Agenda item

Catherine Briody, Victim and Offenders Service Manager and Tony Nagle, Head of Youth Offending and Targeted Youth support and Justine Wilson-Darke, Operational Manager, Targeted Youth support were present for discussion of this item. Tony Nagle outlined the report.

Members also considered the list of possible visits to be made in connection with the scrutiny review.

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         There is little evidence to show the strategies that actually have worked in deterring young people from crime but work is being carried out with schools to target  young people and family intervention and mental health work is being carried out

·         Of the current caseload of the Youth Offending service who live locally, 35% used youth provision funded by the Council in 2014/15. This represents 1 in 3 of the current YOS caseload in the general population, the equivalent figure using youth services is 1 in 5

·         Families First supports families with a very wide range of needs, from those with newly emerging problems, who have not received support of this nature in the past, to those being stepped down from Children’s social care with complex histories. Based on a review of quantitative data and from reviews from 12 case files, support appears to be effective at improving outcomes for around 80% of families it supports

·         It was stated that 80% of the families who engaged with Families First had positive outcomes

·         There is also targeted youth support and it should also be noted that the vast majority of young people in Islington were not involved in criminality. There is also the importance of the transition work from childhood to adult offending provision

·         In response to a question it was stated that for those offenders where criminality is entrenched it is more difficult to turn their behaviour around, and it was noted that 25% of the young people that the team worked with had speech and language difficulties. Some young people were hard to engage as they were more entrenched in offending and these were gang related and 80%-90% of the young people in custody were for gang related offences. The view was expressed that these speech and language difficulties surely should have been picked up earlier at school and it needed to be ensured that progress is being made on this

·         In relation to black young men from 2011-14 the numbers in the criminal justice system had fallen from 11% to 4% so there had been some progression in reducing the numbers. Work is taking place with schools and with young people to encourage educational opportunities

·         In response to a question it was stated that the Director of Children’ s Services would provide details of the exclusion of black pupils and whether there was any difference in exclusion rates from Academies to Local Authority schools

·         Early intervention is thought to be the key to preventing young people becoming involved in crime and it is hoped that going forward this will help to prevent more young people becoming involved in criminality, however it is more difficult with entrenched offenders

·         In response to a question it was stated that there is little evidence of strategies that had previously worked and a range of measures were being tried. Most offending of young people seemed to cease at 21 years of age and if it did not these young people tended to be offenders for life

·         The integrated gangs approach is another method in a range of measures being taken to deal with the problems of offending of young persons

·         A Member expressed the view that a lot of offending is linked to drugs and family circumstances and that this needed to be addressed, together with the need for tougher punishments for persistent offenders

·         Reference was made to the fact that the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee had considered a number of these areas in their scrutiny on early intervention and that the work of Families First was good. The issue of mental health is a constant problem and often being in a gang appeared to be a reassurance of the young persons ‘worth’

·         Reference was made to the fact that the Council were working closely with the Police and the criminal justice system in order to stop young person’s offending and those higher up in the drugs trade and were active in gathering information and intelligence that can be passed onto the Police in order that they can identify the ‘ringleaders’

·         In response to a question as to the effectiveness of restorative justice measures it was stated that national research had shown that this had not been as successful with some young people as envisaged as they were not able to shown empathy to their victims. There were high custody levels of young people and criminal behaviour orders were being used in some instances

·         Work is carried out with the Families Board and the work around mental health is crucial and in the youth offending service there is a psychologist to assist in this regard and there is work being carried out to improve this offer

·         There is also now a service for young people held in custody overnight to have a mental health assessment and this assists in intervention and young people might accept support services and there is also a youth counselling service and a CAMHS worker in the Youth Offending service and a number of other wider offers

·         In response to a statement that youth provision appeared to be patchy across certain wards in the borough, it was stated that there is still a relatively good youth provision offer in the borough and Members requested that details of this provision be provided to the Committee on a ward by ward basis

·         The Committee expressed the view that there should be more use of community centres to provide youth facilities and targeted provision

·         Discussion took place as to the review of youth offending that is currently taking place by the Ministry of Justice that will be published early next year and Members stated that this be circulated once it is available

·         In response to a statement that many residents felt that a lot of time and resources were being put into offenders, it was stated that many of the young people offending have suffered trauma or witnessed or been subjected to domestic violence that meant that they became more vulnerable to criminality

·         In addition information is shared with the Police in order to bring offenders to justice

RESOLVED:

(a)  That details be circulated to the Committee on the youth provision available on a ward by ward basis

(b)  That the Ministry of Justice review on youth offending be circulated to Members once this is available

(c)  That details of exclusions of black and ethnic minority children  in schools be circulated to Members and also whether there is any differences in overall exclusion rates from Academies compared to other schools