Welcome to the York Youth Justice Service strategic partnership plan, which demonstrates how York Youth Justice Service will work with partners over the next year to support some of the most vulnerable children, young people, and their families in the city of York.

The plan outlines our intentions to deliver services and shape activity to support our children and young people, with an awareness of the social context that children within youth justice live and their experience of increased vulnerabilities and often complex needs.

The plan outlines how York Youth Justice Service have made a positive shift towards the direction of diversion and prevention, expanding provision, and working effectively in partnership to reduce the number of young people entering the youth justice system

The plan will be reviewed annually under the guidance of the management board to identify progress and update any changes required.

City of York Council Vision:

The City of York Council have a shared vision within the Children and Young People’s Plan, understanding that for many young people, children and families York is a great place to live and grow up. We also recognise that this is not the story for everyone therefore the shared vision incorporates:

· Making York the best place to live and grow up for every child

· A place where children and young people understand their rights are active citizens who are involved in making York better

· A place where outcomes are good for all children but with a clear focus on closing gaps in outcomes for children and young people from vulnerable and deprived backgrounds

York Youth Justice Service Vision:

York YJS are closely aligned with our partners and share a vision across our wider services. As a criminal justice service, our focus for young people correlates with partners but also has a further focus on the following:

York YJS believe in always putting the child first and we see children as children, we hear their voices and treat them fairly whilst building upon their strengths.

York YJS aim to reduce offending, prevent re-offending and the use of custody and we strive to use evidence based, child centred, and preventative approaches to divert young people from the Criminal Justice System.
York YJS connect with our communities and integrate young people into local networks to prevent offending and create safer communities with fewer victims.
We consider young people’s networks and systems, ensuring relationships after service intervention are robust and supportive.
York Youth Justice Service are part of the wider authority and partners. We ensure

collaborative working to secure positive outcomes for children and young people.

Strategy:

Reduce offending, prevent re-offending and the use of custody and we strive to use an evidence based, child centred, and preventative approach to keep young people out of the Criminal Justice System.

York Youth Justice Service were rated ‘outstanding’ by HM Inspectorate of Probation in 2022, highlighting York YJS as ‘a skilled and committed staff team, ably led, and motivated by a strong management team. All are ambitious for children and unrelenting in their desire to improve the life chances of children’.

The service diligently upholds our aims of preventing offending and reducing re-offending, through effective assessment, planning and delivery of both statutory and preventative interventions, with continuous service improvement as a focus. Our ethos remains that we can always develop and improve the outcomes for children in the city, through effective relationships with partners, hearing the voices of children and their families, and combined strategies with aligned goals.

York Youth Justice Service want to see young people achieve positive outcomes and fewer children and young people coming into contact with crime.

We work collaboratively with our partners to ensure positive outcomes for children and young people with the City of York, supported by the Signs of Safety practice model to reflect a strengths-based approach to working with young people and their families.

Priorities:

Prevention and Diversion to reduce first time entrants
Reducing Re-offending
Responding to Child Exploitation and County Lines
Restorative Practice and holistic approach including supporting victims of crime
Addressing harmful sexual behaviour across the city
Reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of Looked After Children
Ensuring children’s broader needs are identified and assessed for appropriate support
Making timely referrals to ensure the needs of the child are met

2. Local context

York is a relatively small city, spanning 272km² with a population of over 209,900. Of these 17.4% are children which equates to approximately 36,625 young people aged between 0-19 years.

York is the largest urban area in North Yorkshire and attracts an influx of tourists due to its history and well-known night-time economy. It also has a large student population due to the two Universities and Law College in the City. The local context of the city of York enables working collaboratively with neighbouring youth justice services in North Yorkshire and East Riding, alongside key criminal justice providers like the regional Probation Service, North Yorkshire Police, and the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. In 2019 we moved from a Youth Offending Team to a Youth Justice Service, we aimed to move from the stigma of offending, adopting the ‘child first’ approach. This change enabled us to advocate for young people to be seen for who they are and not what they have done. Partners within the city work together, considering the delivery of services, responsibilities, and funding available to deliver and effective youth justice provision.

The service comprises of highly experienced practitioners from youth justice, social work, probation, police, and health. The service also benefits from an established Speech and Language provision and a Turnaround practitioner, focusing on prevention and education.

3. Child First

Children and young people first

HMIP advocated that ‘York YJS has achieved our highest rating by providing services to children consistently well and establishing a culture of putting the needs of children first. The culture was clear at operational and strategic levels and across the partnership. It has been developed and sustained over time and was impressive in how it translated into services for children’.

The child first approach is embedded into the culture of working with children in York. We strive to ensure that we recognise children first and understand the nature and cause of offending behaviour, as opposed to seeing children as offenders. York YJS are presently working with colleagues in the Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust as part of the Humber & North Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Trauma Informed Care Programme, with the aim of ensuring that York YJS professionals can be supported to respond appropriately, consistently, and compassionately to children that have experienced trauma. This approach aligns with a child first approach as it promotes the best interests of the child, recognises needs, capacities, rights and potential and supports a strengths-based approach. The overarching ethos in York is to promote a childhood that is removed from the justice system, to reduce stereotyping and stigma and support prevention, diversion and ensure minimal intervention where appropriate.

4. Voice of the child

The City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership (CYSCP) support that every conversation starts with the child and commit that all partners across the city support children and young people to understand their rights, to have a voice and to realise their rights. The partnership has developed a pledge to ensure commitment to understanding the lived experience of children and young people and based this on the four general principal articles of the United Nations Conventions on Rights of the Child (UNRC):

· Non-discrimination (article 2)

· Best interest of the child (article 3)

· Right to life, survival, and development (article 6)

· Right to be heard (article 12)

The meaningful involvement of children and young people is a key component of the Youth Justice

Service and we understand the importance to involve children, both directly and indirectly in how the service is formed and delivered. Voice of the child is embedded in the service, and we recognise our

responsibility to ensure children are not only heard, but action is taken. The YJS are involved closely with the CYSCP and support the pledge. Children’s voices are gathered through strategies including assessment, questionnaires, forums, and direct work undertaken. Further to this, young people are invited to the YJS Management Board, which enables partners to hear the child’s voice directly and understand some of the complexities they face. The voice of the child is important in shaping future service and provision within York.

5. Governance, leadership, and partnership arrangements

The purpose of the Management Board is to provide strategic oversight of the work of the YJS and the governance and leadership of the management board promotes the delivery of a high quality, personalised and responsive service for all children. The Board meets every other month and is well attended and represented by statutory and local partners. The Board are committed to ensuring strong leadership and governance for an innovative, create and effective YJS, providing support and challenge through solution focused leadership to meet the priorities of the Youth Justice Plan. HMIP rated the governance and leadership in York as outstanding and recognised the strategy to reduce offending and provide preventative services as ‘ambitious and delivered through established and effective partnership working’. The work of the management board ensures the translation of strategic aims into operational practice and understands the children involved with the YJS, achieved through utilising data, performance dashboards, comparison reports and thematic reviews. The Board is chaired by a director and consists of senior management representatives from the Police, Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, Housing, Health, The Probation Service, Education, Clinical Commissioning Group, Early Help and Her Majesty’s Tribunal and Court Services. The Board adopt a pro-active and dynamic approach to youth justice outcomes and show a real commitment to the work of the YJS, providing support and robust challenge as appropriate.

6. Board Development

The YJS management board has evolved over time, though remains specific to Youth Justice and continues to lead strategically across relevant partners and ensures a high-quality provision is provided to children and young people. Oversight includes the vision for the service and ensuring the YJS meet not only the required standards but provide an innovative and creative service for young people in the City of York. The board are pro-active in addressing any gaps in provision and ensuring the YJS have the required resources and have a keen interest in ensuring the service work effectively in supporting desistance and positive outcomes for children. The management board were responsive towards HMIP’s recommendation of consulting further with children, families and carers and provided invitation to young people, carers and victims of crime to attend the board. Board members ensure to understand the YJS, its roles and responsibilities through management reports and delivery from YJS representatives discussing aspects of their work. Board members are actively involved in the inspection process and have attended development days.

7. Progress on previous plan

The YJS plan for 2022 highlighted a keen focus on expanding our offer of prevention and diversion to wider services with the aim of reducing first time entrants into the criminal justice system. This has been upheld and our offer of Triage and Diversion was made available to Children’s Social Care, through the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and education providers through North Yorkshire Police school liaison officers. Securing the Turnaround grant funding has provided further opportunity to ensure that prevention services are more widely available, and this is an area to be concentrated on during the coming year, with a focus on education.

Reducing reoffending was a priority and continually monitored through use of the Youth Justice Board tracking tool, enabling the use of real time data to identify patterns and causation of offending in the city. The tracking tool is an invaluable resource which provides rich data to understand types, frequency, and seriousness of offences, whilst also a means to recognise gaps in provision and patterns in individual offending behaviour. To address reoffending further, the use of mentors from The Island was beneficial to ensure that young people had support after intervention from the YJS.

Restorative practice is embedded within the service and integrated with working with victims of crime. This is an area of expansion during 2022, with the YJS Victim Liaison Officer (VLO) working tirelessly to ensure that victims receive a high-quality service in line with the Victims Code of Conduct. The VLO has facilitated restorative conferences and expanded the role to specifically include supporting young victims of sexual assault within schools. The VLO has also completed training around trauma informed practice and is an ARC champion for the service. This ensures an understanding of the victim’s response to crime and provides a strengths-based approach towards recovery. Further aspects of restorative practice include the VLO’s attendance at the Youth Outcome Panel, ensuring the victims voice is heard and wishes respected.

Harmful sexual behaviour has been a focus of the YJS during 2022 and addressed by the offer of delivering NSPCC preventative training to all staff and partners. During 2022 this training was delivered monthly by the YJS and provided awareness, knowledge, and a referral pathway into services. We have seen an uplift in referrals and can confidently say that young people are now receiving support earlier.

8. Resources and services

York YJS is funded centrally and with a range of partner agencies providing funding and staff contributions.

These contributions are used to deliver youth justice services, in accordance with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

The Youth Justice Board grant, partner contributions and available resources will be used to deliver statutory services and prevention within the city. Services will include:

Statutory duties including all Orders and Cautions
Harmful Sexual Behaviour Service
Prevention – Triage and Diversion
Out of Court Disposals and the Youth Outcome Panel
Child to Parent Violence
Victim Liaison Service
Substance Misuse service
Speech and Language Service
Forensic Panel
Reducing re-offending (tracking tool)
Probation support
Health and Mental Health
The Turnaround Programme

We believe these services produce improved outcomes for young people within the city as we are addressing behaviours at the earliest opportunity with the preventative element, in turn reducing the pressures on statutory services and entry into the youth justice system.

9. Performance

First time entrants to the Youth Justice System

The number of First Time Offenders remained below comparator averages during 2022/23. After the drop in FTEs during 2020/21 during the first year of covid-19, performance was expected to return to pre-pandemic levels. However, work at Triage and Diversion and Outcome 22 level has contributed to a further improvement in performance.

A screenshot of a graph Description automatically generated with low confidence

Proven re-offending

The re-offending data is a local measure that has been implemented due to the time lag encountered with Ministry of Justice and Youth Justice Board data. Re-offending of a fixed cohort of young people who received a substantive outcome during 2021/22 was monitored at 3-month intervals throughout 2022/23.

After 12 months, 20% of the cohort had re-offended, an improvement in performance on the past three years. The rate of re-offending per re-offender was slightly higher than last year, but in line with 2020/21 performance.

A picture containing text, font, diagram, number Description automatically generated

A picture containing text, font, diagram, plot Description automatically generated

The table shows that no young people offended after 9 months in 2022/23:

A screenshot of a graph Description automatically generated with low confidence

Custodial sentences

York typically sees a very small number of young people sentenced to custody in any given year. Due to small numbers, we monitor a rolling 12-month cohort. At the end of 2022/23, no custodial sentences had been given to young people since September 2021.

Coupled with Youth Detention Accommodation performance, this is a positive position for York young people and reflects good working relationships between the Youth Justice Service and the Courts.

10.National key performance indicators

The expansion of the national performance framework, due to be reported for the first time in Q1 2023/24 have brought challenges. Our case management supplier, Careworks, have served notice to quit meaning any development changes needed to submit the returns cannot be discussed. Local performance reporting has been updated to report the newly defined cohorts and ease the changes, but some new information cannot be recorded in a reportable way on the existing case management system.

11. Priorities

Children from groups which are over-represented

The demographics of the City of York differs to many other cities in the United Kingdom and our focus over the coming year is based on what we understand about children that may be considered over-represented within the city. The YJS and partnership strive to ensure that all children are prioritised, though also track data on those known to social care services, children excluded from education, children identified as Special Educational Needs and children from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller backgrounds to monitor and understand over representation. Females within the youth justice system are also an area of focus for the service and we recognise the importance of understanding difference in the delivery of interventions. To address this, we have based our approach on research and created a female specific intervention which is based on relationships and delivered in a space designed with females in mind. The YJS management board pay interest to females in the service and cases are addressed at board level. The HMIP inspectors outlined ‘work with children from travelling families was very good, with knowledge, skills and relationships having been built over time’.

Diversion

Diversion has been a key focus within the YJS and the creation of the Youth Outcome Panel to address Out of Court Disposals, has proved pivotal in increasing the offer of diversion services. York YJS align with North Yorkshire YJS and North Yorkshire Police to facilitate the panel. Outcome decisions are made jointly and reached through detailed discussion between panel members. The panel considers needs, alongside risk and public protection, though there is also a focus on the views and wishes of the victim, advocated by the Victim Liaison Officer. The introduction of Route 22 has broadened the offer to children and ensured that all York children will receive intervention. Referrals to the panel are through North Yorkshire Police.

Prevention

Initially the Triage and Diversion service was created for North Yorkshire Police to access, though this has expanded and grown over time and now takes referrals from the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, schools, and the police. In addition to this, the Turnaround Program is also in place and enabled us to widen this offer further.

A pathway has been developed for children exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour, enabling the YJS to address problematic behaviour earlier and provide support. During 2023 this will be widened further, with staff attending AIM Under 12’s training to ensure we are suitably qualified to work with the younger age range as this is an area of need that has been identified. To support preventative work around harmful sexual behaviour, the YJS were trained to deliver the NSPCC harmful sexual behaviour training to staff and partners, ensuring that practitioners across the city have a good awareness of referral processes and how to overcome stigma and anxiety of working with this type of behaviour.

The YJS monitors and analyses patterns and indicators relating to child exploitation and work closely with the exploitation team to ensure that preventative services are accessible to these children, providing an effective offer of support and intervention. The YJS manager attends regular exploitation meetings to ensure a youth justice perspective is available and services offered.

The Child to Parent Violence programme is a further example of a high quality, specific intervention that addresses behaviour and need. This was initially developed during the Covid pandemic as the YJS identified an increase of these types of behaviours. The programme ensures that work is conducted with both the parent and child and aims to restore balance into households before crisis point, diverting children from offending behaviour and improving the family situation so they can remain at home with their parents.

Education

Links with education providers in the city are predominantly strong and the YJS are focusing the Turnaround provision on schools. The newly recruited Turnaround practitioner will work closely with education and provide preventative support within schools over 2023/2024. HMIP described the relationship between schools and York YJS as ‘a culture of meeting need, rather than waiting for a diagnosis’. This is reflected in our joint work, for example the Victim Liaison Officer is delivering a ‘Healthy Relationships’ programme in school and we provide ongoing support relating to harmful sexual behaviour. Our intention over the coming year is to further strengthen these relationships and ensure that schools have accessibility and understanding of the service. A representative from Education sits on the YJS management board and York benefits from working closely with the Virtual Head of schools, for those young people that are not in mainstream education. The YJS have good links with the SEN team and work closely with educational psychologists. The YJS are presently working with York St John University to undertake research focused on an exploration of young people’s experience with educational inclusion, exclusion, and their engagement with the youth justice system. This will enable the service to truly understand the views of young people and ascertain how we can use their voice to make improvements.

Restorative approaches and victims

York YJS offer to victims continues to increase, ensuring that victims are empowered and have a voice within the criminal justice system. Victim voice is central to all work of the YJS, including prevention, diversion, and statutory orders. The Victim Liaison Officer works tirelessly to advocate for victims and help them move forwards in their lives, through safety planning and support. The service also recognise that many children are victims of past experiences and utilise trauma informed practice to ensure such issues are addressed and worked with.

Serious violence and exploitation

The Serious Violence Duty commenced on the 31^st January 2023 and requires specified

authorities to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence that occurs in the area and

implement strategy to address it. These authorities include police, justice, fire and rescue,

health and local authorities. The Home Office definition of serious violence refers to:

· Violence

· Violence against property

· Threats of violence

The definition is not limited to physical violence, so includes domestic abuse and sexual abuse, but does not include terrorism. Locally it has been agreed to keep the definition broad and include violence against women and girls. This profile will be reviewed annually.

A strategic needs assessment has been conducted in conjunction with the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for the partnership area and a response strategy developed by January 2024. The PFCC have discretionary power to monitor local performance of the partnership against shared objectives.

York YJS have limited occurrences of serious violence though will be immersed in the duty. Exploitation is also a consideration and York YJS work closely with the York Exploitation Team to ensure that information and intervention is provided to those young people at risk of being criminally exploited. The YJS manager sits on the National Referral Mechanism panel in York and the Channel Panel.

Detention in police custody

Detention in police custody is an area that has been addressed significantly over the past year due to identified challenges, with the YJS increasing availability of Appropriate Adults to North Yorkshire Police by providing a duty management rota daily and ensuring that the service has provision for Appropriate Adults until midnight. We work closely with the Emergency Duty Team for out of hours provision. The introduction of a joint policy with Children’s Social Care for young people that may be vulnerable due to county lines is in place, ensuring that social workers are available for young people in custody and to ensure their welfare on release. We ensure to be compliant with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE)

Remands

In York, children subject to remands to Local Authority accommodation and children subject to remands to Youth Detention Accommodation (YDA) remains exceptionally low. From the period 01/06/2022 – 01/06/2023 there was one young person remanded to YDA and one young person remanded to local authority accommodation, though this child was out of area at the time. Though the numbers are low in the city, the use of remands is considered by the partnership and such cases are discussed in the management board when they arise.

Use of custody

The National picture of the use of custody has significantly decreased, which is reflected in York. We recognise and understand the impact on children’s lives when they receive a custodial sentence, such as disrupting their education and fracturing relationships with families. Use of custody in York is low, though occasionally happens with highly complex and often vulnerable young people being placed in the custodial environment. To address this from a strategic perspective, the Youth Justice management board have a comprehensive understanding of this cohort of children and address cases relating to custody through detailed case studies that outline the history of the young person, including social care history and educational attainment. The operational partnership with the courts in York is a particular strength and Pre-Sentence Reports provide robust assessment of young people that may be sentenced to custody.

When bail packages are suggested, York YJS ensure to provide bespoke interventions that ensure young people, and the community are safe. Further to this, York YJS have devised a process whereby AIM 3 assessment is available prior to charge and have a service level agreement in place with North Yorkshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service to provide a report to assist the CPS in their decision making.

Constructive resettlement

We know the challenges faced by young people leaving custody, such as accommodation and have therefore ensured the policy, provision and pathway in York is high quality and evidence based. Resettlement focuses on individual need and personalised support to keep the child safe and manage risk of harm. Partners, such as Social Care, Health, Education and Housing understand their role in resettlement and provide services swiftly. The service benefits from access to specialist youth homelessness workers and a representative from Housing sits on the management board. The YJS undertake joint work with the secure estate and have named contacts at HMP Wetherby and Adel Beck Secure Children’s Home. The management board actively review resettlement cases and address any barriers to effective resettlement. HMIP rated York’s resettlement policy and provision as outstanding, highlighting ‘the case we assessed evidenced meeting he child’s individual needs, keeping the child safe and effective use of transitions to adult probation services, to manage risk of harm’.

Standards for children in the Youth Justice system

Our most recent self-assessment of standards for children in Youth Justice highlighted areas for improvement, however this was conducted prior to our HMIP inspection.

Self-assessment outcomes:

Standard	Strategic self-assessed results	Operational self-assessed results
NS1	Out Of Court Disposals	OUTSTANDING
NS2	At Court	GOOD
NS3	In the Community	GOOD
NS4	In Secure Settings	GOOD
NS5	On Transition	GOOD

HMIP Outcomes:

York Youth Justice Service Fieldwork started September 2022	Score		32/36
Overall rating		Outstanding
1.		Organisational delivery
1.1	Governance and leadership		Outstanding
1.2	Staff		Outstanding
1.3	Partnerships and services		Outstanding
1.4	Information and facilities		Good
2.		Court disposals
2.1	Assessment		Good
2.2	Planning		Outstanding
2.3	Implementation and delivery		Outstanding
2.4	Reviewing		Outstanding
3.		Out-of-court disposals
3.1	Assessment		Good
3.2	Planning		Good
3.3	Implementation and delivery		Outstanding
3.4	Out-of-court disposal policy and provision		Outstanding
4.		Resettlement1
4.1	Resettlement policy and provision		Outstanding

The findings of the HMIP inspection highlight service improvements and progress to date. Over the following year, the YJS will ensure to address the following points to make further improvements to the service:

NS1 – Out of Court Disposals: Ensure that risk of harm to others is analysed sufficiently and considered within the wider context.

Provide detailed planning of how to keep others safe, based on the specific behaviours of the child and response required by agencies

NS2 – Court: Ensure the risk of harm to actual and potential victims is fully recorded in all cases, including situation where children and victims may come into contact with each other and how to minimise potential conflict.

Ensure that specific contingency planning is recorded for all cases

NS3 – Community: Increase the range of services available to young people in the local community, including reparation options. Ensure the service are contributing to the community, such as working with the police to address anti-social behaviour in the local areas. Understand the local community and have a focus on diversity and over representation in the youth justice service.

NS4 – In secure settings: Ensure resettlement policies reflect the voice of the child

NS5 – On transition: Work directly with the YJS Probation Officer and managers to ensure the transition policy is in date and effective. Ensure that the transition to adult services is smooth and starts prior to the young person turning 18 years old.

Workforce development

There is a strong culture of learning and continuous improvement within York YJS and training for staff is comprehensive. This is evidenced through providing ongoing mandatory training, such as safeguarding, though also supporting staff members to achieve specialist training in areas such as Harmful Sexual Behaviour, including AIM 3 Assessment, Intervention, Under 12s and Technology Assisted HSB training. Staff presently receiving training on the strengths-based approach Signs of Safety. Staff members have also been provided the opportunity to complete the Youth Justice Degree and Social Work Apprenticeship. The Workforce Development Unit in York offers regular training that staff can access. HMIP described the training offer to staff as ‘comprehensive, and the management team understands that the development of staff requires an innovative approach’.

Staff wellbeing is a focus, to promote resilience and retain experienced staff members. The YJS offer peer supervision, case supervision, reflective supervision, and clinical supervision to address HSB cases. Staff have access to the wider authority wellbeing resources and are encouraged to access these.

Evidence based practice and innovation

York YJS have established preventative and diversionary services as a key focus to achieve positive outcomes for children and young people. This is evidenced in our caseloads and first-time entrants in York. Our preventative interventions are continuously expanding and based on identified needs and research. A prime example of this is working with females in the youth justice system. Research highlighted that methodologies to work specifically with females can differ from their male counterparts. On this basis, we created a female specific intervention programme to ensure we are working in a manner that is truly specific and bespoke, which is providing positive results to date.

Trauma informed practice has been introduced to York YJS and we are presently adopting the Humber and North Yorkshire Care Health and Care Partnership Trauma Informed Organisational Development Framework evaluation toolkit to embed trauma informed practice within the service. This will be coupled with Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) training for all practitioners and the development of champions to ensure sustainability of future training.

The ARC Framework is a flexible, components-based intervention developed for children and adolescents who have experienced complex trauma, along with their caregiving systems. ARC’s foundation is built upon four key areas of study: normative childhood development, traumatic stress, attachment, and risk and resilience.

York YJS have identified an increase in younger children coming to the attention of the service, often relating to incidents of anti-social behaviour, harmful sexual behaviour, and child to parent violence. To address this, the service is working closely with schools and delivering Healthy Relationships sessions in schools to the younger age group, supporting the ethos of prevention and ensuring that these children receive support at an earlier stage.

The Youth Outcome Panel is a further area of good practice and innovation, developed in response to the needs of children receiving out of court disposals. York and North Yorkshire Youth Justice Services collaborated with North Yorkshire Police to ensure that the processes in the local areas were justifiable, appropriate and provided intervention at the right time, with the aim of reducing further offending. The Youth Outcome Panel is well established and continues to evolve with new practices, based on changes in law and process. An example of such change is the introduction of Route 22 to the process. In York we recognise the need to respond to young people and support prevention and diversions, therefore we have adopted an approach whereby all young people involved in the Youth Outcome Panel receive intervention to improve promote positive outcomes and improve their life chances. The process is rigorously quality assured on a regular basis, including a scrutiny panel facilitated by the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

A further key area of evidence-based practice within York YJS is the Harmful Sexual Behaviour Service, available for those children convicted of an offence and also to those on the periphery of offending, or who have not been charged. Implementation of an HSB co-ordinator to structure the service proved pivotal to embedding this service into the wider organisation and ensured that referrals could be acted upon swiftly. The evidence base for the service is AIM 3 assessment and intervention training for the entire staff team, alongside NSPCC training to enable staff to deliver training to the wider authority and partner agencies. This innovative and additional resource has proved positive for children and young people as it allows intervention to take place whilst awaiting sentence, or in the event there is no formal police outcome intervention can be on a voluntary basis. Both AIM 3 and NSPCC training is based on the best available research, is proven to be child focused and developmentally informed; therefore, meeting the definition of evidenced based practice. The HSB service is regularly evaluated and reports to the York Safeguarding Children Partnership, Exploitation group and YJS Management Board. There are regular quality assurance processes conducted, including all assessments undertaken.

Service development

When considering service development, this is a fluid concept and often the service is responding to need as it arises. However, there are key features that are delivered and include:

· Prevention

· Diversion

· Statutory services

· Out of Court Disposals

· Bail and remand

· Turnaround Programme

To break this down further, prevention is inclusive of the following:

Ø Child to parent violence intervention

Ø Healthy relationships programme

Ø NSPCC Harmful Sexual Behaviour early intervention programme

Ø Boxing club

Ø Mentoring

Ø Substance misuse interventions

Ø Friendship groups

Ø Education, training, and employment group

Ø Restorative interventions

Diversion includes the following:

Ø Triage and diversion scheme

Ø Youth Outcome Panel

Ø Route 22

Ø Fire service intervention

Turnaround includes the following:

Ø Community art project in collaboration with Choose 2 Youth

Ø First aid through Street Doctors

Ø Woodwork project

Ø Drawing and talking resource

Ø Direct work within schools through the Turnaround worker

All services are delivered by the Youth Justice Service and provide multiple benefits to young people within the city. York YJS ensures that all young people entering the service receive a bespoke and holistic assessment of needs, access to a health practitioner and Speech and Language service, substance misuse specialist and refer to community services where applicable. The YJS receive sector support, for example we benefit from access to the Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service to provide guidance for complex cases and receive support from the City of York homelessness workers to secure accommodation when required.

The HMIP inspection in September 2022 highlighted two recommendations they felt would have a positive impact on the quality of York YJS services, to improve the lives of children in contact with youth offending services and better protect the public. These were:

‘Ensure that there are sufficient resources to improve access to education, training and employment, including reviewing the post 16 education, training and employment offer’.

This has been addressed within the service with the introduction of the Turnaround worker, who will be based in schools. The service is also due to participate in a research proposal in conjunction with York St John University that will seek the views of young people about their experiences of education, which can then guide the YJS on how future improvements can be made.

‘Review the financial contribution and budget arrangements to the service, to ensure that there is sufficient contingency planning to allow planned development’.

The Local Authority has addressed this recommendation at Director level and ensured the YJS are in a position whereby planned and future development can be sustained throughout the year and beyond.

This local plan is influenced by the YJB strategic plan as it incorporates the YJB vision of a child first youth justice system that treats children fairly and recognises them as children. York have adopted the strengths-based Signs of Safety model to ensure that we recognise children and families’ strengths and build upon these to develop their pro-social identities for sustainable desistance, so children can make a constructive contribution to society, prevent offending, and create safer communities with fewer victims. The work of the YJS focuses on he future and aims to empower children to fulfil their potential, encourage engagement and wider social inclusion. The YJS work in collaboration with children and their carers, using prevention, diversion, and minimal intervention to reduce their likelihood of entering the criminal justice system. The YJB outlines priorities that align with the YJS and wider authority, including investing in staff, developing a resilient organisation and using resources effectively, all of which are outlined in the local plan. The YJB support a holistic approach to address challenges for young people in contact with the youth justice system. York is adopting trauma informed practice to ensure that we really understand our children, hear their voices and know that not all their challenges are uniquely linked to their involvement with services. York YJS are supported by colleagues in Adult Social Care and the Preparing for Adulthood policy supports the seamless interaction and joint assessment for children over 14 years old leaving care, those with disabilities, SEN and any young person identified as requiring services beyond the age of 18.

12. Challenges, risks and issues

RISK	LIKELIHOOD	IMPACT	ACTIONS
Exploitation of children	High	High	The YJS is involved with the multi-agency Child Criminal Exploitation panel to address such concerns and ensure actions are taken. York is piloting an NRM panel under the guidance of the Home Office and the service are part of the creation and implementation of devolving decision making to a local level. The service have a joint protocol with Children’s Social Care for working with County Lines.
Potential Increase in Children and Young People in Care	High	High	The service work with colleagues in Children’s Social care to address challenges and are pivotal in the Prevention of Unnecessary Criminalisation of Looked after children protocol. The Youth Outcome Panel adheres to the 10 Point Checklist for Looked After Children and supports a restorative approach to working.
Increased re-offending and serious offences	High	High	The service is focusing on prevention to address offending at an earlier stage to avoid further offences. Interventions are timely and appropriate, with a focus on meeting the needs of the child. York YJS have a focus on Serious Youth Violence and staff trained to use the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) assessment which is designed to structure appraisals of violence risk and risk management plans for adolescents. York YJS are involved in the introduction of the Serious Violence Duty
Inspection readiness	Medium	Medium	The service continue to prepare for inspection under the guidance of the Management Board, using the National Framework for inspection. Our last inspection was September 2022.
Maintaining staff and business continuity	High	Medium	A business continuity plan is in place and regularly reviewed. Commitment to staff welfare is a high priority. Regular supervision is accessible, alongside staff training. As a small service, staff absence or leaving would have significant impact, though staff retention has been good.
Funding	Medium	High	Budget constraints always feature as a significant risk and the service would be at risk if we were to lose funding. Finance is a standing item on the Youth Justice Service Management Board agenda and explores ways of using reserves and developing service delivery in line with budgets. This has recently been addressed for the period 2023/2024

13.Sign off, submission and approval

Chair of YJS Board - name

Martin Kelly

Signature

Date

28/06/2023

14.Appendix 1 – Service Structure Chart

The staffing structure outlines the core staff members within the YJS. Complimenting this further includes the volunteer service, including Appropriate Adults, Referral Order Panel Members and Victim Volunteers. The YJS regularly host students on a Social Work Apprenticeship whilst they are in their placement. The YJS manager reports directly to the Director of Safeguarding for the City of York Council.

15. Appendix 2 – Budget Costs and Contributions 2023


Agency	Staffing Costs	Payments in kind	Other delegated funds	Total
Youth Justice Board	216,721		75,570	292,291
Local Authority	176,192	41,563	61,438	279,193
Police		48,277		48,277
Police and Crime Commissioner	66,982		23,356	90,338
Probation	3,707	17,171	1,293	22,171
Health	26,940	47,865	9,394	84,199
Welsh Government				0
Other		3,333		3,333
Total	490,542	158,209	171,051	819,802