To receive an update on the Youth Justice Team, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) provision.

(Note: Jon Ralph - Service Manager has been invited for this item.)

The Sub-Board reviewed the submitted report which provided an update on the Youth Justice Services Improvement Plan.  Since the report had been written the Youth Justice Plan was submitted at the end of June with the Cabinet signing it off at their meeting in July 2024.  The Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) Worker was now in post.  Out of 13 priority areas 9 were now green and completed.  However, there had been a slip in performance towards the end of last year and the Youth Justice Board and Chief Executive had undertaken a deep dive to see how progress could be made.  One of the most important areas outstanding was the failure to find suitable accommodation.  Work was currently underway with a new site and it was reported during the meeting that costs had been confirmed so that this could be taken forward.  This was the 11^th building that had been explored and this remained an outstanding action from the last inspection with the next inspection due in November 2024.

The Sub-Board asked a number of questions in relation the report identifying that Swifter Justice was likely to be in force in early 2024, what progress had been made; was there anything the Sub-Board could do to support the Youth Justice Service; why had the website not been moved forward; what work had been done to find out why more young people were entering the system; there had been a 41% increase in interventions how confident were officers that they were seeing the right children;  what happens when the Targeted Prevention Funding ceases in March 2025; what was the reason for the peaks and troughs of young people entering the system; what was preventing the Service from securing suitable accommodation and what was the impact on the young people; and how much work was done with schools around prevention.

It was acknowledged that the Swifter Justice was a big area of work which was being impacted significantly by the length of time investigations into young people’s crimes and offences took.  Torbay does not have a Child First Investigation Team which Plymouth and other areas have.  Many of the delays were as a result of forensic investigations which was a national issue.  The Youth Justice Service was working closely with the Police and a new Niche reporting system had been introduced making tracking progress easier to monitor regularly.  There was a commitment from the Police to help prioritise children alongside other priorities.  There were now improved processes in place to understand who the youth cohort were going into custody, including structures to identify the children at most risk of harm.  The Police was also looking at if they could move Policing around the child centred approach to support the new structures.

Members were advised that the website had not been updated as it had fallen in priority with other work.  It was hoped it could be included on the Children’s Hub website but this was deemed inappropriate.  There was information on the Youth Justice Plan on the Council’s website to signpost people.  Part of the reason was funding as the content had been written it just needed someone to create the pages.  Members highlighted the importance of good signposting of relevant support particularly to parents and carers.

It was noted that between June and November 2023 30 young people had entered the system, this was due to a high rate of offending in Paignton, lots of antisocial behaviour and repeat offending.  Since December 2023 there were no more than 2 young people in a month coming into the system and this was expected to continue.  Work had been done to identify people at risk of offending earlier and the Service was working with the Police to review out of court and disposals.

The Targeted Prevention work was carried out by three full time workers with the main funding ‘Turnaround Fund’ ending in March 2025 and there was no guarantee of any other funding after this time from this or the other two funding pots.  Evidence demonstrated that young people supported through the Team 79% did not go on to commit an offence.  If future funding was not identified, then the Team would come to a point before March 2025 when they would stop taking referrals.  There was a concern also that the existing staff would look for other jobs.

There were a number of reasons why the Service had not been able to secure suitable accommodation.  The impact was that staff were seeing young people in cafes, libraries, parks and cars which may not be safe or confidential. 

The Youth Justice Service did not work with schools directly due to capacity but helped to provide resources to the Police who did go into schools.  Most referrals come from Children’s Services or the Police and the Service only had capacity to work with 30 young people at a time.

Resolved (unanimously):

1.       that the Torbay Youth Justice Board be recommended to find suitable resources to enable the Targeted Prevention Programme to continue post March 2025 when the existing funding streams cease as this is a demonstrated invest to save project which reduces the numbers of young people offending as well as exploring other potential funding opportunities to support the Youth Justice Service; and

2.       that the Clerk be requested to write to the Chief Executive Officer of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and the Police and Crime Commissioner on behalf of the Sub-Board to raise concerns about the lack of a partnership approach to finding suitable accommodation for the Youth Justice Service and encourage wider partnership working for the benefit of our children and young people.