The London Association for Youth Justice

NOTES OF MEETING of 17.01.02

HELD AT ISLINGTON

Present:

Lis Davies                    -           Enfield

Esther Eastham             -           Bromley

Maren Grotemeier         -           Bromley

Julian Hale                    -           Remand Review

Steve O’Donoghue        -           Hackney

Aika Stephenson           -           Remand Review

Simon Stone                  -           Islington           

Ian Suatt                       -           Tower Hamlets

Kev Wood                    -           Greenwich

Tim Bateman                -           Nacro

Apologies:

Malcolm Pacey

Matters Arising

1. Final Warnings

The issue of whether there was an expectation that final warnings would delivered within the YOT was raised.

Last year, the Metropolitan police issued guidance to its staff suggesting that there was such an expectation without any consultation with YOT managers.

While a number of YOTs are doing so, it is up to local negotiation and the police should not be bailing with the expectation that the YOT will deliver a final warning unless that has been agreed by the youth offending team.

2. Marilyn Mason ‘Cult’

Esther asked whether any other teams had come across the above cult as a cause of concern.  Bromley has been in contact with a number of young people who are self harming and appear to link it to the phenomenon.

Note for editors: Marilyn Manson is an American heavy metal artist who as an image as a Satanist. His name derives from a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. He was recently acquitted of charges of indecent assault arising out of a complaint by a security guard at one of his American shows.

Youth Offending Team Performance Indicators

Tim gave a brief overview of the 13 performance indicators according to which YOTs will be judged from next year. Meeting the indicators – or at least giving a good explanation of why it has not been possible to meet them – will be linked to funding from the Board. Where a YOT appears to be doing badly on the basis of the indicators, the Board will request an action plan to address the deficiency. Continued ‘failure’ will lead to advisors going in and possible withdrawal of elements of funding. The 2002 /3 youth justice plans will need to focus on the indicators and how YOTs intend to meet the targets.

There was some discussion about how some targets were unrealistic and others outside of the YOTs influence - not a mutually exclusive group - eg the level of youth vehicle related crime in the borough. It was also noted that in relation to some indicators, YOTs who do well in this year will find it extremely difficult to achieve some of the targets since they will inevitably have a high base line – eg reductions in recidivism are to be measured against a baseline set by the first cohort identified by the YOT last year. 

Neither YOIS nor Careworks are generating the required data easily – partly, but not solely, because of problems with data input. The Board is apparently looking to move towards a system of being able to draw down data directly from the systems and, at the current level of accuracy, such a development could cause real problems.

It was noted that one proposed indicator has been dropped: namely the one which relates to custodial sentencing.

In addition, the 13^th indicator, relating to mental health assessments, has been revised   - and is no longer the same as outlined in the paper. The timescales have been changed from 1 and ten days for acute and non acute cases to 5 and 15 working days. The references to Tier 1 – 4 have also changed slightly. It was suggested that CAMHS does not in fact recognise a four tier system of services – a model which is derived from substance misuse interventions.

Some of the indicators will have implications for YOTs planning services – eg the requirement that 80% of final warnings have a programme attached might be more readily achievable if programmes are shorter – increasing the chance of compliance. There was a discussion about what might would serve as a minimum intervention. YOTs could for instance develop a session to be delivered immediately after assessment with a number of modules which would be selected on the basis of the assessment.

The PI on parenting programmes might be easier to meet if programmes are short.  To give another example, the target on use of secure facilities at the remand stage could be seen as netwidening since it can be met if the use of custody remains the same but bail supervision and support increases.

Nacro / LAYJ / NAYJ Conference

1. The Conference is now fully booked – at 120 - which is a tribute to those who have put in a lot of work publicising it. (The other regional events are not doing so well). However, there is a very small profit margin and when the Conference venue was contacted today they indicated that catering costs had increased significantly since the price point was set. Although further calculations will be required, the conference will not make a loss.

2. Arrangements for the Groupwork workshop have changed. Lis has arranged that this will now be presented by Mike Lovett from Hendon probation who has responsibility for advising on Groupwork to NE London YOTs.

3. To reduce costs, it was agreed that there should be no conference badges and workshops choices will be made on the day prior to registration.

4. Any LAYJ members wanting to help on the day should be at the venue by 8.30am.

NAYJ AGM

The NAYJ annual general meeting will be combined with a training event as last year. It will be held on 14^th June in Milton Keynes. The working title for the event is Family Life: Public property. Further details to follow.

Reorganisation of London Courts

Malcolm has prepared a paper on the above outlining the proposals for dealing with youth cases. Effectively, greater London is to be divided into five regions each managed by a justices clerk, one of whom will take responsibility for leading on youth issues.

Youth work will where possible be dealt with in same court house as adults within that PSA – which a major change for Inner London. The paper shows changes in the allocation of youth cases in bold.

In particular:

§         Waltham Forest will move to Stratford

§         Barking and Dagenham to Havering

§         Camden and Islington to Highbury

§         Harrow to Brent

§         Barnet, Enfield and Haringey to share a new court house

§         Wandsworth to South Western Mags

§         Kingston to Richmond

§         Lewisham and Greenwich to Greewich

§         Sutton to Croydon

§         Westminster to an adult court in the borough

§         City of London to City of London

Criminal Courts Review - The Auld Proposals on Grave Crimes Provisions

Lord Justice Auld’s review of the Criminal Courts makes some proposals for change on children who commit grave crimes – effectively suggesting that they should no longer be dealt with in the crown court (a good thing) but that they should lose the right to jury trial (not so good). Any comments have to be submitted to the Lord Chancellors Department by the end of January. It is thought that both Nacro and the NAYJ are intending to make a submission.

Final Warning Evaluation

The Home Office has published an evaluation of the Final Warning Scheme in terms of its impact on reoffending – currently only available on Home Office website www.homeoffice.gov.uk. The report suggests that final warnings are more effective at preventing reoffending than cautions. However, this is not conclusive proof that nipping offending in the bud is all that the Government hopes since it appears to make no difference whether young people are assessed as suitable for a change programme or as not requiring one. Nor does it make any difference whether young people are assessed or not. Finally, there was no difference in terms of reoffending between those offered a programme who complied with it or and those who did not comply.

There was a discussion about reasons for final warnings apparently performing better than cautions in the light of the findings. Three possibilities were suggested:

§         Delivery makes more of an impression

§         The evaluation was conducted in pilot sites which routinely give good results because of the focus of attention

§         Possibly not comparing like with like since many young people who were given cautions may have had previous informal or formal warnings which would not be counted as previous offending.

Future Meetings

The LAYJ has been offered a permanent venue in central London at the Coram Family Headquarters and dates and topics have been arranged for the six months from the Conference in February. Thanks to Rachel and Jane.

News / Any Other Business

1. The Board have confirmed that they will no longer fund Remand Review after June this year. Instead the prison service will be given money to attract teams of seconded YOT workers to work in YOIs which hold remands. (One worker for every 30 young people remanded). The team will be expected to undertake a broader range of work than that currently undertaken by NRRI – including child protection issues, monitoring national standards and possibly groupwork with remanded young people.

It is unclear how the seconding arrangements will work or how team managers will be appointed. It is also unclear how services for girls will be provided. Remand review staff have been told they will be able to apply but will have to demonstrate a commitment to broader objectives than simply removing young people from custody.

2. Steve O’Donoghue is the LAYJ representative on the Inner London Management Group but has been unable to attend for some time. If any one is interested in attending on behalf of the LAYJ, they should contact Lis Davies at Enfield YOT or Steve at Hackney.

3. Human Rights Act – probably the first helpful decision. A conviction for burning an American flag outside an American airbase has been successfully appealed on the basis of article 10 – the right to freedom of expression.

4. Public Opinion – Rob Allen who used to work for Nacro is now in charge of a campaign entitled Rethinking Crime and Punishment. The campaign has conducted a big opinion poll on criminal justice which has some encouraging findings including:

§         53% think that people come out of prison worse than they go in

§         If given £10m to spend on dealing with crime on 2% would keep more adult offenders in prison.

The campaign’s website is www.rethinking.org.uk

5. Recent publications:

a)         Prison population in 2000: A Statistical Review – Home Office Research Findings 154 – available free from the Home Office on 020 7273 2084 or on web at www.homeoffice.gov.uk

In 2000, the rate of custody in England and Wales is the second highest in Europe.

b)         A new book – ‘Young Offenders: Law Practice and Procedure’ by Richard Ward, published by Jordans  - is a useful law text book.

c)         Mobile Phone Theft – Home Office Research Study 235 – available free from Home Office as above – outlines a big increase in such offences and these account for a big percentage of the rise in robbery in the recent past. There are some worrying figures in the report which suggest that black young people are overrepresented among those committing phone related thefts and the victims are primarily white youths. Lord Warner has made a statement on these figures relating it to a gang culture – perhaps not the most helpful approach.

d)       The YJ Board has published a research note by Communities that Care entitled ‘Risk and Protective Factors associate with youth crime and effective interventions to prevent it.’ A very useful summary of available research evidence – available free from the Board on 020 7271 3033.

6. Conferences

The programme for Nacro’s annual three day conference has now been finalised. This year the conference has moved to Nottingham and all rooms are en suite!!

7. Simon pointed out that one of the people attending the meeting had been cited in the national press calling for tougher sentences for young people who commit serious offences in the light of the massive increase in grave crimes committed by children.  It was pointed out that the person concerned has been seriously misrepresented – indeed had not spoken to the press at all – and that a letter to that effect had been published in the Sunday Telegraph. A motion of no confidence in the secretary of the LAYJ arising out of this incident was narrowly defeated.