1. The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) welcomes this Select Committee and the opportunity to provide written and oral evidence. We would be pleased to provide the Select Committee with any further information that may be of assistance.
2. The issue of disproportionately high numbers of looked after children in the youth justice system is one that the YJB is currently addressing on a number of levels, which will be detailed below.
3. The role of the YJB is to oversee the youth justice system in England and Wales. The statutory responsibilities of the YJB include:
4. While the YJB is responsible for overseeing the performance of youth justice services including multi-agency Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) and secure accommodation providers, the YJB does not directly manage any of the services.
5. The Committee will be aware that Looked After Children (LAC) are disproportionately represented within the youth justice system. Less than 1% of all children in England and Wales are looked after at any one time, yet up to one half of all children held in young offenders institutions are, or have previously been, looked after. [1]Last year the YJB worked with a virtual reference group of YOT practitioners, and have engaged in discussion with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Magistrates’ Association to draw together evidence of the key issues facing many young people in care, and specifically those in residential children’s homes, that unfairly increase the likelihood of them ending up within the youth justice system.
6. These key issues are:
- respond to challenging behaviour within children’s homes without relying on the police, and;
- effectively support a young person through a community sentence, leading to disproportionately high breach rates;
Police and courts do not have flexibility in charging and sentencing decisions for minor offences committed by looked-after children and the corporate parent sometimes fails to fulfil their duties towards young people in court;
Ongoing issues with poor care placement decisions that can place children at risk of harm to themselves or others, leading to offending;
Poor communication and information sharing between placement authorities, YOTs and other children’s services;
The complex legislative rules concerning which young people hit the criteria as a ‘careleaver’, mean that there are many young people in the youth justice system who do not receive this vital transitional support, and are therefore more likely to continue to offend as adults, leading to the disproportionate representation of careleavers in the adult prison population (over 25% of the adult population has previously been in care). Offending rates amongst the general population have significantly reduced amongst children and young people in the last 5 years, but the gap between looked after children and all children has remained, and they continue to be more than twice as likely to offend.
7. The developments which have within the youth justice system to begin to tackle the issues outlined above are summarised below together with the key challenges that remain. These challenges can only be addressed long term through partnership working across Government, and a commitment from all partners to tackle the issues surrounding looked after children, will we be able to create long term positive change.
Management of challenging behaviour in children’s homes, and providing support for young people serving community sentences
8. The YJB continues to work closely with Government Departments and youth justice services to improve the system. Particular progress has been made regarding behaviour management and the use of restraint across the Secure Estate. The use of restorative justice is also a key feature of youth justice practice, and is one in which many local youth offending teams have developed an ‘expertise’.
9. The YJB would therefore recommend that:
10. A working group has recently been established by the Department for Education (DfE) to review the qualifications framework for residential home staff. Currently, there are significant numbers of staff who have not achieved the basic NVQ Level 3 qualification to work with children and young people. This has led to a workforce who feels unprepared for dealing with the most challenging of behaviours, and young people who are not managed appropriately, leading to high numbers of placement breakdown and higher arrest and conviction rates. The YJB is a member of the working group, and is working with DfE to ensure that the qualifications framework includes a clear and explicit focus on the needs of children and young people in the youth justice system.
11. Currently, young people completing a community order while they are in care do not receive the same level of support as young people living with their parents. This leads to higher than average breach rates[2], which then creates further convictions and an increased risk of a custodial sentence. As part of the qualifications framework review, the YJB would recommend that there is a specific module focusing on the youth justice system, to raise awareness of the implications of failure to provide the appropriate support. A working protocol between the local youth offending team and residential placement which outlines roles and responsibilities of respective members of staff would further support improvements in practice.
Over-criminalisation of young people in care for minor offences
12. Key challenges:
14. The YJB would therefore recommend that:
Out-of-area placement decisions
19. Frequent and inappropriate out of area placements increase a young person’s risk of offending and vulnerability; as highlighted by the high profile reports from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) on child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups and the Joint All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Inquiry on children who go missing from care. These reports outline particular concerns about the care of children who were placed, often at short notice, in children’s homes a long way from the authorities responsible for their care. Children in such circumstances were vulnerable to going missing from their placements and could be targeted for exploitation.
20. The DfE has been proactive in tackling this issue, and recently two key consultations were launched which consider proposals to amend the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010. The proposed amendments are designed to ensure that where looked after children are placed out of authority in distant placements they are effectively safeguarded and their welfare is promoted. The YJB has completed a response to the consultation, and welcomes the proposals. The second consultation proposes to amend the Children’s Homes Regulations 2001 (as amended) (“the Children’s Homes Regulations”), with a related amendment to the Care Standards Act 2000 (Registration) (England) Regulations 2010 (“the Registration Regulations”), and a minor amendment to the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 (covered at paragraph 12) (“the Fostering Services Regulations”). The amendments are necessary to improve collaboration and partnership between children’s homes and services in their local communities so that there are effective safeguards in place for the vulnerable group of children relying on residential care. The YJB welcomes the proposed changes.
21. Specific consideration needs to be given to the issues faced when a young person is placed ‘over the border’ in Wales or vice versa. As the Welsh Government and DfE are increasingly working to different sets of regulations, it is important that they work together to ensure consistency of practice for this group of young people, who otherwise run the risk of ‘falling through the net’.
22. The YJB has identified and disseminated protocols around out of area placements through regional effective practice forums, our online Effective Practice Library, and will be running a workshop on this at the Youth Justice Convention in November 2013.
Information sharing between local agencies
23. Poor communication and information sharing between placement authorities, YOTs and other children’s services has been an unfortunate feature of care for looked after children for many years. There are a number of initiatives underway to improve practice, and the YJB have been involved in developing each of these. Firstly the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 proposes to amend current arrangements for out of borough placements which can result a host authority receiving notification after a child has been placed.
24. It is proposed placing authorities will be required to consult with the authority where the child will be placed, prior to placement. The consultation document also proposes to ensure effective notification arrangements are in place, and that all relevant services are consulted as part of the assessment of the potential move. The YJB has strongly recommended that where a young person is open to youth justice supervision, consultation with the home and host YOT should take place, and there should be effective protocols in place to back this up.
25. In DFE’s amendments to the Children’s Homes Regulations 2001, there are two specific provisions which will impact on information sharing. The first is the proposal that children’s homes should be required to notify the authority where they are located, whenever a child is admitted or leaves the home. The YJB has requested that the YOT should also be notified, to ensure joined up working, and so that unnecessary enforcement action is not taken on an Order, which could lead to further criminalisation of a young person.
26. The second proposal is for an annual “risk assessment” of the area where a home is located. This work would require liaison with the local police and with local authority children’s services responsible for safeguarding. Again, the YJB has suggested that liaison takes place with the YOT, who will have information about a young person’s associates, and whether the placement would place them at further risks such as gang involvement or child sexual exploitation.
27. The proposals contained within the two consultations are very positive, and the YJB would encourage DfE to require areas to consult with youth offending teams as a routine matter. The provision of effective and active information sharing and joint working protocols is crucial in dealing with this issue. The YJB has contacted all 158 YOTs to identify good practice in this area. Where protocols are in place to oversee information sharing, staff report that this has improved joint working between professionals to manage a young person. As such, the YJB has highlighted two particular areas of good practice, and invited them to attend the Youth Justice Annual Convention in November 2013. Following the workshop the YJB will produce a model protocol to be shared with all youth offending teams and partners.
Support for careleavers
28. The complex legislative rules concerning which young people hit the criteria as a ‘careleaver’ in the The Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010, mean that many professionals do not understand which young people are entitled to support. It is therefore no surprise that many young people do not understand their own entitlements. The current rules result in a large group of young people who have previously been ‘looked after’, but are not entitled to support as a ‘careleaver’. This is concerning, and the YJB would recommend an urgent review into the current legislative framework.
29. The DfE also proposes to amend Part 7 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, in regard to 16 and 17 year old looked after children, so that a decision to cease looking after this group of children is not put into effect until it has been approved and signed off by the Director of Children’s Services. This will ensure that there is an appropriate pathway plan in place before a young person ceases to be looked after. This is an encouraging step in the right direction, but we would recommend wholesale changes to the current legislative framework are required if the state is exercise its duty as a corporate parent and ensure that this vulnerable group of young people make a successful transition to adulthood.
30. The Careleavers Association have completed some work to address the disproportionate numbers of care leavers in the criminal justice system. They have established a peer mentoring scheme at a number of adult prisons, which is showing early signs of success. Former careleavers work with their peers in custody, and help them resettle and seek the appropriate support upon release. The YJB are currently in discussions with the Careleavers Association about the potential to adapt the scheme for the under 18 Secure Estate.
31. The Careleavers Foundation recently received funding from DfE to provide support to 9 local authorities to better address the needs of careleavers over the coming 12 months. The YJB are in close contact with the Careleavers Foundation to ensure that the local youth offending teams are involved in this project, and also to identify any lessons learnt and good practice which could then be disseminated amongst all other YOTs. The Careleavers Foundation have created a Careleavers Charter, which they would like all local authorities to sign up to. The YJB will promote the charter amongst YOTs so that they can discuss signing up to it at a local level.
32. A key concern highlighted by partners is that when a young person moves from YOT Supervision to Probation Supervision upon turning 18, much of the key information surrounding their care status, and support is lost. This leaves careleavers particularly vulnerable. The YJB have undertaken significant work in this area, and in partnership with NOMS, recently announced a number of measures and resources to tackle this issue. Guidance for young people on community orders who move to probation has been developed. A similar set of guidance has also been developed for when young people move from the under 18 estate to the adult YOI estate. In addition a secure web-based portal, ‘Y2A’, has been created to allow for the safe transfer of all information on a young person to the adult estate. These are important and significant steps forward in ensuring that the transition from child to adult support for careleavers is more effective.
Impact of LASPOA
33. The Committee will be aware that following the implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 LASPOA, from April 2013, all remanded young people receive LAC status. Early indications from the Secure Estate are that this has led to increases in the proportion of LAC young people within custody, and then attracting leaving care support upon release. It is therefore important that any Government response considers the impact that LASPOA is having on an already stretched youth justice system.
Conclusions and Recommendations
34. There is some encouraging work taking place to reduce the disproportionate numbers of looked after children in the youth justice system. The YJB are involved in many key pieces of work and have developed some good practice examples to meet the needs of looked after children and careleavers in the youth justice system. However, there continues to be a need to work with local partners and government departments to highlight the overcriminalisation of looked after children in the youth justice system to ensure that this issue is adequately addressed.
Recommendations
September 2013
9
[1] Department for Education (2011) Children looked after by local authorities in England year ending 31 March 2011.
[2] Hart, D (2011) ‘Into the Breach: the enforcement of statutory orders in the youth justice system’, p58, The Prison Reform Trust.