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ITEM CA10
CABINET –
22 JUNE 2005
YOUTH JUSTICE
PLAN
Report by
Director for Community Safety
Introduction
- The Crime and
Disorder Act 1998 requires that a Youth Justice Plan be produced annually.
Previous plans have been required by March, reporting on performance
in the previous calendar year. From 2005/06, the Plan addresses performance
in the current financial year and is thus aligned with other planning
frameworks required within Children’s Services.
- The draft Plan
for 2005/06 (download as .doc file)
is circulated with the agenda (circulated to members only and available
for public inspection). It is written to a template provided by the
Youth Justice Board (YJB), which is responsible to the Home Office for
the performance of Youth Offending Services (YOS). This format, and
some of the measures, have altered since last year and direct comparisons
are therefore not always possible.
- This report provides
an overview of the Youth Justice Plan, which, following approval by
the statutory partner agencies, has to be submitted to the Youth Justice
Board by 30 June 2005. The Board recognises, however, that plans may
at that stage still require further member approval. The Plan is one
of the strategic plans which are subject to approval by full Council
following consideration by both the Cabinet and relevant Scrutiny Committee
in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules set
out in the Constitution.
- The Cabinet is
therefore asked to agree the document as the basis for seeking the advice
of the Community Safety Scrutiny Committee and, subject to their comments,
submission to the Council in September for approval.
Overview
of Performance
- In 2004, the YOS
was subject to a joint inspection by eight National Inspectorates. It
was rated ‘good’, one of only three to have achieved this judgement
in the two years in which this inspection regime has been in place.
- 2004/05 saw the
continuation of a downward trend in offending by young people in Oxfordshire
which has been consistent since the YOS was established in 2000. A further
4% reduction (to 2,178 offences) produced a 17.3% reduction over the
last four years.
- Females committed
23.6% of offences, a marked increase over the previous year, when the
figure was 17.4%. This included a significant rise in violent crime
by young women. Theft is still the most prevalent offence by both males
and females (559 offences), with violence against the person next at
341 offences.
- The peak age for
offending by boys and girls is 16. 50.1% of offences were committed
by young people aged 16 and 17 years, a fall of 4% over the previous
year, but with a higher proportion (of the reduced number of offences
overall) committed by under 16’s.
- During the last
year, the YOS has significantly expanded its prevention services, making
use of specific funding streams from government (Positive Activities
for Young People, Children’s Fund, U Project). Whilst such interventions
are targeted on those at risk of offending or re-offending, the majority
of those young people are also experiencing educational and/or other
difficulties and there are clear additional benefits in these areas.
- The Plan includes
in Appendix B detailed data in relation to a large range of Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs). The Delivery Plan addresses each of 15 categories
of Performance Measures in detail. These are:
- Prevent Offending
- Intervene Early
- Provide Intensive
Supervision in the Community
- Reduce the use
of Custody
- Reduce re-offending
- Ensure the swift
administration of justice
- Ensure effective
and rigorous assessment planning and supervision
- Support young
people engaging in education, training and employment
- Support access
to substance misuse services
- Support access
to mental health services
- Support resettlement
in the community
- Provide effective
restorative justice services
- Ensure equal
treatment regardless of race.
- Overall performance
in 2004/05 improved, despite significant staffing pressures (produced
by deletion of posts and freezing of others in response to an accumulated
overspend). This was at least partly due to quality improvement processes
being brought to fruition and integrated into systems.
- However, performance
in relation to Education, Training and Employment remains ostensibly
poor, with as many as 46% of offenders over 16 unemployed and 28% of
young people not receiving, or attending, full-time education. The performance
measure from the YJB of 90% in education, employment or training is
highly aspirational and a range of actions, including a joint Learning
& Culture/YOS Panel, have been taken forward to seek to improve
this performance.
- Whilst 2004/05
has seen the creation of a Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Team (CAMHS), jointly funded by the YOS and prison inreach revenue to
Huntercombe Young Offenders Institute, a major concern has been the
continued failure of Health to meet its minimum statutory responsibility.
This was a key finding of the Joint Inspection and the Action Plan required
Health in to reconsider its funding. While initially Health offered
an additional £70,000 pa (in addition to its current contribution of
£15,000) to bring the funding level closer to the Thames Valley average,
this was subsequently withdrawn. The Steering Group must now consider
its future financial commitment to the Forensic CAMHS Team.
- The YOS’s funding
comes from a wide variety of sources, however, with the County Council
being responsible for almost half. Some of these resources are ring
fenced to specific purposes, and some come via secondments or payments
in kind. In the last year it has become evident that there is a need
for more comprehensive financial monitoring to respond to an accumulated
overspend that emerged. Posts have been deleted, and others frozen,
to address this and work is in hand to construct a budget that brings
together all the funding streams in order to facilitate accurate monitoring.
It is inevitable that staff reductions required to bring the budget
into balance will impact upon future performance.
Conclusion
- There is evidence
from the continued reduction in youth offending, improved performance
against KPIs and the outcome of the recent Joint Inspection, that the
Youth Offending Service is having a positive impact upon crime in Oxfordshire.
It is, however, clear that increased demands from government (e.g. to
respond to the major anti-social behaviour initiative) without further
resources pose considerable challenges to performance in the future.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- The Cabinet
is RECOMMENDED to:
- refer
the report and the accompanying draft Plan to the Community
Safety Scrutiny Committee for their advice;
- authorise
the Director for Community Safety, in consultation with the
Cabinet Member for Community Safety, to amend the Plan in the
light of any comments from the Community Safety Scrutiny Committee,
subject to the reference back to the Cabinet of any issues of
policy arising from such comments;
- subject
to (a) and (b) above, RECOMMEND the Council to approve the Youth
Justice Plan for submission to the Youth Justice Board.
JOHN
PARRY
Director for
Community Safety
Background
papers: Nil
Contact
Officer: Michael Simm Tel: 01865 202218
June
2005
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