To review the priorities and strategic goals of the Youth Justice Board.  The report is a policy framework item so will be presented to Cabinet and then Full Council. 

Members are asked to refer to the report included in the Cabinet agenda 15^th December, 2021.

Tower Hamlets Council - Agenda for Cabinet on Wednesday, 15th December, 2021, 5.30 p.m.

The Committee received a report that outlined the priorities and strategic goals of the Youth Justice Board and as a committee we have an opportunity to review this plan and provide our comments and feedback.

For now, the key points for the Committee are:

v  Noted that Young People’s service has an ongoing internal auditing processes that are embedded within the services practice, although there are also a number of annual external audits which are commissioned with other local authorities as well as the (HMIP) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) which makes recommendations to identify and disseminate effective practice, challenge poor performance and encourage improvement.

v  Noted that with regard to Tower Hamlets restorative justice practice whilst the performance has been variable over the years the majority are young adults and not children under 18. In terms of the custody Tower Hamlets (i) has very few young people in custody and maintains a close working relationships with those institutions holding the young people; and (ii) maintains a critical eye on the practices in those settings to ensure that the young people are kept safe and that their offending and education are being addressed.

v  Was pleased to note whilst the report stated that reoffending rate was 41% in report there has been a positive trajectory and currently the rate is between 34% to 35% and this was not was not unexpected and it is anticipated this trend will continue.  Accordingly the Committee asked to receive an update on these figures so as to monitor progress.

v  Expressed concern that Black, Asian and minority ethnic young people receive  harsher sentences and noted that the action plan is designed to target each partner agency.  Although the multi-agency panels tasked to scrutinise decisions held in March 2020 and March 2021 had agreed with all but 1 of the decisions that had been made, suggesting that generally the right decisions as a service in terms appropriate disposal have been made.

v  However, agreed that attention needs to be considered to the disproportionate representation of black young people in the criminal justice system and welcomed the ongoing work being done to address.

v  Welcomed (i) the regular dialogue and early engagement with statutory partners including voluntary sector and young people through a series of workshops with the purpose of developing the vision and strategy for this plan; (ii) that First Time Entrants (key performance indicator) continues to decrease and recent data suggests this has been the lowest in the last three years; (iii) that the service continues to track and monitor the Boroughs young people in custody and whilst holding a critical eye, maintain a healthy relationship with the custodial establishments; and (iv) the preparations being undertaken for the Youth Justice Service Inspections (expected in early 2022) including setting outcomes to measure the effectiveness of the Youth Justice Board.

As a result of discussions on the report, the Chair (i) thanked all those Committee Members in attendance together with Councillor Asma Begum (Statutory Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Children, Youth Services, Education & Equalities); James Thomas (Corporate Director for Children & Culture) and Billy Finnegan (Acting Head of Youth Justice & Young People’s service) who had provided an overview of the Annual Youth Justice Plan. (ii) indicated that it had been useful for the Committee to get a sense of the travel of direction and the report itself had outlined some of the progress that has been made, some of the key challenges and priorities going forward..

Accordingly, the Committee having reviewed the report on the Annual Youth Justice Plan 2021-22 (i) welcomed the service’s partnership approach to developing the plan for 2021-2022; and (ii) would be submitting a report to Cabinet on this item which would incorporate the Committees comments and feedback for consideration.  These are outlined below:

1.    Resolved to support the priority around restorative justice and has asked for further details on number of children and young people benefiting from this approach as part of their rehabilitation process.

2.    Expressed concerned on the report’s conclusion about the ethnic disproportionality in remand and sentencing in youth justice system thus highlighting a number of inequalities for particular groups.

3.    Recommended that addressing disproportionality should be reflected in the vision of the plan given the significant inequalities that exist.