The government proposals on youth offending have
received a mixed reception. Claire Seneviratna assesses
the reaction of care professionals and service bodies to the
plans
It is fair to say that the reaction of practitioners to the
government's long-awaited Youth Crime Action Plan has been mixed
since its publication last month. While some see it as an
opportunity missed, others have lauded the government for a
restrained, gimmick-free approach.
The draft plan places more responsibility on councils for
reducing the number of young people entering custody, increasing
education and training, and bolstering resettlement support, but,
crucially, stops short of giving authorities control over the
Family intervention
Jointly published by Jacqui Smith, the
home secretary, Ed Balls, the children's secretary, and Jack Straw,
the justice secretary, the plan calls for more investment in
non-custodial sentences, involving intensive fostering and
community supervision of young offenders. There are also proposals
for a significant extension of family intervention projects -
schemes used to provide "non-negotiable intervention" to families
whose children are at greatest risk of falling into a life of
crime.
These proposals and many others will be implemented over the
next three years at a cost of £100m. The overall aim is to slash
the 100,000 children aged 10- to 17-years-old who enter the
criminal justice system each year. Under the plan, the government
wants to cut this by one fifth by 2020.
Mike Thomas, chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team
Managers, echoes the response of many practitioners in the field
when he says: "While we welcome the direction of the plan, it
doesn't go far enough. The key issue of who should bear the cost of
custody has been fudged. We are disappointed that the plan doesn't
propose transferring the costs of custody away from the Youth
Justice Board onto local authorities. We felt this would have made
councils sit up and take notice it would have given them a strong
incentive to find alternatives.
Discourages
"The way the system works at the moment actually discourages
local authorities from looking at more effective alternatives,
because as soon as a young person enters custody, the council no
longer has to cover the costs."
Andrew Webb, the Association of Directors of Children's
Services' lead on youth justice, and director of children's
services at Stockport Council, calls on practitioners not to get
"bogged down on who pays what", and insists that children's
services should already be offering a creative, considered response
to youth crime.
Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive of Turning Point, agrees:
"I've seen success when the best youth offending teams have worked
hand-in-hand together in partnership. It's not just about money.
What is most important is that local professionals make sure that
they are not working in silos and build services around the needs
of local communities."
Positive
Overall, Webb heralds the plan as a "positive, thoughtful and
evidence-informed piece of policy".
"It achieves a balance between enforcement and prevention and
takes a much more reflective view of antisocial behaviour and youth
crime," he adds.
However, he is concerned about the lack of emphasis on reducing
the number of young people entering custody in the first place.
"It's about us working with the government to find ways of
achieving an overall shift in resources - from a punitive regime to
a preventative one," he says.
Most observers agree that the plan gives local authorities a
positive and increased role in supporting young people once they
leave custody, including education, help with housing and finding
work.
Gaps
Thomas says: "Ensuring that young people have somewhere suitable
to live once they leave custody can prove critical in preventing
reoffending. At the moment it's all too easy for young people to
fall through the gap."
Penelope Gibbs, director of the Prison Reform Trust's Programme
to reduce child and youth imprisonment, says another omission from
the plan is specific measures for local authorities to supervise
looked-after children better.
"At least a third of young offenders are in the care of a
corporate parent - their local authority. The local authority as
parent lets these children escalate through the criminal justice
system into custody," she says.
• Read the
draft plan
Camden's Youth Disorder Engagement Team
Camden youth disorder team provides blueprint
Highlighted in the government's plan as an example of good
practice, Camden's Youth Disorder Engagement Team could become a
blueprint for the way local authorities deal with young people's
offending behaviour.
Working in partnership with the police, and related agencies
including the Youth Engagement Team, Safer Neighbourhood Team,
Youth Offending Team, social services, truancy patrol, schools and
youth clubs, Nakuja Guyan and Scott Fry are at the frontline of
this pioneering approach (pictured right).
The street-based trained intervention
workers regularly patrol the borough. They get to know local young
people and respond to incidents, as well as taking proactive
measures to prevent problems arising.
"We recently managed to resolve a long-running feud between two
young people," says Los Angeles-native Guyan. "The dispute had been
going on for five years and the parents of both youngsters become
involved. Fry and I visited both families and everyone agreed to
take part in mediation. Following the mediation, which was also
attended by a police officer, both boys came to an agreement and
signed a contract. There hasn't been any trouble since and that was
all achieved within three weeks of us becoming involved."
Fry adds: "One of the mothers contacted us to say that this was
the most that had happened in the five years she'd been asking for
help."
Experience
What marks the Camden pilot out is the experience of the
intervention workers. Fry and Guyan have been employed partly
because of their backgrounds: Fry worked for eight years in a
juvenile detention centre in Australia before joining Camden's YOT
in 2003, while Guyan, once a member of a Los Angeles gang, has
almost 20 years' experience working with young people in juvenile
detention centres and children's homes in the US.
With two colleagues joining the team later this month, the team
is set to extend its reach across the borough.
"What we're doing in Camden could work just about anywhere, and
not just where gangs are concerned, but all young people. The key
is to build a multi-agency partnership where everyone is working
from the same information and to the same agenda," says Fry.
Trust
One young offender, 20-year-old Taylor*, says Fry is "someone I
can trust that really cares".
After an arrest, Taylor was referred to Fry through the Camden
project. "He came round to my house and calmed my family down and
made us feel safe. He gave me advice about how to avoid trouble and
even signed me up to a gym, which gave me something to do."
Taylor says the key to Fry's approach is that he is a "neutral
force who comes in and calms everything down".
* Not his real name
This article appeared in the 31 July issue under the
headline "Verdict on Youth Crime Action Plan"