Minutes:
The Committee welcomed Ms Betty McDonald, Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service who had joined the Local Authority in November 2016 after a number of years working as the Head of the Tri-borough Youth Offending Service for the Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea to the meeting.
The Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service was pleased to report that following the recent full joint inspection of the Youth Offending Service led by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, the inspectors had given positive feedback around progress made in improving the service over the past 15 months and the management capability to support continued progress, although it was identified that a number of issues still needed to be addressed. A range of work to drive improvement across the service was underway, including the development of staff and a continued focus on making a difference for young people. The inspection report would be published in April 2017.
With regard to staffing, the Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service reported that there were 25 staff within the Youth Offending Service, which included 12 frontline practitioners. A number of staff members were inexperienced, particularly around the theoretical elements of their role, and work to recruit qualified social workers would continue. A Member queried if the introduction of the ‘Caseload Promise’ within Children’s Social Care services which aimed to allocate no more than 12-15 cases per social worker would assist recruitment. The Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service explained that caseloads worked differently in the Youth Offending Service, but that lower caseloads would be helpful in promoting the Local Authority as a good place to work.
In response to a question from the Chairman, the Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service confirmed that the Youth Offending Service worked closely with the National Probation Service as young people transitioned to adult services, but that there was a need to develop stronger links with the London Community Rehabilitation Company which had undergone a number of changes to its operational delivery model and had recently stopped providing the unpaid work service for the Youth Offending Service.
A Co-opted Member queried how data was used by the Youth Offending Service. The Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service explained that due to the process for analysing and authenticating reoffending data there was a delay of approximately 18-24 months before this information was provided to the Local Authority. To address this, the Youth Offending Service was gathering ‘live’ data to track the existing cohort young people within the Youth Offending Service to better understand their activity and identify effective interventions. The Youth Offending Service supported young people aged 10 to 18 years. In considering current caseloads, the largest group was young people aged 17 years, but young people aged 10 to 13 years currently made up 20% of the cohort which was a concern, and early intervention work was being undertaken to divert these young people away from offending.
With regard to the issue of parenting orders, the Head of Youth Support and the Youth Offending Service confirmed that parenting orders were still pursued where appropriate, but that the Youth Offending Service preferred to refer parents to early intervention services or parenting classes that could provide the required support outside the Court system.
The Chairman requested that a further update be provided to the Committee at its meeting on 17th October 2017.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.