A Summary
Introduction
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires agencies to work in
partnership to prevent youth offending. The Youth Justice Plan sets
out how the Council, Police, Probation and Health Services and
other significant partners, including Connexions West of England,
will work together to do this. Youth justice services are a
key component of services for all children and young people and
parents living in this area, as described in the local Children and
Young People’s Plan 2006-2009. Work with young people at risk of
offending and re-offending is also a major strand of the local
Community Safety and Drugs Partnership’s work of further reducing
crime and anti-social behaviour, described in the Community Safety
and Drugs Strategy.
Children, young people and parents have helped Bath and North
East Somerset to establish an ambitious vision that all children
living here do better in life than they ever thought they could.
Work with those at risk of offending, their parents and victims of
crime will support better outcomes for children and contribute to
the establishment of a safer environment for everyone.
The Youth Offending Team
The Youth Offending Team works across the whole Bath and North
East Somerset area. It includes staff from a wide range of
agencies, sharing their knowledge and skills to help young people
make positive changes in their lives. It supervises children and
young people aged 10 -17 who have admitted a criminal offence to
the Police or been charged to appear in Court. It provides
information and assessments to Court and the team also supports the
parents of young people who have offended. It also offers a range
of restorative justice services to victims of youth crime.
The team’s Compass Project provides voluntary support services
to children, young people and their parents, where a high risk of
offending has been identified.
The Youth Offending Team will be part of the new Children’s
Service, working to improve outcomes for children in line with the
Children Act
2004.
Performance
The Youth Justice Plan provides details of progress against a
number of national targets. The latest information shows an
excellent reduction of 12.5% between 2002 to 2003 in
the proportions of young people in Bath and North East Somerset who
re-offended after two years. We have also seen a significant
reduction in custodial sentences in this area, partly attributable
to the success of the local Intensive Supervision and Surveillance
Programme. The main area of concern has been the falling levels of
young people’s engagement in education, training and
employment.
Priorities for 2006-2007
(1) Prevention
Feedback from young people and
the wider community shows continuing public concern about youth
anti-social behaviour and offending. New national funding will be
used to strengthen the Compass Project, extending its age range to
8 – 17 years. A new Youth Crime Prevention Board is to be
established.
(2) Parenting
New national funding has enabled
the Youth Offending Team to appoint its first dedicated
Parenting Worker, who will spend half of her time on preventative
work and half on statutory work. Bath and North East Somerset’s new
Parenting Strategy will establish a framework for further
improvements. Parents participation in the planning and delivery of
services will be a key part of this work.
(3) Diversity
Nationally a disproportionately
high number of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds end up
in the youth justice system. The reasons for this are complex and
we are exploring what can be done to address this locally.
(4) Performance
Management
A database update and improved
staff training within the Youth Offending Team will help with more
accurate measurement of the effective-ness of work undertaken.
5) Education,
Training and Employment
The Youth Offending Team Steering Group has adopted an
additional priority to address access to suitable education,
training and employment by young people at risk of
offending.
The full Youth Justice Plan 2006 - 7
This can be accessed on the website:-
Youth Offending Services
Other documents referred to in this leaflet can be found on the
following websites:-
Children and Young People’s Plan:-
Children and Young Peoples Plan
Community Safety and Drugs Strategy:-
http://www.be-safe.info/
The Parenting Strategy will be available in December
2006.
Sally Churchyard, Service Manager would be happy to answer any
questions about the Youth Justice Plan or hear
comments. She can be contacted on 01225 396966 or by email to
youth_offending@bathnes.gov.uk
