NOTES OF MEETING of 15

September – No London Meeting (NAYJ Conference)

Tuesday 15 October July 02 – 2.30pm Main Discussion Topic:

Intensive Supervision and Surveillance

Monday 11 November 02 – 2.30pm Main discussion topic:

Progress of Referral Orders

All meetings at The Coram Family Headquarters 49 Mecklenburgh Square, LONDON WC1N 2QA

(Can be tricky to find – ring Tim Bateman 020 7840 6436 or

Lis Davies 020 8345 5557 for directions)

Nearest tubes – Russell Square / Kings Cross / Euston

On the Observer’s website they have published letters in support of the campaign, including comments from some YOT workers (who rather sensibly did not wished to be named), NAYJ, Nacro … etc. The site also includes a list of people who have expressed support for the campaign.

The extension of the ISSP to the outer London boroughs was discussed, it was reported that both Nacro and YAP have been interviewed with regard to running the scheme in Enfield, Haringey and Barnet. The Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon and Havering scheme is apparently to be run in-house.

Malcolm reported that further guidance and some forms for completion had been issued by the YJB, accompanied by a letter from Peter Minchin – YJB Placements Team Manager.

Lez Quinn, the Referral Order Co-ordinator for Islington YOT (and staff member of the year), gave a presentation on how the Referral Orders had been introduced in that authority. Lez stated that the model had been developed with the aim of maximising the involvement of the community with young people subject to the orders whilst minimising the need for professional input from the YOT.

In effect, this has resulted in the Referral Order Co-ordinator holding all of the orders with the elements of the contract being supported by the use of volunteers and panel members. Lez reported that each young person has a ‘task sheet’ that they use to evidence how they have fulfilled the contract. This sheet provides the evidence to the panel of the young person’s achievements and is used to feed back to the panel at the review panel meetings. To ensure that all young people comply with the requirements of National Standards (seen fortnightly by a YOT member), Lez runs a group/drop in for all young people subject to the orders. These group sessions assist the young people to fulfil their contracts: sessional staff, volunteers, connexions PA, an employment adviser and administrative support are available throughout these sessions to provide additional support and direction to fulfil the contract.

Lez stressed that the emphasis of the work with the young people was to get them to take responsibility for their orders and for them to be responsible to the panel for ensuring that they have fulfilled their contracts. To date out of some 35 orders only one order has had social work intervention from the YOT and to date none of the panel reports have been written by YOT staff. Lez reported that this approach has been very positively received by both his colleagues and his panel members, who have been very creative in developing the services and links with community provided to young people.

Others present commented that although in many ways the referral orders had not resulted in more work for YOT staff, the approach adopted in their teams meant that there was often little difference between a referral order and other YOT interventions whereas Islington’s approach seemed to offer something very distinct.

Tim had prepared a summary of the White Paper for discussion. The White Paper contains a number of proposals for the reform of the criminal justice system some of which were discussed at the meeting including:

· Informing courts of previous convictions at the point of deciding whether to retain jurisdiction in the magistrates court or send case to crown court

· Extending the use of ASBO’s and with the potential Individual Support Orders attached to them requiring that the young person undergo counselling or educational activities

· Development of a mechanism for transferring cases for young children to the Family Proceedings Court

· Extending referral orders for young people found guilty and some second convictions in certain circumstances.

· Extension of APO to 12 months with a further review of the youth sentencing framework (does this represent the demise of the supervision order?)

· A ‘super’ youth court to deal with ‘grave crimes’ presided over by a judge and two magistrates

The meeting was informed that both Nacro and NAYJ intended to respond to the white paper and consequently the meeting was of the view that in this instance the LAYJ would not formally respond to the paper. Steve –possible link to the paper here?

There is no meeting next month but people are encouraged to attend the NAYJ conference on 17 –19^th September. More details available from Ken Hunnybun on 0116 238 8345 or on the NAYJ website www.nayj.org.uk

There is also no meeting in December because of the Nacro / LAYJ conference in London on 16^th December. The speakers and seminar leaders are all confirmed but further offers of workshops would be welcomed. Anyone wanting further information or considering offering a workshop should contact Tim at tim.bateman@nacro.org.uk

Following the review of the ROA, the above report has been published. Its proposals are extremely promising in relation to reducing the rehabilitation periods for young people involved in offending – indeed they are better than the suggestions put forward to the group by the NAYJ/LAYJ (rather embarrassing). The report also includes a suggestion for a clean sheet at age 18 for those who commit minor offences – the criteria are yet to be decided.

The report is available from the Home Office –ROA review, Sentencing and Offences Unit, Home Office, Queen Annes Gate, LONDON SW9 0PU.

New Secure Training Centre

The YJB has awarded the contract for building the new STC at Milton Keynes to Securicor. Press release available on the Board’s website at www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk

Malcolm reported that there are currently some very alarming rumours circulating regarding the possible extension of the use of YOI’s to 14 year olds because of the current shortage of places within the secure estate outside of prison service accommodation.

The DoH has recently published some ‘outcome indicators’ for young people looked after. Rather predictably they show poor educational attainment for young people looked after coupled with increased likelihood of being involved with the criminal justice system. The report is available on the Department of Health’s website at www.doh.gov.uk/public/oi2001.htm

The Government is promoting the use of video identification as an alternative to traditional ID parades (known as VIPER –video identity parade electronic recording) which, it is claimed, is fairer, quicker, has less chance of cancellation and is no doubt cheaper. Funding has been made available to ensure that VIPER is available in all the street crime areas.

In a separate development, redesigned police helmets are to be introduced following a pilot scheme. The new fashion piece has a lower centre of gravity and thereby a significantly reduced wobble.

1. The Prisons Handbook 2002, by Mark Leech and Deborah Chaney is available from Waterside Press. It is an extremely useful resource containing information on every prison on the country, bucket loads of advice, relevant legislation, YOI rules and themed articles.

2. Them and Us is a recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research which is fairly critical of the Government’s approach to law and order (and suggests that the Tories may be more thoughtful on this issue!!). It recommends among other things decriminalisation of minor offences, increasing the age of criminal responsibility to 12 and reducing the prison population to the European average.

3. The independent effects of permanent exclusion from school on the offending careers of young people has been published by the Home Office as an occasional paper. Despite the ponderous title is contains some interesting information and questions a simplistic causal link between exclusion and the onset of offending. Thus many young people do start offending after exclusion but: others offend both before and after; some do not offend either before or after; others offend before but no after. (Full report available from the Home Office on 020 7273 2084 or on the website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index/html)

4. International Comparison of crime statistics 2000. The Home Office has also published its annual comparative analysis of crime figures. It shows that in comparison with other European countries, England and Wales has a falling level of crime but one of the highest levels of custody. (Full report available as above)

5. The Geese Theatre Handbook The Geese Theatre group is well known for presenting lively workshops at conferences and has now produced a handbook for Groupwork with offenders. The book is extremely practical and contains wealth of ideas for developing creative groupwork sessions which would go down well with young people. The handbook is available from Waterside Press.

Agenda items or apologies for the next meeting at Coram Family on 15^th October to Lis Davies on 020 8345 5557 or Tim Bateman on 020 7840 6436.