Agenda item
Reducing youth crime in Nottingham
- Meeting of Children's Partnership Board, Monday, 31st October, 2016 4.00 pm (Item 18.)
- View the background to item 18.
Minutes:
Shelley Nicholls, Youth Offending Team, gave a presentation, highlighting the following:
(a)
the Nottingham Youth Offending Team
(YOT) aims to reduce offending by young people through partnerships
to address all their needs such as health and education. This is
underpinned by local and national funding;
(b)
the three main key performance indicators for YOTs nationally, as
set by the Youth Justice Board, are set as reducing reoffending,
reducing use of custodial sentences and reducing the number of
first time entrants into the criminal justice system;
(c)
reoffending rates by young people have
fallen in Nottingham from 31.8% in 2013/14 to 26.9% in 2014/15,
which is favourable in comparison to comparative areas. Nationally
there are challenges around more young people in the system
presenting challenging behaviour;
(d)
the use of custodial sentences in Nottingham is higher than average
but partners such as the police and the judiciary have reported
that this is the correct usage of these sentences;
(e)
there has been a significant reduction
in the number of first time entrants into the criminal justice
system in Nottingham, with a reduction from 1800 to 820 from 2011
to 2015. However, this is still high nationally but acknowledged to
be as a result of Nottingham’s demographics;
(f)
a further local measure used as an
indicator locally is the attainment of young people and the number
of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs).
Performance has been maintained in this area at around 70% not
NEET;
(g)
the YOT was awarded the RJC’s
Restorative Service Quality Mark in February 2016, remarking that
the needs of victims are the focus of service delivery. There is an
aim for conflicts to be resolved without criminalisation, for
example e amongst Children in Care where there has been a reduction
in criminality from 19% to under 6%;
(h)
in June the YOT was assessed as high-performing, with recognition
of the removal of barriers to engagement from hard to reach
children, strong management oversight and a focus on
outcomes;
(i)
the Youth Justice Review is on hold but this will shape the future
of YOTs and any changes that will be made to them;
(j)
a new focus has been early intervention
, with the YOT identifying young people children most at risk of
crime and antisocial behaviour through young people’s panels.
Another focus is reduction of knife crime through
interventions;
(k) the Priority Families approach is being embedded into the YOT in services dealing with serious organised crime and gang-related violence, looking at a whole-family approach to reduce further offending within families;
The following points were made during the
discussion which followed:
(l)
the Youth Justice Review outcomes are
likely to be presented at a convention in November and any
legislative change will happen in January. It will be unfortunate
if the YOT loses its legislative status and loses
funding;
(m)the reduction in Police Officers and PCSOs is concerning, but the YOT and targeted youth services are also there to help prevent crime.
Supporting documents: