Agenda item

Curtis Ashton, Director – Young Islington, presented the Youth Offending Service (YOS) report.

In the presentation and discussion, the following main points were made:

·       There had been inspections in 2014 and 2015 and inspection outcomes were not good. Since then there had been significant change with much success in terms of key performance indicators and the work being undertaken.

·       The first time entrants figure had improved substantially.

·       In 2016, Islington had the worst custody rate in the whole country but now Islington outperformed statistical neighbours and the London average.

·       There had been improvement in the reoffending rate.

·       There had been progress made in relation to disproportionality. There was an over representation of boys from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and a project funded by the Youth Justice Board had resulted in a number of recommendations being made. Further work would be undertaken.

·       Covid had impacted on the way services were delivered. All young people were still seen virtually with the most vulnerable seen through home visits.

·       The YOS was awaiting an inspection.

·       Much work had taken place to prevent knife crime. The YOS had produced an award winning film which was shown in schools and to young people involved with the Service. It showed the dangers of carrying a knife which was particularly significant as in 2021 there had been the largest number of teenagers in London killed by knife crime with 31 people killed.

·       Partners were brought together in multi-disciplinary panels to plan and be respond to the needs of young people and help young people turn their lives around. These included health professionals, psychologists, education and social care. It was important to ensure that victims were supported as well and restorative justice principles were important.

·       As the data related to young people aged 10-17, a member asked who supported those aged 18 and over. The officer advised that the YOS supported young people aged 17 and 18 in line with the legislation. Those who were aged 18-24 who were at risk of offending were supported by the Integrated Gangs Team (IGT). It was a multi-agency team which could wrap around young people and provide support to them in terms of emotional wellbeing, help with their housing, help to remain in education, training, or employment. The police service was a key partner and there were daily tasking meetings The IGT supported victims and perpetrators.

·       In response to a member’s question about how the YOS team supported parents, the officer stated that there was a Parental Officer based within the YOS and the Parent Champions Group as well as robust parenting programmes.

·       A member asked if young people were tracked to see how successful interventions were at keeping young people out of custody up until the age of 25. The officer stated that this data was not collected. If a person offended post 18 they would be involved with and supported by the Probation Service. It would however be possible to look at data for the IGT and see if offenders had previously been involved with the YOS.

·       The officer advised that there were 30 young people in custody in 2016 and this had reduced to five young people a year ago. In addition, the diversion rate which was a corporate measure of those at risk of criminality was 90%, exceeding the target of 85%.

RESOLVED:

1) That the report be noted.

2) That the committee be provided with data from the IGT detailing the numbers of young people who had offended aged 18-24 and had previously been involved with the YOS.