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.