SWANSEA YOUTH OFFENDING SERVICE

Youth Justice Plan Cymru – 2012/14

Forward to the Youth Justice Plan
The production of an annual Youth Justice Plan is a statutory duty of the Local Authority under Part 3, Section 40 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
The plan sets out:
a)  how youth justice services are to be provided and funded, and
b)  how the Youth Offending Service established by the Local Authority are to be composed and funded, how they are to operate and what
function they are to carry out.
The functions assigned to a Youth Offending Team (Service) under Section (1) (l)….. may include, in particular, functions under Paragraph 7 (l) of Schedule 2 to the 1989 Act (local authority duty to take reasonable steps designed to encourage children and young people not to commit offences).
The plan shall be submitted to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. The plan is lodged in the Library of the Houses of Parliament. Anyone having interest in the issues raised within this plan is invited to contact:
Eddie Isles
Manager
Swansea Youth Offending Service
Youth Justice Service
Llwyncelyn Campus
Cockett Road
Swansea SA2 0FJ
Tel: 01792 522800
Email:
Further information for service users and interested parties can be gained by visiting out website: www.swanseayos.org.uk
Background to the Plan
The principle aim of the Youth Justice System in England and Wales is the prevention of offending by children and young people. Reducing the level of youth crime and the number of young people in the criminal justice system has been the primary aim of Swansea Youth Offending Service (YOS) and its partner agencies since the establishment of the service in April 2000. This has been a shared strategic objective with the Safer Swansea Community Safety Partnership (CSP) and the Children and Young People Partnership (CYP). We have sought to develop a coherent strategy which has set prevention as its heart while establishing robust processes to manage persistent offending and reduce the risk of harm to the public.
This approach has been characterised by recognising that the needs of young people and children are distinct and different to those of adults. There has been a commitment by all partner agencies within YOS to ensure a strong adherence to the principals of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, Extending Entitlement and the Seven Core Aims defined by Welsh Government. Inevitably there are sometimes areas of conflict between a rights led young person policy and the needs of the criminal justice system to protect the public. However, engaging young people in schools and their community to participate in a continuing debate about behaviour, responsibility and citizenship has shown that the generational differences in attitude to crime and anti-social behaviour are far fewer than the media would have us believe.
The outcome of this balanced strategy which recognises the needs of young people to access appropriate universal services, educational leisure and cultural opportunities, as well as confronting anti social behaviour and crime has been a significant reduction in youth crime.
In Swansea between 2001/2 and 2011/12 there have been many achievements:
·  annual reported youth crime has fallen from 2044 incidents to 428
·  theft of cars by 10 to 17 year olds has reduced from 174 to 23
·  domestic burglary by 10 – 17 year olds fell from 71 to 13 incidents
·  offences in the top 3 gravity scores fell by 85%
·  the number of persistent offenders offending fell from 204 to 23
·  the number of young people sentenced in the courts has halved and the use of custody has reduced from 62 custodial sentences imposed on young people to 13
The Youth Justice Plan 2012/14 sets out detail of the arrangements for governance, structure, performance against key objectives and the financial arrangements that underpin the Youth Offending Service in Swansea.
Governance
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 lays the responsibility for local arrangements to suitably discharge the statutory duties in the youth justice system with the Chief Executive of the Local Authority in conjunction with the Chief Officers of Police, Probation and Health.
Youth Offending Service Management Boards reflect this statutory multi-agency responsibility.
In Swansea the Management Board is comprised of:
Phil Hodgson, Chair Corporate Director (Social Services) CCS
Joe Ruddy Superintendent, South Wales Police
Rosemary Fletcher Head of Primary Care & Planning. Local Health Board.
Robin Brown Head of Education Inclusion, CCS
Lee Morgan Head of Housing and Community Region, CCS
Steve Goodman Clerk to Swansea Youth Court
Sue Holder Justice and Partnerships Division, South Wales Police
Dawn Blower Assistant Chief probation Officer, Probation Service
Dave Howes Head of Child and Family Services, CCS
The Board seeks to reflect the nature of the YOS as a criminal justice agency with due regard to the welfare of young people. The YOS is directly linked to the Community Safety Partnership and the Children and Young People Plan at strategic and operational levels to ensure appropriate and effective working arrangements.
Since 2000 and the establishment of YOS the broader governance arrangements for youth justice in Wales have increasingly been through partnership between the YJB/Ministry of Justice and Welsh Government.
The development of the All Wales Youth Offending Strategy and the co-ordination of this through the Youth Justice Advisory Panel for Wales has led to significant difference between England and Wales. Youth Offending Services in Wales continue to fulfil the expectations of London in regard to the Key Performance Targets for: reducing first time entrants; reducing the proportionate use of custody and reducing re-offending. However, we also work to a Wales agenda for improving access to education training and employment; reducing the harm caused by alcohol and drugs and ensuring access to appropriate accommodation.
Attention to public protection and safeguarding of children and young people are primary responsibilities for the YOS and are delivered in partnership with a range of agencies and departments of local and central government.
The YOS Management Board has responsibility to oversee the operational practice of the YOS; ensure an appropriate fit to the strategic planning framework; ensure that the resources of the YOS are both adequate and effective in meeting the primary duty “To prevent offending by children and young people,” Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
The diagrams below depict the range of governance and thematic areas of intervention relating to the YOS.
GOVERNANCE MAP FOR SWANSEA YOS YOS INTERVENTIONS
LOCAL SERVICE BOARD
Prevention and Reduction of Public Protection
CRIMINAL JUSTICE CHILD WELFARE Early Intervention Offending
CHIEF OFFICERS
Substance
Misuse
MANAGEMENT BOARD Participation

YJB Welsh
Government Health &
Wellbeing
YOS Reduction
HOME OFFICE of Anti Social
Behaviour Safeguarding
Police Authority Family Support
(Police and Crime LOCAL AUTHORITY Intervention
Commissioner) Initiatives Reduction Education, Training
of And Employment
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION NEETS
Strategic Aims 2011-12
The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales and Ministry of Justice have set 3 key objectives for YOS in England and Wales:
1.  Reduction of first time entrants to the criminal justice system
2.  Reduction in the use of custodial detention
3.  Reduction in the level of re-offending
In Wales these are supplemented by 3 key objectives within the remit of devolved responsibility to Welsh Government:
·  Access to education, training and employment
·  Access to assessment and treatment for alcohol and substance misuse
·  Access to suitable accommodation
In turn the YOS Management Board has developed local strategic priorities that reflect the CYPP and Crime Reduction Plan of the Safer Swansea Partnership and local Safeguarding arrangements. This section of the plan will briefly address each of these issues to evidence existing competence and improvements plans.
1. Reducing First Time Entrants to the Criminal Justice System
There is substantial research evidence that bringing young people into the criminal justice system increases the risk of future offending. The impact of a criminal record on the life opportunity of young people can be significant and potentially reduces capacity to enter work and education long after teenage years.
In May 2009 Swansea YOS and South Wales Police introduced the Swansea Bureau to take a radically fresh approach to pre-court intervention with 10 - 17 year olds. The Bureau process focuses all young people arrested for low and medium seriousness offences to the YOS for assessment rather than an immediate decision to caution or prosecute at the police station. This facilitates enhanced parental engagement, the involvement of victims and the capacity to examine both the offence and the circumstances of the offender.
Uniquely, the Bureau introduced a non-criminal disposal based on restorative justice principles which negated the entry of the young person on the Police National Computer, thereby reducing the risk of harm to future career and education pathways. The Bureau has been carefully monitored by YOS and Police and has been subject to external academic evaluation by Professor Kevin Haines, Department of Criminology School of Law, Swansea University. This evidences a reduction in First Time Entrants of over 60% between 2008/9 and 2010/11. A reduction from 371 to 147 young people receiving a substantive recorded disposal of Reprimand or above.
At the same time the number of young people receiving a Non Criminal Disposal has gone from 0 – 154. Analysis of those receiving an NCD has shown a very low re-offending rate, 6% after 2 years. This compares to a rate of re-offending by those receiving a Reprimand during 2008-9 as a first disposal of over 40% after 2 years.
The Bureau process has now been adopted by a number of other YOS within South Wales where results have followed the same pattern. This process is therefore contributing significantly to reducing persistent offending by young people and has contributed to a significant reduction in court based sentencing and higher sentencing options such as Referral Orders and Youth Rehabilitation Orders. Local monitoring indicates a further substantial reducing in First Time Entrants to 86 in 2011/12.
2. Reducing the Frequency of Custodial Sanctions
Custodial disposals for young people need to be retained for the purpose of protecting the public from serious harm. The principle legal duty of the Youth Offending Service is to prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people (Crime and Disorder Act 1998). In consequence one of the functions of the YOS is to ensure that robust, evidence based community options are available to the courts and that young people are managed in a manner that secures the long term protection of the public by reducing the risk of re-offending. It is therefore essential that public confidence in the work of the YOS is maintained and that victims of youth crime are held central to our processes. Victims need access to information, support and when appropriate, participation through Restorative Justice processes. Equally, the YOS needs to maintain the confidence of sentencers, the engagement of parents and carers and potentially most important of all, the engagement of young people in programmes of intervention which are challenging and life changing.
During 2010/11 the YOS Statutory Orders Team worked with Professor Peter Raynor and Dr Pamela Ugwudike from the Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University on a Welsh Government funded research project to evaluate our programme for persistent young offenders. To achieve this the researchers used the Correctional Programme Assessment Inventory - 2000 (CPAI – 2000, Gendreau and Andrews 2001). The CPAI – 2000 is an evidence based instrument used to evaluate the ‘content and operations’ of criminal justice programmes in order to assess programme integrity. This was the first time the CPAI – 2000 had been used in a youth justice context in the UK. The CPAI created a ‘gold standard’ of evidence based criteria that impact on reducing offending. The YOS delivery was then compared to this standard and scored.
Overall the YOS scored 65% and a ‘satisfactory’ level of programme integrity. The main areas for improvement relate to the ‘client risk/need practices’ and ‘programme characteristics and evaluation.’ The first calls into question some aspects of the assessment tools used by YOS and developed by the YJB. This is an acknowledged development area for YJB who have reviewed the ASSET assessment and are seeking government funding to develop a second generation assessment tool. The second is a process of continuous development and reflection on methodology.
To take this forward the YOS has set an agenda for 2012/13 that involves restructuring how we provide information to the courts, seeking to extend the role of the sentencing Magistrate into the full duration of the order imposed and redefining how we conduct meetings and reviews with young people to ensure full participation in all decision making.
The intended outcome is that all practice will be compliant with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and that we create a strong partnership between sentencers, parents, young people and YOS staff. This should ensure that programme integrity is maximised while ensuring an individual approach to each case is maintained reflecting the need to address offending behaviour and the rights of the young person set down by Welsh Government in Extending Entitlement (Welsh Government 2000). To this effect every plan for an individual young person working with the YOS will have a specific plan to address the needs of that young person in respect of their education, training and employment, alcohol and substance misuse, accommodation needs and other welfare needs identified.
An enhanced system of reviews will ensure that plans can be adjusted as required to meet the needs of the young person and where necessary, to protect the public. This process is being monitored internally within the YOS and once fully established will be subject to independent external evaluation. The expected outcomes are an increase in successful completion of court orders, a reduction in rates of re-offending, reduced use of custodial sanctions, improved outcomes and reduced risk for young people. During 2011/12 a total of 13 custodial sentences were imposed on young people. A reduction from 19 the previous year.