Decision details

The report was introduced by Bob Stott, Director of Children's Services, and presented by Barbara Bath, Head of Service for Fostering, Adoption, Residential and Youth Offending Team. It provided information on the support for young people's education provided by the Youth Offending Team (YOT) to those young people in the criminal justice system.

It set out information about: the makeup of the YOT; the delivery model; how young people are referred to the service; and how they are assessed and monitored. It also explained how performance of the service is measured, and some performance data was included at Appendix A to the report presented.

Members raised a number of comments and questions and a brief summary of the main points is set out below:

·  It was considered most important to keep young people engaged in education.

·  It was confirmed that performance information against three key targets is regularly reported to the multi-agency Partnership Board. Officers undertook to provide this more detailed performance information, which was later received and is now appended to these minutes.

·  It was confirmed that there was a low rate of re-offending generally, although there was a small cohort of young people who were well known to the YOT. The number of young people in custody was very low.

·  The role of volunteers and the training provided to them was explained.

·  It was accepted that as the two targets set by the Lancashire YOT were comfortably being met it would be appropriate to consider revising them when the Continuous Improvement Plan was next reviewed.

·  In terms of challenges facing the service, it was explained that the young people accessing the service tended to have a range of complex issues which could require specialist interventions such as speech and language therapy or emotional support. The behaviour of young people could also be ingrained and very difficult to manage. A more robust, holistic assessment tool was currently being implemented.

·  Funding pressures for the service and its partners also presented challenges going forward.

·  It was important to be mindful that, depending on the nature of the offence, some young people might have very limited contact with the YOT or would be difficult to engage. The service would always strive to engage them in some meaningful activity or refer on to the youth service for continued support.

·  It was suggested that, as the 'Raising of the Participation Age' to 18 had resulted in a wider cohort of young people being NEET, a report about this be brought to a future meeting of the Committee.

Resolved: That,

  i.  Officers be thanked for the report and that all members of the Youth Offending Team be thanked for their work.

  ii.  A report about young people who are NEET be brought to a future meeting of this Committee