissemination and promotion of practice that delivers effective outcomes for children.
12. Ongoing development opportunities
12.1 An online Child Adolescence Parental Violence Abuse session goes live in September 2023. As part of this work, a one-minute guide has been developed for the workforce which is included within the documents section of the report.
12.2 The Youth Justice Service have recently funded more training on the AIM 3 training programme. Practitioners including social workers & youth justice workers have been trained and accredited in the new AIM 3 practice model. In addition, line managers have received AIM 3 training for supervision, support and quality assurance.
12.3 We are confident that this investment has established a robust, coordinated network of best practice. We are working with partners to finalise a single, shared Harmful Sexual Behaviour practice and procedures model. We are hoping that this will reduce costs, facilitate joint working and collaborative language, and also provide a consistent service offer to our courts and criminal justice partners.
12.4 Harmful Sexual Behaviour covers a range of behaviours and as such there is no universally agreed definition. This means data collection on the prevalence of Harmful Sexual Behaviour in North Yorkshire is problematic and the number of Harmful Sexual Behaviour incidents across the county is unknown. Up until recently, partner agencies across North Yorkshire have used the 'Brook Traffic Light Tool' to consider incidents of Harmful Sexual Behaviours.
12.5 Children and Families Service will have an improved understanding of the prevalence of Harmful Sexual Behaviours in the different localities, concise evidence of the need locally and of current provision which will mean we are able to better allocate resources where they will have the most impact.
12.6 There will be an overarching Harmful Sexual Behaviour strategy across North Yorkshire with a fully trained workforce who will report feeling confident in how to identify Harmful Sexual Behaviour and how to act once it has been identified. Universal services such as schools will feel confident in how to offer preventative work to all young people to educate and reduce the instances of HSB in their communities.
13.0 Looking forward 2023 -2024
· We will work complete an independent evaluation of My Assessment Plan.
· We will hold and improve progress on reduction of FTEs and Custody, while driving forward decisive actions to reduce re-offending.
· In terms of Prevention & Diversion, we will continue to focus on Integrated, Systemic & Relational Practice, develop and improve approaches around Education, Training & Employment and continue to tailor support for Higher Need Groups, particularly through the trauma informed approach of the Humber Coast Vale project
· Procure and migrate to a new Case Management ensuring the system aligns with our Practice Model whilst having the ability to report on the new KPIs.
· Serious Violence Duty - The Duty, which commenced 31st January 2023, requires specified authorities to work together to prevent and reduce Serious Violence that occurs in the area and implement a strategy to address it. Funding is allocated through the OPFCC to support the Duty. North Yorkshire YJS will work collaboratively with the OPFCC and partners to implement and respond to the Duty, aligned to the wider work of the YJS accordingly.