Youth offending service Protocol for meeting Special Educational Needs and Disability duties in the Youth Offending Service
On 1st April 2015 new duties in the Children and Families Act for identifying and addressing the special education needs of young people in custody will come into effect. These duties introduce new entitlements for maintaining or drafting an Education, Health and Care Plan when a young person is detained in custody.
This protocol applies to children and young people who are in the youth justicesystem and have been detained up to the age of 18 and sets out the requirements placed on each agency working with the young person.
Responsibilities
Duties are placed on professionals involved with the young person to meet the educational and health needs of those who have been detained. The specific duties placed on Local Authorities and agencies are as follows:
HomeLocal Authority:ensure the delivery of special educational provision if the detained person has an Education, Health and Care Plan
Health Commissioner: to ensure appropriate health provision is commissioned via the local healthcare provider to deliver provision to meet need set out in the EHCP, orappropriate provision as close to that specified in the EHC Plan as possible.
Youth Offending Team: to undertake an assessment of the detained young person on entering custody and to share information with relevant professionals across the Local Authority (LA), health services and staff delivering provision in the youth accommodation
Home CCG: must cooperate with the health commissioners and LA when finalising the EHC Plan to ensure the health provision remains appropriate once the detainee is released.
Person entering youth custody
On entering custody the young person concerned will undergo an education assessment which will include screening, where necessary, to identify if further assessments are needed to identify any special educational needs. A health assessment must also be carried out.
The Youth Offending Team (YOT) will use the Youth Justice Board (YJB) assessment tool to carry out the education assessment and will seek information from a number of sources, including the relevant LA, education institutions and health providers.
Detained person has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan)
If the detained person has an Education, Health and Care Plan the LA will send it to the YOT, the person in charge of the youth accommodation and the detained person’s health commissioner. This must be done within five working days from the LA becoming aware of the detention.
The LA must arrange the specified provision, or make arrangements as practicably close to that specified in the Plan. This should be discussed and arranged with the person in charge of the youth accommodation and the education provider with a focus on achieving the outcomes in the Plan. The Plan must not be amended whilst the young person is in custody. It must be maintained throughout the sentence and reviewed once the young person is released.
If the detained person’s EHC Plan specifies healthcare provision, NHS England must ensure that the health care provider arranges the specified provision or appropriate provision that is as close as possible to that specified in the plan.
Detained person does not have an Education, Health and Care Plan
If the detained person does not have an EHC Plan then a statutory assessment can be requested. This can be done by either anappropriate person* or the person in charge of the youth accommodation. If a request is made for a Hounslow resident young person in custody, the same process will be followed as the Hounslow statutory assessment process. The difference will be in the professionals who need to be involved in process. The relevant groups of people are detailed in the attached process plan.
When the local authority is considering a request for a statutory assessment, they must consult with the appropriate person and person in charge of the youth accommodation. Regard must be given to the views, wishes and feelings of the detained young person and their parents in decisions relating to individual support.
The purpose of undertaking a statutory assessment where a young person has already been detained is to consider whether the young person may need support to access appropriateeducation or training via an EHC Plan once they are released.
Disagreements
The appropriate person can register an appeal to the tribunal about the following:
-The decision by the LA not to carry out an EHC assessment
-A decision by the LA not to issue an EHC Plan
-The name or type of education placement specified in the plan as the appropriate provision for the person to attend after release.
*The term ‘appropriate person’ is used to describe either the detained persons parent, where the detained person is a child, or the young person, where the detained person is a young person. ‘Parent’ includes any person who is not a parent of the child but has parental responsibility or who cares for him or her.
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