After Hours Emergency Services Policy for Community Youth Justice Services

Department of Health and Human Services
Children and youth services /

After Hours Emergency Services Policy for Community Youth Justice Services

Effective From / Effective From
Functional Sub Group / Office of the Director, Children and Youth Services Operations
Summary / This Policy applies to Community Youth Justice staff and is used to provide clear direction for the provision of after-hoursemergency services in compliance with broader agency policies,and legislation requirements.
Replaces Doc. No. / Protocol 9: After Hours Service – Where a child is a client of both CPS and YJS
Author Area / Children and Youth Services
Contact / CYS Director – Operations
Applies to / All staff engaged in Community Youth JusticeServices
Policy Type / Community Youth Justice state-wide policy
Review Date / To be reviewed 6 months post implementation
Prepared by / Tracey Newman / Senior Project Officer / 62307820 / 12 September 2012
Through / Stuart Oldfield / Youth Justice Manager - South / 62307634 / 19 September 2012
Cleared by / Director Operations, Children and Youth Services / 62307871 / Date
Approved by / State-wide Management Group - SMG

Introduction/Purpose

Community Youth Justice (CYJ) operationally provides services to the Courts within the mandate of the Youth Justice Act 1997.

Outside of business hours, the Court of Petty Sessions deals with matters such as; application for bail, restraint and family violence orders and breach of bail. The Court of Petty Sessions is different from the Magistrates Court in that matters are presided over by a Justice of the Peace rather than a Magistrate. Bail conditions or decision to hold a youth on remand is only valid until the next Magistrates Court sitting date, or their next Court date (for ongoing matters).

After-hour Court of Petty Sessions can occur between the hours of 5:06pm to 9:00pm weekdays, 10am to 10pm over weekends and public holidays.

Whilst there is no legal requirement for CYJ to provide assistance to the Court after-hours; traditionally CYJ have responded to requests by Police Prosecution Services (PPS) to attend Court. This supports the principles of the Act and ensures that support is given to the young person following a successful bail application. For the purposes of this act, a youth is a person who is 10 or more years old but less than 18 years old at the time of the offence.

CYJ After-Hours is managed through asystem of day-workersavailable to be on-call in each region to cover after-hours sittings. Whilst the roster system operates on a volunteer basis, there is an expectation that staff will participate in after-hours services. The on-call worker manages the after-hours phone, and PPS will contact them directly with a request to attend Court. Any requests prior to 5:06 by PPS may be made to the CYJ Manager.

The role of the Youth Justice worker on after-hours is to:

Attend Court when requested to support the young person appearing before the Court,
Ensure that the Justice of the Peace has the relevant information about the young person,
Provide advocacy and support to the young person and encourage the Court only to remand a youth in AYDC as a last resort,
Contact the young person’s guardians where appropriate,
Ensure that the young person returns home safely following Court or if homeless, ensure that the young person has access to a Youth Shelter. Note: in some regions, this role is fulfilled by Police.

The purpose of this policy is to:

Ensure thatall youth are given the support and advocacy through the legal process by CYJ
As far as is reasonably practicable, deliver a service that minimises risks to staff by providing safe work systems including; instruction, training, supervision and critical incident support and
Require on-call workers to record after-hours court sittings as an after-hours case note for the purposes of maintaining an accurate client file and for reporting on after-hours activities.

Policy Statement

Principle statement of service provision

When a request is made to attend after-hours Court, the request will be responded to in a timely and professional manner in accordance with CYJ guidelines.
Workers health and safety is paramount. All managers and staff must meet their responsibilities in the management of after-hours work to ensure a safe work environment.

Scope of service

Attendance at Court upon request to provide:
information to the Court about any current Youth Justice matters,and
support the young person in Court.
Ensure the youth’s parents or guardians have been contacted where appropriate (usually performed by Police), and following Court, ensure that the young person returns home safely or are supported into a Youth Shelter if homeless.
If the young person is remanded to Ashley Youth Detention Centre (AYDC), you must inform AYDC at the time of the outcome.
If it becomes known that the young person is on a care and protection order, you must contact the Child Protection after-hours service.
If the worker has serious concerns about significant and/or immediate risks from abuse or neglect, the Youth Justice worker should consider making a notification to the Child Protection After-Hours Emergency Service. If risks are not immediate consider making a notification the following day. Child Protection After-Hours Number: 1300 737 639.
All attended after-hours Court matters must be recorded on YJIS (Youth Justice Information System) as an After-Hours case note.The date and time of the case note must reflect the date and time of the Court sitting, and the case note must contain the outcome of the court hearing.
It is not the role of CJY service to attend police interviews regarding a youth.

Staffing and remuneration

Any staff member may nominate themselves to be on-call; however they must be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills in court work and processes, and be approved to work after-hours by the Youth Justice Manager.
New staff members approved to commence on the After Hours rostershould be ‘buddied’ with a more experienced staff member for their first roster period.
Each region manages their own Youth JusticeAfter-Hours Roster with a Youth Justice worker available every evening. Rosters should be published three months in advance andmust be actively managed to allow for changes due to workload and/orsafety management requirements.
A staff member cannot be on the After-Hours Roster if on pre-arranged leave or has taken sick leavefor those days.
A staff member on a return to work plan following an injury should not be rostered to work after-hours until their return to work plan has concluded and a return to the After-Hours Roster is supported by their supervisor.
Remuneration and working conditions for staff working on the on call roster is to be in accordance with Clause 15 On call Allowance and Clause 16 Availability Allowance of the Allied Health Professionals (Tasmanian State Service) Agreement 2012 (the Agreement) and Part VII Clause 6 Availability and Recall of the Health and Human Services (Tasmanian State Service) Award (the Award).
On-call workers are responsible for completing timesheets for after-hours activities and these must be signed off by your manager prior to being forwarded to Admin for processing.

Quality and Safety

The on-call Youth Justice workermust have access to the Manager (or a proxy) by telephone, so they can seek advice and assistance ifrequired.
All staff are required to take reasonable steps to ensure their own health and safety is not placed at risk, and consider the health and safety of others. Staff working after-hours must be aware of, and comply with current DHHS safety and quality policies.
The management of fatigue associated with After Hours call-outs is to be managed and remunerated in accordance with Clause 20 Safe working and fatigue management of the Agreement and Part VII Clause 3(b) Rest period after overtime of the Award.
Line-managers must monitor staff workloads and fatigue issues. If there are concerns that after-hours duties are having a negative effect on a staff members day-to-day responsibilities, or on their health; the manager must work with the staff member to put a plan in place to manage the impact.
Matters arising from after-hours duties should be included as part of regular day-time supervision; and must be considered as part of a staff member’s yearly performance development agreement (PDA) and raise any issues with the Manager.

Incident Reporting and Management

After a critical incident, staff involved in the incident must be offered the opportunity to engage in a defusing process or receive debriefing support. More formal debriefing should also be offered at a later stage. Staff must be supported to seek further counselling (EAP) if needed to help reduce the long-term effects of working in, or experiencing traumatic situations. Whilst some staff may be less comfortable with a formal debriefing process, it is the responsibility of line managers to ensure that staff attend debriefing opportunities in place.
Critical incidents include:
death or serious injury to a client, youth or worker;
situations that threatened the life or physical safety of a staff member, or a client;
any incident that involves weapons.
The manager must be notified of any critical incidentsimmediately of the incident. The Youth Justice Manager will provide telephone defusing if requested, and will follow-up with the worker the following day to provide support for further debriefing or counselling asrequired.
The Youth Justice Manager must advise the worker’s day-time supervisor of the incident. This process is designed to help stabilise those staff involved.
All incidents must be reported in the DHHS Electronic Incident Monitoring System (EIMS) as early as possible after the occurrence of the event and at least within 24 hours.

Monitoring and review of after-hours service provision

Routine monitoring of after-hours activities and processes will be undertaken; and actions to improve processes and practice will be implemented on a needs basis. See Audit and Compliance

Key Definitions

Community Youth Justice Service (CYJS)

CYJS refers to the operations unit responsible for the provision of services under the Youth Justice Act 1997. The principle purpose of CYJ is to intervene with a youth to contribute to the reduction in re-offending.

Child Protection Service (CPS)

CPS has responsibilities under the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1997 to receive notifications from the community about children and young people at risk of abuse or neglect and to take action under the act where a child requires protection. The Secretary of DHHS is also responsible for children under this Act where guardianship and/or custody areordered by the Magistrates Courts to the Secretary.

Principles

This policy supports the following principles:

the youth is dealt with in a manner that encourages the youth to accept responsibility for their behaviour;
the youth should not be treated more severely than an adult would be;
guardians are to be encouraged and supported to fulfil their responsibility for the care and supervision of the youth;
detaining a youth in custody should only be used as a last resort;
sanctions must be appropriate to age, maturity, cultural identity and must support the youth to develop a sense of social responsibility;
family relationships between a youth, the youth’s parents and other members of the family should be preserved and strengthened.

Implementation/Policy in Operation

This is a state-wide policy and must not be re-interpreted so that subordinate policies exist.
This policy provides the operating structure for meeting the demand of attending Court of Petty Sessions after-hours.
For operational procedures on attending court refer to the Youth Justice Practice Manual. Court procedures are the same for day-time procedures.

Rationale/Evidence Base

The development of this policy is based on the following legislative and DHHS policy requirements:

Youth Justice Act 1997
DHHS Injury Management Policy 2010
DHHS Incident Reporting and Management Policy 2010
Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995

This policy has been developed with reference to the following documents:

Youth Justice Model of Care (Children and Youth Services 2011)YJ-R19 Review business and after-hours court requests to appear for bail hearings and develop a consistent state-wide policy and guideline.

Children and Youth Services Quality and Safety Framework – version 1
DHHS Strategic Directions 2009-2012

Outcomes

After Hours service that is accessible,transparent and effectively connected to business hours operations.
Staff will be operating under an After Hours model which supports their health and safety.

Responsibilities/Delegations

The following youth justice staff members must adhere to this policy.

Youth Justice on-call workersare responsible for:
a current driver’s licence and access to a departmental vehicle;
the after-hour lap top computer and next G card and the after-hours phone;
ensuring that they are contactable, maintaining themselves available for work; and be able to initiate action when requested to appear before the after-hours Court of Petty Sessions;
providing the Court with information about any previous Youth Justice involvement and any current orders (check of YJIS);
ensuring that the youth returns safely home or is housed in a Youth Shelter;
ensuring that all after-hours Court of Petty Sessions sittings are recorded on YJIS at the time of the court outcome;
ensuring day-time staff members receive the information about their clientsthe next working day;
being directly responsible to their Youth Justice Manager, for reporting any incidents or client related issues that have arisen over the course of the after-hours call-out;
raising matters relating to after-hours duties in normal supervision with their supervisor.
Youth Justice Managers (or nominated proxy)are responsible for:
coordination and management of the Youth JusticeAfter-Hours Roster in their region;
signing off after-hours time-sheets;
being contactable for the purposes of managing critical incidents;
managing any ongoing performance issues arising from after-hours duties.
Youth Justice Team Leadersare responsible for:
ensuring their team members work within the quality and safety requirements outlined in this policy.
Youth Justice Workerswill be responsible for:
ensuring client information and any case management plans are up-to-date on YJIS;
keeping after-hours staff informed of any clients who may be of high risk of re-offending.
Quality Improvement Team will be responsible for:
ensuring that after-hours training will be included in Beginning Practice for new and existingYouth Justice workers.
Director Operations and Area Managers will be responsible for:
the change management process to implement this policy;
ensuring the after-hours workforce is fully supported with the tools they need to do their work;
monitoring the implementation of the CYJ After-Hours Policyand service quality (responsiveness, accessibility, linkages with day service and achieving positive client outcomes)through audits.

Audit and Compliance

Failure to comply with this policy, without providing a good reason for doing so, may lead to disciplinary action.
The following measures will be used to monitor service compliance:

This Policy may be varied, withdrawn or replaced at any time. Compliance with this directive is mandatory for the Department of Health and Human Services. Please Destroy Printed Copies. The electronic version of this Policy is the approved and current version and is located on the Agency’s intranet. Any printed version is uncontrolled and therefore not current.

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requests for a Youth Justice worker to attend court are responded to;
all after-hours Court hearings are recorded in YJIS;
a six monthly audit will be undertaken for the first 12 months of this policy, followed by a yearly audit; with reports provided to State-wide Management Group (SMG);
each audit report will include a review of the Electronic Incident Management System (EIMS) data to quantify health and safety risks or improvements.

The following performance measures will be employed:

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percentage of after-hours Court attendance,by date, time, outcome;
Court satisfaction with the CYJ after-hours service.

Glossary

CYJS / Community Youth Justice Service
CYS / Children and Youth Services
EIMS / The DHHS Electronic Incident Monitoring System
Critical incident / An event or circumstance which could have, or did, lead to unintended and/or unnecessary harm (disease, injury, suffering physical and/or mental, disability and death) to a client, or staff member.
Defusing / Defusing is designed to assist workers coping with a critical incident in the short term and address immediate needs. Defusing should be done informally and occur at the time of the incident before the person has a chance to sleep. The focus of defusing is to assure workers that what they are feeling is normal given what’s happened, remind them of signs and symptoms to watch for in the short term, and ensure they have someone they can call if needed.
YJIS / Youth Justice Information System

After Hours Emergency Services Policy for Community Youth Justice Services