Agenda item

Youth Justice Plan 2021/22

Minutes:

The Council considered a report, introduced by Councillor Lani-Mae Ball, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Young People, which sought approval of the statutory Youth Justice Plan for 2021/22, which covered the work of the Youth Offending Service in Doncaster, where responsibility for the discharge of the Plan laid.  The Plan set out the resourcing and performance against last year’s plan, structure, governance and partnership arrangements, and risks to future delivery.  Actions and timescales were set to develop the service and ensure the best provision for the children and young people of Doncaster.

 

Councillor Ball stated that she was proud to report that the Youth Justice Plan highlighted some strong performance in relation to last year’s targets, all of which have been surpassed.  Members noted the binary re-offending rate which had an annualised rate of 25.7% which was a full 12% lower than the England average.  This placed Doncaster jointly 11th in terms of the lowest youth re-offending rates in England and Wales.  In addition to this, performance in reducing first time entrants into the criminal justice system remained stable, with a marginal reduction from last year, and the custody rate had once again remained very low, reducing further still in the past year.  This meant that when children entered the criminal justice system, they received the help they needed to lead pro-social, healthy lives in the future, and the vast majority did not go on to re-offend.

 

It was reported that the Youth Offending Service achieved these results through the delivery of its relationship based, trauma informed practice model, which recognised that these were children first and offenders second.  The service also benefited from a range of therapeutic services, including speech and language therapy, forensic psychology and family psychotherapy, amongst others.  This approach ensured children were provided with treatment for the underlying issues that contributed to their offending, rather than treating the offending itself as the problem which was good for Doncaster as this was an innovative approach, and bucked the trend nationally.

 

Members also noted that the Youth Offending Service continued seeing families face to face throughout the pandemic, ensuring that children and families had the support they needed.  The plan also highlighted the response to child criminal exploitation and the work of Team EPIC (Encouraging Potential Inspiring Change) to support these children, which had been achieved through a combination of one to one support and the work they undertook in communities to divert children from becoming involved in offending.  EPIC continued to be rolled out across the Borough and deliver engaging activities for the most at risk children and young people.  The Team also worked hard to engage with schools to keep this area of work at the top of everyone’s agenda.

 

In conclusion, Councillor Ball pointed out that the plan included direct feedback from over 90 children, both relating to the service they had received and also how they had coped with the pandemic more broadly.  This highlighted that the majority of children had greatly benefited from the services provided by the Youth Offending Service, and valued its input into their lives.  The level of feedback from the children and young people demonstrated a high engagement rate and Councillor Ball urged everyone to take on board the comments from young people who had shared their experiences.  The Plan also highlighted the impressive resilience shown by young people and that they were comfortable talking about their mental health, know where to seek support and felt safe in the communities in which they lived.

 

Following the presentation of the report, Members were afforded the opportunity to comment on the report.

 

RESOLVED that the Youth Justice Plan 2021/22, be approved.

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