PLYMOUTH ANNUAL YOUTH JUSTICE PLAN 2021-2022 - Plymouth City Council
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PLYMOUTH
ANNUAL YOUTH JUSTICE PLAN
2021-2022
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Jean Kelly, Chair of Plymouth Youth Management Justice Board ................................................. 3
Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board Mission Statement ......................................................................... 5
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 5
2. Key Developments and review of 2018/19 Youth Justice Plan: Priorities and Action plan points ............. 8
3. Service Structure and Governance ............................................................................................................12
4. Partnership Arrangements .........................................................................................................................12
5. Volunteers & Sessional Workers ...............................................................................................................14
6. Priorities for 2021 – 22 ..............................................................................................................................14
7. Contextual Evidence and Important Drivers for our work ......................................................................17
8. Resourcing and value for money................................................................................................................19
9. Key performance indicators .......................................................................................................................21
Appendix 1 COVID CONTINUTY PLAN ........................................................................................................27
Appendix 2 Youth Justice Development Plan ....................................................................................................29
Appendix 3 Analysis of Youth Offending in Plymouth in 2020 .........................................................................35
Plymouth Youth Justice Plan signatories ............................................................................................................52
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Foreword by Jean Kelly, Chair of Plymouth Youth
Management Justice Board
Welcome to the Plymouth Youth Justice Plan 2021/22. We want children in Plymouth to be safe,
healthy and happy and to achieve and aspire. This plan sets out how our work will ensure these
outcomes for children who come to the attention of youth justice services in the city.
This plan sits alongside other key local partnership plans including A Bright Future; A vision for
children in Plymouth, the Children and Young People’s Plan, the Safer Plymouth Partnership Plan
and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Plan.
The Youth Justice Plan provides the detail about how Plymouth Youth Offending Team (YOT)
intends to deliver services to improve outcomes for young people, families and communities over
the next year. The strategic aims of Plymouth Youth Offending Team partnership is focused on
preventing offending and reducing re-offending by young people. We aim to achieve this through
the delivery of integrated services that ensure young people are safeguarded, the public and victims
of crime are protected and those who enter the criminal justice system are supported with robust
risk management arrangements. Young people will be supported to reintegrate into their local
communities, to reduce their offending and wherever possible with support from their families.
Undoubtedly, COVID 19 has had a major impact on the way we work with Children and Young
People and their families and this is likely to continue to affect our work in the year ahead. At the
time of completing this plan, our Junior Attendance Centre is suspended due to the restrictions,
however, we have innovated and changed the way we work by using IT based solutions to continue
to work with our cohort and hold Referral Order panels to maintain all other areas of delivery. We
will resume services in line with the government Roadmap out of lockdown. Within this plan, we
have produced a contingency plan to show how we will continue to work through the pandemic.
There has been significant achievements in the past year, in relation to improving some of our key
performance indicators (please see page 20 for full report). For example, the number of young
people living in suitable accommodation and those in education, employment and training. We have
seen positive improvements in the outcomes for our children and young people as a result.
First time entrants into the Youth Justice system continue to fall nationally. However, this has not
been the case in Plymouth where we have seen our rate of first time entrants remain at similar
levels as in the previous year. . Therefore, this area is a priority for us. We are introducing a
Diversion Scheme in the city that seeks to prevent young people entering the criminal justice
system. This reduction will be achieved by offering interventions at the earliest opportunity,
building on the delivery of out of court disposals which brings together the most appropriate
agencies at the earliest point of decision making. This will help to ensure swift multi-agency
discussion arrived at improving outcomes for young people and reducing the risk of offending and
harm to the community whilst diverting them from the criminal justice system.
Some of the children and young people known to the youth offending service have complex needs
arising from early childhood adversity and trauma. To improve the opportunities for these children
and young people we have introduced an Enhanced Case Management Programme led by a clinical
psychologist. This work supports our understanding of young people’s more complex needs and
helps identify appropriate interventions to support them effectively.
A review of work with victims has resulted in the delivery of victim specific interventions by a
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newly appointed officer to ensure a clearer focus on victim safety.
Risk management procedures within the YOT have also been reviewed resulting in the lead of a
single Practice Manager for the Management of Risk Panels. This is helping us to improve
identification of risk and likelihood of re-offending for individual children. Given that so many of the
children we work with have experienced several adverse childhood experiences, a trauma informed
approach is used in our work and all team members have undertaken trauma training.
I would like to thank the staff of the Youth Offending Team and all of our partners, on behalf of the
Youth Justice Management Board, for their ongoing resilience and passion in delivering child-
centred and effective youth justice services across Plymouth and for improving outcomes for the
children and young people they support. It is through their commitment, hard work and
achievements that we will achieve our goal of becoming one of the best Youth Justice Services in
the country.
Jean Kelly
Service Director for Children, Young People and Families
Children Young People & Families Services
Plymouth City Council
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Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board Mission
Statement
To develop a youth justice system in Plymouth that sees children as children, treats them
fairly and helps them to build on their strengths so they can make a constructive
contribution to society. Diverting Children and Young People early will prevent offending and
create safer communities with fewer victims in the city.
1. Introduction
1.1. Statement of Purpose
Section 39 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced the statutory requirement for
local authorities to establish one or more Youth Offending teams (YOTs) in their area, with
each requiring the involvement of the local authority, police, Livewell and probation services.
In Plymouth this responsibility rests with Plymouth City Council. The responsible local
authority is also required, after consultation with partner agencies, to publish a Youth Justice
Plan each year outlining the composition of, and funding for, their YOT and the function it is
to carry out. This includes the steps taken to encourage children not to commit criminal
offences.
The primary aim of Youth Justice is to prevent offending and reoffending by children and
young people under the age of 18. Section 39 (1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
requires the co-operation of named statutory partners to form a YOT. Section 38 (2)
identifies statutory partners and places upon them a duty to co-operate in order to secure
youth justice services appropriate to their area. Additional partners are recruited to the joint
strategic effort to prevent offending and reoffending.
1.2. Introduction and overview
Welcome to the Plymouth Youth Justice Plan 2021/22, this plan should be read in
conjunction with Plymouth Youth Justice COVID 19 Recovery Plan submitted in September
2020 and included in appendix A of this report. The Youth Justice Plan in Plymouth aims to
sit alongside the key local partnership strategies, the Safer Plymouth Partnership Community
Safety Plan (CSP) and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Plan and the Children and
Young People Commissioning Strategy. The Youth Justice Plan sets out the governance
arrangements and operation of the Plymouth Youth Offending Team (PYOT). This report
highlights agreed key developments and key priorities and provides the detail as to how
PYOT intends to deliver services to improve outcomes for young people, families and
communities over the 18 months as we recover from COVID 19.
The strategic aims of Plymouth Youth Justice Partnership are:
• Focused on preventing offending and reducing re-offending by young people;
• The delivery of integrated services that ensure young people are safeguarded;
• The public and victims of crime are protected;
• Those who enter the criminal justice system are supported with robust risk
management arrangements.
• Young people will be supported to reintegrate into their local communities, to reduce
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their offending and wherever possible with support from their families.
The YOT continues to work with partners to ensure that we continue to provide a first class
service to young people and communities and maintain the levels of supervision, risk
management and safeguarding which will protect the public and support young people to stop
offending.
We work to the priorities of the Police and Crime Plan (PCP) for Devon and Cornwall and
have focused on priorities areas from the PCP in respect of victims, Appropriate Adults and
reducing reoffending. We will continue to liaise closely with the Office of the Police and Crime
Commissioner (OPCC) around priority areas and work streams over the next year.
The YOT continues to support Plymouth Children’s Services aims of reducing the numbers
of looked-after children, reducing the number of young people not in education, employment
and training and improving school attendance. We will work together with schools,
academies and Alternative Provision to ensure that young people of statutory school age
receive full-time equivalent education. We strive to increase the opportunities to achieve
better outcomes for young people through earlier intervention and targeted prevention.
Over the next year we will work closely with the newly developing Adolescent Support
Team and the Early Help and Assessment Team Teams in Plymouth.
The CSP are also supporting the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network to develop Plymouth
as a trauma informed City, this will provide a new vision for community safety in which
preventing the causes of adversity becomes the cornerstone of how we collectively build a
safer future for the children and young people of Plymouth. This vision fits well with Youth
Justice Services particularly for the more vulnerable cohort such as those children who are
looked after or in need of protection.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) visited the YOT in November 2019 to
undertake a Joint Targeted Area Inspection. One of the outcomes of this inspection was a
recommendation to reset the governance arrangements of the YOT. As a result, the Pan
Devon Regional Board, previously in place, has been replaced by a Plymouth only Youth
Justice Management Board which sat for the first time in February 2020. This board reports
directly to the Safer Plymouth Executive.
Aside from the Joint Targeted Area Inspection (2019), it is important to note that the
Plymouth YOT last received a full inspection in June 2015. As this is the case, preparations
are underway to ensure we are ready for an inspection. We will seek to evidence positive
outcomes for children and young people have been achieved through the provision of Youth
Justice Services.
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2. Key Developments and review of 2018/19 Youth Justice Plan:
Priorities and Action plan points
2.1. COVID-19
COVID 19 has had a major impact in how we work with children, young people and their
families as well as our partners. We have adapted our procedures to include telephone and
video call contact as well as visits to their homes. We took a decision that we wanted to
maintain as normal a service as possible and we continue to offer reparation, program work
and Referral Order panels. The court have now adapted virtual hearings which will allow the
court to return to normal practice. We have developed a COVID Contingency plan which
has been accepted by the Youth Justice Board. The contingency plan is set out in this
document.
2.2. Governance Arrangements
The Service Manager of the Youth Offending Team reports directly to Head of Service,
Children, Young People and Families Services who in turn reports directly to the Service
Director. Thus the YOT is firmly placed within the framework of children’s services. The
YOT is given strategic guidance by the local Youth Justice Board, chaired by the Service
Director for Children, Young People & Families Services Jean Kelly. Alongside the Service
Director, a group of senior officers representing the statutory partners responsible for
delivering youth justice services across the city make up the Board. This includes
representation from Plymouth City Council, Devon and Cornwall Police, Office of the Police
Crime Commissioner, the National Probation Service, Livewell, Plymouth City Council
Housing, Chair of the local Magistrates Board, Plymouth City Council Education Participation
and skills and the voluntary and community sector. The national YJB are also represented as
well as the elected representative with the portfolio for children and youth.
The Management Board meets quarterly and holds the YOT to account for its practice
through performance reports specifically relating to the Key Performance Indicators of first
time entrants, use of custody and reoffending (latest performance in Appendix 1). It also
looks at ETE performance and accommodation suitability.
Finance reports and audit reports are also presented at each Board meeting. Effective
practice issues, continuing service developments and budget and policy matters are also
routinely discussed. It also monitors the achievement of conditions set out in grants made by
the YJB, including timely submission of data, compliance with secure estate placement
information, completion of national audits and procedures for reviewing the safety of the
public and the safeguarding of service users. It also considers all custodial outcomes including
detention accommodation and sentences with particular attention paid to the use of the
detention accommodation grant.
The multi-agency representation of the Board ensures that barriers to effective multi-agency
working are effectively identified, discussed and strategies to overcome them developed
whilst ensuring that partner agencies make an effective contribution to delivering key youth
justice outcomes. The Management Board can evidence effective challenge of the partnership.
Board Members also assist the YOT with recruitment and staff progression through
membership of grade progression panels. Thus the Plymouth Youth Justice Board can
demonstrate that it provides a very supportive and effective mechanism for dealing with
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youth justice issues.
The YOT has a robust management team that meets weekly to discuss operational and
strategic issues impacting upon the delivery of youth justice services.
2.3. Key Performance Indicators
The Youth Justice Board data and performance report is included on page 18 of this plan. We
have seen a steady improvement in our indicators related to custody, re-offending rate,
accommodation and education, employment and Training. Our data in relation to first time
entrants remains high, as a result, the Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board have
initiated a Diversion scheme with the aim of intervening early before young people’s
behaviour becomes entrenched and is addressed within this document as a priority for 2021
– 22.
2.4. Out of Court Disposal Panels
Out of court disposal scrutiny panels are now well established within the YOT process
having begun in November 2019. Children and young people are now being appropriately
dealt with ensuring that the right intervention is in place at the right time. It is hoped this, as
well as a police pilot in two areas (Plymouth and Devon) to consult more widely before
making a decision that results in a young person becoming a first time entrant, will reduce the
rate of first time entrants. The process was reviewed in November 2020 and the name
changed to the Partnership Panel following a recommendation from our Police colleagues.
2.5. Sexually Harmful Behaviour Work
Following a review of staff training, we have identified the need to update YOT staff to AIM3
which was undertaken in autumn 2019. Within Children Services, YOT are seen as the lead
when this level of assessment needs to be undertaken with children and young people.
2.6. Victim Work
In September 2019, we created a Victim worker post to enhance the victim service to offer a
bespoke programme of support which is led by the victims this ensures that the victim’s voice
is heard and recognised within all cases.
2.7. Inspection Readiness
As stated above, we anticipate we will be inspected within 6 months of April 2021, as a
result, we have a working group preparing for this and this year, we reviewed all of our
policies and procedures.
2.8. PACE Beds
The ILACS OFSTED inspection of 2018 identified a lack of provision for children and young
people who are held in Police custody as a result of the lack the suitable placements. As a
result, Plymouth YOT, in collaboration with Devon YOT, now fund the provision of a PACE
bed to allow the Police to give bail to those young people not deemed a high risk of harm to
themselves or others and not a risk of absconding.
(PACE – Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984)
2.9. Referral Panel members and Appropriate Adult Volunteers
In 2019, the Police raised an issue in terms of reliability of the volunteers who were asked to
attend Police custody to act as Appropriate Adults. Following a review, it was discovered the
majority of the volunteers were university students required, as part of their Criminology
Degree course, to volunteer for 3 months within the criminal justice system. This led to two
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issues with this cohort, some of the volunteers disengaged after the initial 3 month period,
incurring costs in terms of training, the majority of those who remained engaged, went home
at the end of the term leaving large gaps in the provision , gaps which had to be filled by
members of staff.
Historically, the recruitment, training and supervision of Referral Panel volunteers was
undertaken by a coordinator in the Community Connections Team. In April 2019, having
received complaints from the Police relating to the availability of Appropriate Adults, we
took the decision to outsource the provision of Appropriate Adults to a company called The
Appropriate Adult Service (TAAS). This began in May 2020 and we have undertaken one
quarterly review since this arrangement started, the feedback we have received from both
the Police and TAAS, indicates the new arrangement is working well.
As a result of the TAAS provision and the low numbers of Referral Panel volunteers being
recruited, we took the decision to end our arrangement with the Community Connections
Team and recruit, train and supervise the volunteers within the YOT. We have increased the
volunteers from 6 to 12 and undertaken the new Panel Matters Training Package.
2.10. Enhanced Case Management System
Following the Guidance for implementation of the Enhanced Case Management Approach
issued by the Youth Justice Board in 2019, the Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board
took the decision to implement the approach to augment the Trauma Informed approach
adopted in the city. As a result of the guidance, we have recruited an additional Practice
Manager and advertised for a Clinical Psychologist to be appointed.
2.11. Quality Assurance
PYOT has a process of auditing in place which involves all the management team – sometimes
working together on thematic audits and sometimes taking responsibility for mini audits for
specific areas of work they have responsibility for.
ASSETPlus has taken a huge amount of time to embed into practice. Despite being with us
now for around two years we continue to gate keep every ASSETPlus that is produced using
a locally developed QA tool. Feedback is given to practitioners verbally and changes made
before being signed off by the manager. This process has been helpful in identifying common
areas of need and has also guided further training which has recently been delivered service
wide. However, the recent Audit identified we are not completing a sufficient number in line
with our Performance management policy.
2.12. Response to Inspection Reports
As a YOT, we have reviewed many of our procedures and processes over the last year. This
has been in part due to inspection preparation and also putting into practice the learning
from inspection reports including our Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) in November
2019. In reviewing the victim work of the YOT, particular attention was paid to evidence
from a range of inspection reports including, the Hertfordshire inspection report (September
2018), Oldham’s inspection report (April 2019) and Manchester’s (February 2019) where
inspectors noted that insufficient attention had been given to the needs, wishes and
protection of victims. As a result, we have now employed a Victim worker to ensure contact
with all victims of crime. It is also hoped that the victim worker will also eventually oversee
reparation to ensure that we can develop more bespoke interventions relevant to individual
victims.
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In 2018, Barking and Dagenham (December 2018) inspection report’s reference to concerns
about the numbers of young people not in ETE mirrored Plymouth YOTs experience. As a
result, we have worked closely with Plymouth City Council Education, Participation and Skills
team. As a result, we now write a joint letter to all school heads requesting a plan to ensure
young people of statutory school age are receiving 25 hours of education per week or, if not,
a plan to return them to this level. In terms of the over 16 cohort, CSW appointed a worker
to engage our NEET cohort and offer 1 to 1 support.
Influenced by the HMIP reports and the Thematic Inspection report (March 2018) noting the
improved information sharing and greater accountability offered by a panel approach, we
introduced an Out of Court Disposal panel in October 2019 and reviewed this in October
2020 changing its name to the Partnership Panel. The decision to move to a multi-agency
panel approach to out of court disposal decision making has been significantly greater
accountability offered by a panel approach with the hope of diverting young people from the
Youth Justice System and reducing our level of first time entrants.
In response to the JTAI of the multi-agency response to children's mental health in Plymouth
2019, a new Youth Justice Board was formed in Plymouth in January 2020 to oversee youth
justice in the city. The JTAI also raised concerns about referrals to the MASH, as a result, we
initiated staff training about this and now have introduced a monthly management quality
assurance process to ensure this is addressed.
2.13. Information governance
The YOT has updated its information sharing agreements to comply with the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR, May 2018). Information security and appropriate information
sharing, data privacy and confidentiality are the responsibility of everyone in an organisation
in order to comply with the law. Each individual must take responsibility for their part in
looking after the information their organisation collects, or is provided with, and keeping it
secure. All PYOT staff have undertaken training to ensure awareness and compliance with
these requirements.
Plymouth YOT does not have its own Information Governance Policy, but is part of the
wider Plymouth City Council information governance management process ensuring
appropriate safeguards are in place, managed and updated to comply with best practice. This
enables the YOT to benefit from improvements in security measures and improved training,
learning and development of best practice from the wider experience gained from across the
council, coordinated through corporate training and eLearning initiatives led by the specialist
Information and Governance team.
2.14. Review of Youth Offending Behaviour
A review report has been complied to examine youth offending in Plymouth for the year
2020 has been conducted and is included in Appendix C, this report has been used to identify
patterns of behaviour or areas of concern within the city.
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3. Service Structure and Governance
The current structure started in October 2019 as part of a wider review of Targeted
Services. The current average caseload in Plymouth is 11 cases, the South West average
(August 2020) is 12.
4. Partnership Arrangements
Plymouth Youth Offending Team delivers criminal justice services within the city. Integrated
into the Targeted Service, the YOT works alongside Adolescent Support Team, Family
Intervention Project and the Early Help and Support Team. The YOT includes Social
Workers and YOT as well as a Probation Officer (0.5FTE), CAMHs workers, Substance use
worker, a Speech and Language worker, an Education Welfare Officer, Victim worker and a
Police Officer. This enables the YOT to make a significant contribution towards partnership
activity that extends beyond the direct delivery of youth justice service functions.
Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board have developed a Partnership Agreement that
formalises our working arrangements and agreements and sets a clear expectation on how
each agency will work to address Youth Justice in the City.
The YOT has a very low volume of custody (one DTO last year) but there is a process in
place to report all custodial remands and sentences to both the Service Director (Chair of
the PYJB) and the Safeguarding Board. There are also clear processes in place with the Youth
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Custody Service to ensure appropriate exchanges of information to enable suitable
placement of vulnerable young people. The YOT is represented on the Plymouth
Safeguarding Children Partnership Board by the Service Director. However, it also reports to
Our Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Quality Assurance and Performance group with
regard to performance and areas of specific concern. As a member of the Strategic MAPPA
Board the YOT focusses on protecting people within our community from harm in terms of
serious crime. Reformed in December 2020, the Management of Risk Panel has the authority
to amend Risk Management plans and escalate to other agencies at senior level where
deemed necessary.
The Head of Service, Service Manager and Team Managers membership of the following
ensures that the bridge between welfare, crime, public and child protection and safeguarding
continues to be effective and to further develop:
Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board: quarterly meeting to oversee the delivery of the
youth justice agenda across the city through scrutiny and discussion of performance reports
and budget discussions. The Board also requests ‘deep dives’ into specific areas of concern,
for instance, ETE issues for the re-offender cohort which has provided evidence to enable the
appointment of a Careers South West workers into YOT and regular meetings with
colleagues from education including home schooling.
Plymouth Corporate Parenting Operational Managers’ Group: monthly meeting that brings
together all partners and stakeholders within corporate parenting arena including the third
and private sector. Relevant discussions include housing protocol for 16/17 year olds and
provision of emergency accommodation for young people, including those detained in police
custody. The group reports into the Corporate Parenting Group which is chaired by the
Lead Member for Children and Young People.
Court User Groups: six monthly meeting to share information and good practice with the
sentencers of youth justice. The reduction in magistrates’ meetings has resulted in less
contact with the sentencers of youth matters but when challenged in the June user group, in
recognition of this, YOT were invited to deliver a training session to the Youth Panel in July
of this year around the engagement of young people, trauma informed practice and out of
court disposals. It was very successful.
Safer Plymouth Partnership Management Group: monthly meetings - Safer Plymouth is the
community safety partnership for Plymouth and brings together partners to ensure that
everyone who lives, works or visits Plymouth can do so in security and safety. It monitors
performance against the partnership plan and provides a forum for the exchange of relevant
information and intelligence about matters of concern.
The YOT produce quarterly reports for Safer which is attended by the Chair of the Youth
Justice Management Board.
Devon and Cornwall Strategic MAPPA Board: quarterly meetings to ensure that
arrangements to manage the risk posed by the most serious sexual and violent offenders are
adequate and fit for purpose. An audit of staff training was recently held and the YOT was
able to report that the seconded Probation Officer has delivered MAPPA training to all YOT
staff this year and has reviewed and revised the Service’s processes and procedures to ensure
we comply with all MAPPA protocols.
The YOT Manager continues to attend the South West YOT Managers’ Forum: quarterly
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meetings to bring together all south west YOT managers to enable information sharing, the
sharing of best practice and to hear from other relevant partners within the youth justice
arena, including the national Youth Justice Board.
Devon and Cornwall Youth Justice Forum: quarterly meeting to discuss operational youth
justice issues with peninsular partners and Devon & Cornwall Police.
Devon and Cornwall Youth Detention Review Meeting: quarterly meeting to discuss all
young people detained in police custody overnight.
OPCC’s Out of Court Disposals Scrutiny Panel: four monthly meeting bringing together
relevant stakeholders including Magistrates, CPS, Police, YOTs and OPCC to audit both adult
and youth out of court decisions across the peninsular.
Plymouth Channel Panel: monthly meeting of relevant partners to provide support for people
vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. The YOT Manager will attend when Children and
Young People are discussed.
The YOT Manager is also represented at the Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence Strategic
Group - monthly meetings and MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) Steering
Group: monthly meetings.
The YOT is also represented at the Missing and Child Exploitation (MACE) panel - fortnightly
meetings as described above.
5. Volunteers & Sessional Workers
Plymouth YOT currently has 12 volunteers and 2 sessional workers actively working for us.
The two main roles they undertake are Panel Member and Junior Attendance Workers.
Volunteers and YOT staff are invited to support meetings twice a year. The support meetings
are a combination of guest speakers, updates for specific roles, receiving young person
feedback and training exercises.
Last year in addition to support meetings there was also a new Panel Matters training event
panel members. Safeguarding training was delivered in the last year to all volunteers and
sessional workers with a particular focus on ‘county lines’. Volunteers and sessional workers
are also provided access to all the courses available to Plymouth Council staff.
Diversity remains a challenge for the YOT with all panel members currently identified as
white British. This will be addressed in the next recruitment drive and advice has be sought
from the Plymouth Racial Equality Council as to how to target the BAME groups within the
county.
6. Priorities for 2021 – 22
Whilst COVID 19 has curtailed the scope of the work we can undertake, Plymouth YOT will
continue our wider service redesign which involves the whole of Targeted Services Over the
next eighteen months Plymouth Youth Offending Team expects to:
6.1. Develop the service as a trauma informed organisation
We will review the service’s key activities and settings against trauma-informed organisational
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values. Over the last few years there has been increasing awareness of the need to take into
account young people’s traumatic experiences and their impact on development in designing
effective interventions to reduce re- offending and harm to others. Many of the young people
the YOT works with have experienced one or many traumatic experiences, such as
bereavement, witnessing domestic violence, experiencing abuse or neglect. We will
commission training for all practitioners and managers around trauma informed practice and
will set up a working group including staff from all teams including partner agencies, to ensure
there is staff buy-in and understanding. The working group will propose priorities for change,
see 1.2 of Appendix 2.
6.2. Embed the New National Standards Audit
These new standards identified different ways of working and targets for each YOT, to
benchmark themselves against these standards during the period from September 2019 to
March 2020, an audit of all 5 new standards was conducted. We have implemented a
development plan to address gaps we have identified which can be found in Appendix 2. We
are currently part of the Targeted Support Audit and Moderation panel that sits every 6
weeks where themes for improvement and plans for staff development can be agreed, 1.1 of
Appendix 2
6.3. Review the performance of the Appropriate Adults service
The Appropriate Adult Service is now commissioned to TAAS and this will be monitored and
reviewed quarterly to ensure best practice and compliance with the terms of reference, 1.7
of Appendix 2
6.4. Reduce the rate of First Time Entrants
The legislation states the Police have to consult the YOT if they wish to charge or issue a
Youth Conditional Caution, but, not a Youth Caution. As a result, the Devon and Cornwall
Youth Justice Forum is seeking approval from the Police Senior Management Team to request
the YOTs assess children and young people who they wish to issue a caution, rather than the
Police making a single agency decision to charge or offer a community resolution. We are
working closely with the Police Child Centred Policing Team (CCPT) and jointly assess all
Out Of Court Disposal Cases sent to the YOT. In addition, we have begun a resolution clinic
with the CCPT to offer support to all children, young people and their families who receive a
Youth Caution.
As a part of this work the Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board have all agreed to
progress the development and implementation of a multi-agency diversion scheme,
Currently, there is limited specific intervention in place to divert young people from crime in
Plymouth. This year, we will trial a point of arrest diversion strategy and the following
priorities will be implemented.
• A multi-agency data report should be created to identify young people at risk of
offending or exploitation, utilising a trauma-informed approach.
• Partnership working and service level agreements with Children’s Social Care,
Education, CAMHS, REACH, Sharp, YOT and the Police should be agreed.
• The governance, and co-ordination of referrals (including exit process) should be
agreed and linked to the South West Reducing Reoffending Board, PSCP and Safer
Plymouth.
• A referral process is to be created to ensure children, young people and their
families, once identified, are referred to the correct agency for early intervention.
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These referrals will be triaged with the intention of diverting some Children / Young
People from the Youth Justice System.
• A menu of interventions for children, young people and their families should be
created and resources identified to undertake these with measureable outcomes.
• Consideration for the Police to pilot a deferred caution scheme in Plymouth should
be considered.
It is recognised this will involve an increase in the number and scope of cases referred to
Youth Offending Team in terms of decision making, assessments and interventions.
Therefore, the Plymouth Youth Justice Management Board will consider releasing funds from
YOT pooled reserves to create additional diversion workers that would undertake both
direct work and group work with those young people at risk of entering the youth justice
system alongside partner agencies, 2.1 and 2.2 of Appendix 2
6.5. Continue to recruit and develop the volunteers for the Referral Panels and
Diversion Work to include mentoring
In June 2020, the YOT took over the responsibilities for the recruitment, training and
supervision of all Referral Order panel members. Since June 2020 we have recruited 12 new
volunteers and delivered training to all and are continuing to identify packages of training and
development to further enhance their knowledge and experience of youth offending and have
a plan to recruit a further 8 in the coming year, 2.3 of Appendix 2
6.6. Re-introduce the Junior Attendance Centre
Plymouth are grant funded to run an attendance centre as a requirement of a Youth
Rehabilitation Order. Whilst COVID 19 has prevented the operation of the attendance
centre for the majority of the previous year, the attendance centre will convene at the
earliest opportunity with the intention of achieving the following outcomes:
• Reductions in youth re-offending;
• Developing young people to enable them to gain knowledge and skills through which they
gain access to further education and improve employment opportunities;
• Improving young people’s life skills with a view to building their resilience and
independence, and equipping them with the confidence and self-discipline to resist
inappropriate influences and cease offending behaviour.
We have taken the opportunity to review the attendance centre program and, having
consulted with the Police and magistrates, we have developed a 6 week rolling program. We
also consulted with the young people who attend, at their suggestion, the attendance centre
has moved from a Saturday morning to Wednesdays at 4.30pm when the young people said
they would be better placed to attend, 3.4 of Appendix 2
6.7. Improve Quality assurance and Performance management Framework
Plymouth Youth Offending Team currently audit all new cases and 20% of all reviews
routinely. As part of the drive for improvement Plymouth Youth Offending Team will now be
implanting a Moderation process. This will ensure consistency of approach to case
management and assessment across the management team. The Moderation Panel will consist
of senior managers and board members, 1.1 of Appendix 2
6.8. Continued Workforce Development
Within Plymouth Youth Offending Team we aim to develop and maintain a high quality
workforce and to support professional development and opportunities for staff. The service
workforce development strategy is in line with the Youth Justice Professional Framework
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(YJPF) which provides an affordable route for unqualified practitioner staff to become
qualified within the service and the Plymouth Youth Justice Board will give consideration to
funding this qualification this year.
PYOT also has a rolling programme of core training for staff which includes level 1
safeguarding, young people and domestic violence and working with child to parent abuse.
The management team have agreed that ‘Prevent’ should also be added to this core training
offer. We offer continuous development to staff and this is provided either internally or by
utilising external providers.
This year we will concentrate on some training packages for all frontline staff across the
service. We will ensure our remaining/new workers undertake AIM3 training, all staff
members will receive risk management training and new members of staff will undertake the
Youth Justice Effective Practice course. There have also been opportunities for staff to access
restraint procedures training, communicate speech & language package, and a number of joint
training sessions with the other local YOTs on ASSETPlus for new staff.
Individual need is recognised throughout our one to one and appraisal processes and all staff
have access to a menu of training options through the PCC learning and development system,
1.2 and 4.1 of Appendix 2
6.9. Development of the Victim Work
In January 2020, Plymouth Youth Offending Team recruited a dedicated Victim Worker.
Having been in post for 12 months a review was conducted and identified areas of
improvement required including, recording, direct and indirect reparation and engagement
with partners in the city.
From the 1st April 2021 the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has funded one
full time worker in Plymouth with the Make Amends Project to work with victims of serious
and violent crime. It is proposed that the YOT Victim Worker will work alongside this
worker to improve outcomes for victims of crime. Regular reviews of this work will be
undertaken quarterly to ensure meaningful contact and engagement, 3.2 of Appendix 2
7. Contextual Evidence and Important Drivers for our work
Response to the Lammy Report:
The YOT Data Summary for April – June 2020 showed 5% of the current caseload are from a
BAME heritage. Within Plymouth as a whole and based on the last census carried out in
2011, people of a BAME heritage make up 3.8% of the community Currently, Plymouth City
Council estimate 6% of the population are of a BAME heritage. To ensure fairness in our
decision making, since November 2019 Plymouth operate a multiagency, Out of Court
Disposal (OOCD) panel which assess the suitability of all outcomes the Police have request
input from PYOT. The panel includes a community volunteer to ensure we reach a fair, well
informed multi-agency decision. To build upon this panel and in line with recommendation 19
of the Lammy report, a Plymouth Local Justice panel is to be established with the aim of
ensuring Magistrates review the progress of Referral Orders, Youth Rehabilitation Orders
and Detention and Training orders, 1.4 of Appendix 2
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Black British
Asian or
Black or
BAME
White
Mixed
Total
British
Other
Asian
Total 95% 2% 2% 1% 0% 5%
Population
YOT 93% 7% 0% 0% 0% 7%
Population
Custody 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Responding to the diverse needs of children and young people in contact with the YOT
requires innovation and thoughtfulness. Whilst the disproportionality above is noted it is hard
to compare ourselves with the overall population for 10-17 year olds due to the small
numbers of young people with a recorded BAME ethnicity. This is due to the fact that
percentage differences will be volatile due to the low numbers in the BAME cohort as a
proportion of the YOT population.
The YOT practice of not delivering ‘off the shelf’ interventions with young people but using
an individual, bespoke approach also enables wider diversity to be considered. No two young
people are the same and this approach enables that diversity to be recognised. Fast track
pathways for substance misuse, CAMHS, ASD and special educational support is also
evidence of the YOT response to the diverse needs of children and young people in contact
with our service.
Plymouth YOT evaluates its performance utilising ifs Quality Assurance framework, Audits,
emerging practice and feedback form service uses. As a result, we have created an
improvement plan for 2021 - 22 which will help us address our areas of work requiring
improvement, the plan can be found at Appendix B. The Plymouth Youth Justice Management
Board will be appraised of the progress of this plan at its quarterly meetings to ensuring we
remain a YOT keen to improve our service to young people, their families / carers and the
City of Plymouth.
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8. Resourcing and value for money
Funding for Plymouth YOT for 2020-22 is made up of contributions from statutory partners,
Children’s Services, Probation, NHS, Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office as well as the
annual Youth Justice Board, grant. The pooled budget is utilised to cover the cost of staffing,
training and expenses. This year, we will also be utilising our pooled budget to employ a
clinical psychologist to begin our enhanced case management approach to trauma with the
aim of reducing re-offending. We will also be utilising the budget to launch a Diversion
scheme with the aim of diverting Young People away from the criminal justice system to
reduce the number of First Time Entrants in Plymouth.
The YOT manager also oversees the local authority budget provided to meet the cost of
young people remanded to the secure estate. Probation, Police and NHS resources are
notionally allocated based on staff seconded to the service.
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Risks to future delivery
The budget for the year 2021 - 2022 has increased by 0.9%, therefore, we see no impending
risk to future delivery. Remand costs remain an area of risk as this is dependent on a number
of factors mainly outside the service’s control, including the nature and seriousness of the
offences committed where alternatives to custody may not be appropriate. Future costs
cannot be reliably forecast, although it should be noted custodial settings have increased their
daily charges for the year 2020-21.
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9. Key performance indicators
First Time Entrants (rate per 100,000 10-17 year old population)
First Time Entrants are young people who receive a youth caution or court conviction for the first time within the period. The data for this indicator
comes from the Police National Computer (PNC), is published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and forms part of the YJB’s YOT data summary. The data is
collected in rolling 12 month periods to March, July, September, and December of each year. Please note there was no data released for the period July 18
– June 19 due to updates to the PNC.
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Reoffending
Reoffending - Binary Rate
The binary reoffending rate shows the percentage of offenders identified in a 3 month cohort who go on to commit a further offence in the 12 month
period following their substantive outcome. The source of this data is the YJB quarterly data summary.
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Reoffending - Frequency Rate
The reoffending frequency rate calculates the average number of re-offenses committed by reoffenders in the cohort.
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Custodial Sentences
This indicator uses case level data from the Youth Justice Application Framework (historic data - YJMIS) and is the number of custodial sentences in the
period given to young people with a local residence aged under 18 years on the date of their first hearing related to the outcome. Successfully appealed
sentences are discounted. If a young person was given the same type of custodial sentence on the same day to be served concurrently or consecutively,
they will only be counted once. This data is also presented as a rate per 1,000 young people in the 10 to 17 local general population. The source of this
data is the YJB quarterly data summary.
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Education, Training and Employment
This indicator uses case level data from the Youth Justice Application Framework (historic data - YJMIS). The data is a count of the number of relevant
disposals (Referral Orders, Youth Rehabilitation Orders, and Detention and Training Orders) closing in the period, and number and proportion of these
disposals where the young person was in full-time ETE.
Case Level Data April – June 2020:
Orders In ETE but not full Not in ETE or ETE % yp Supervised in
In full time ETE
ending time status not known full time ETE
Plymouth 10 8 0 2 80%
South West 174 45 17 112 26%
National 2435 939 255 1241 39%
Accommodation
This indicator uses case level data from the Youth Justice Application Framework (historic data - YJMIS). The data is a count of all disposals closing in the
period, split into 3 groups (one for Referral Orders, one for YROs, and one for Detention and Training Orders). Data for each group is further split by
age: i.e. those young people aged 10-15 when the disposal closed, and those who were 16 or older. Youth Cautions are excluded.
Case Level Data April – June 2020:
Referral Orders and
Community Custody Total
Reparation Orders
%
Number Number Number Number with
Total % with Total % with Total % with Total
with with with with suita
disposals suitable disposals suitable disposals suitable disposals
suitable suitable suitable suitable ble
closed accom closed accom closed accom closed
accom accom accom accom acco
m
Plymouth 6 6 100% 4 4 100% 0 0 N/a 10 10 100%
South
West 105 57 54% 44 36 82% 10 5 50% 159 98 62%
National 1,524 1,097 72% 583 432 74% 313 231 74% 2,420 1,760 73%
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Offences resulting in a substantive outcome
Data supplied by Devon & Cornwall Police, Performance and Analysis Department.
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Appendix 1 COVID CONTINUTY PLAN
The COVID 19 pandemic has introduced new, un-envisaged ways of working and restrictions on the way we
work with children, young people and their families / carers. Plymouth YOT Offending Team have developed
the following contingency plan to ensure we can continue to support and monitor the young people we work
with.
Management cover
Under normal circumstances, the YOT Team Manager and the Practice Managers will continue to manage
the YOT on a daily basis. Given the exceptional circumstances of COVID 19, the Adolescent Support Team
will help cover YOT cases, therefore, their manager will also be offering managerial cover.
A manager will contact each individual member of the team daily between 9am – 10am to allocate tasks and
check staffs well-being until the COVID 19 restrictions end and we can return to office based practice.
Case Management
All case have now been graded Red (must have face to face contact), Amber (can reduce contact and offer
telephone contact), Green (seek early revocation when the courts are able to do so). All members of staff
who are able, will be expected to undertake home visits. The duty manager will allocate the visits daily.
Telephone contacts will be undertaken by members of staff working from home allocated by the duty
manager. If a member of staff is unable to complete an ASSET assessment in a timely manner, the duty
manager is to be informed to offer oversight and decide if this task needs to be completed.
We have established a list of all CYP and their families who have health vulnerabilities and a plan will be
established on how to work with these individuals.
The Adolescent Support Team (AST) will be offering additional support to the YOT during this period.
Should a member of AST visit a C/YP, an observation will be emailed to the case manager to be put on
Capita.
Home Visits
To reduce the number of CYP and their families coming to Midland House, home visits will be utilised. The
idea of the visit is to physically sight the C/YP. To protect staff members, please knock on the door or ring
the bell and step back approximately 2 meters from the door and inform the C/YP of the reason for the
visit. Then tell them you will be in calling them from your car to reduce the chance of spreading COVID 19.
Staff are to completed and send a COVID-19 Home Visit Risk Assessment Tool (Annex A) to their manager
prior to any home visit.
Courts
Currently, the courts are only sitting to hear remand cases, the Justice Secretary will allow this to continue
until all courts are able to undertake videolink hearings, and the current estimate for this is 15/05/20.
Plymouth court will remain closed for the foreseeable future with all of Devon's cases held in Exeter. Devon
YOT will undertake all post court hearings on our behalf from 28/04/20. Consideration has been given to
parents attending Police Stations for trials, this will be a local area decision dependent upon if the Police have
a suitable room to allow the parents to also attend whilst respecting social distancing.
Reparation and Group work
The duty manager will review the suitability of these tasks daily to decide if these interventions proceed. The
decision will be made dependant on staff availability and safety. At present, we will continue deliver projects
to C/YPs homes to allow them to undertake these tasks in their own homes.
Due to social distancing, group work will not be undertaken until the pandemic ends. However, C/YP will
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still be expected to undertake their programs and we will utilise WhatsApp to achieve this.
Referral Order Panels
We will continue to utilise Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp to undertake panels. Staff are to support C/YP
and their families to utilise this technology.
Out of Court Disposal Panels
We will continue to utilise Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp to undertake panels. Staff are to support C/YP
and their families to utilise this technology.
Assessments and Reports
All assessments are to be completed within usual timescales and expectations. All staff have access to IT
equipment to achieve this. If staff have any problems, this is to be reported to their line manager at the
earliest opportunity.
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Appendix 2 Youth Justice Development Plan
The Youth Justice Board Practice Guidance require all Youth Offending Teams to implement an improvement / development plan. The following
plan will be reviewed quarterly at the Youth Justice Management Board to ensure progress is timely.
Youth Justice Development Plan
Priority Actions Timeframe Lead Desired outcomes Evidence of improved
outcomes
1.1 Audit and Audit and moderation Apr-21 MA/IT Case file audits provide an invaluable 1. No of Audits undertaken
Moderation to programme is initiated with the perspective on front line practice. 2. Evidence of good practice
include the YOT, YJ audits are completed by Effective audits can provide insight 3. New training identified
implementation the PM within timescales and fed not into the quality of recording but
of the New back in supervision. Monthly also into the quality of work with the
National Moderation by the TM and SM child, the quality of management and
Standards will take place. A Quarterly support for the worker and,
Moderation panel chaired by the importantly, the views, experiences
HoS will look at 4 cases per and outcomes for the child.
quarter Moderation will ensure good practice
is shared and training required for
areas of improvement
Audit process is reviewed to Oct-21 MA/IT To assess the impact of the new Evidence from moderation
ensure it is robust and training model and implement any panels
needs are identified improvements to ensure the Young
People and their families we work
with receive the best possible service
to reduce their reoffending and
improve their welfare
1.2 Children A training and development Apr-21 IT/Prof Assessments for children and young Training completed , follow up
and Young package is identified that all staff Dev people are robust and holistic training for staff members who
People open to can access enabling appropriate interventions to missed the initial training
the Youth be identified that are child focused. booked for May 2021
Offending All staff receive trauma informed May-21 IT/Prof Children and young peoples lived Complete, staff are now aware
Team will training Dev experiences are well understood and of ACEs and how respond in a
receive a considered when making decisions compassionate way to Young
trauma about how to progress work around People
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