Issue - meetings

Report ED16019

Members considered a report which provided an overview of the progress of the Youth Offending Service (YOS) Improvement Plan.  The updated Improvement Plan demonstrated that work had progressed on all planned actions with the exception of 7(d) - Create a service user forum for current and former young people to enable the service to consult effectively - which had been delayed due to other work priorities including the planning and implementation of an IT upgrade. The service continued to work hard to introduce further improvements identified in the plan.  Due to a reduction in the Youth Justice Board (YJB) grant during 2016/17 and the need to meet the local savings target it was necessary to reorganise the service to ensure that the team could continue to provide a seamless service.  As part of the reorganisation, a decision had been taken to end the NACRO contract to provide an Intensive Supervision and Surveillance (ISS) programme.  The contract would end on 31 March 2016 after which the ISS programme would be provided in-house by YOS staff ad managed by one of the Operational Managers.  From April 2016 there would no longer be funding to enable an in-house substance misuse worker or a CAMHs worker.  In addition the post of “Counsellor” would also be ending.  Instead from 1 April 2016, any young person being assessed as being in need of any of these services would be referred to the Bromley Well Being Service, or the Bromley Young People’s Substance Misuse Service.  The post of Parenting Worker would also cease from 1 April 2016 with all future referrals for parenting support being directed to the Bromley Children’s Project.

Members noted that the service was in the initial phase of planning the implementation of Asset Plus, the national assessment tool used by Youth Offending Services.  In addition, Members also noted that the YOS Management Team undertook a thematic audit in December 2015 using police intelligence on young people known to the service who were at risk of being involved in transporting drugs across county lines.  The audit had looked at 4 cases and found that Assets were being completed within National Standards timescales.  The majority of Assets were judged to be ‘good’. The quality of active engagement work being carried out with young people and parents/carers to inform the initial assessment was either good or outstanding. Partnership working on safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of the young person was judged to be ‘good’ in all cases where this was relevant. The quality of the Intervention Plan for the majority of cases was either ‘satisfactory’ or ‘good’.

The Interim Head of the Youth Offending Service reported that good progress on the current YOS Improvement Plan had been made and that action to develop the next Improvement Plan was being taken by the Management Board.  Once the Plan had been developed it would be shared with the Committee.

A number of Members expressed concerns surrounding the reduction in cases that met the standards required in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70