View the Agenda and reports for Children, Young People & Skills Scrutiny Review Board on Derby City Council Democracy Portal: https://democracy.derby.gov.uk/Meetingscalendar/tabid/73/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/410/Meeting/10173/Committee/2003/Default.aspx
Hello everyone and welcome to um today’s um children and young people’s scy board meeting we have quite a night agenda today but very important one as we are um talking with the youth allow Alliance and youth services today um before we begin I would like to go around and everyone just introduce
Themselves and um let us know about where they’re coming from so everyone knows who everyone is hey can I yeah I’m councelor SE Wright and I’m um the ward counselor for arboring Ward um so in terms of my background I’m a professor I’m an academic and I actually focus on
ISU to do with so that’s my background I’m councelor Kathy um and I’m the war counselor for Tron West Sak BL counc counc Matthew I’m the AR Deon of Derby City in southin the church I’m Andrew I’m head of specialist Services hi I’m Tracy Harrison I’m CEO
Of a safe and sound but I’m here today representing other um organizations within the youth Alliance which is a collaboration of organizations that work together to support young people Steve F I’m the Council of First alberon South I’m Tracy Churchill I’m the head teacher s Joseph school and the Catholic
School I’m har I am the to youth man I’m here to represent young people hi I’m you can call me and I’m the youth may act as a youth representative young people councelor L I’m chair of this board and um yeah and my background is
I’ve been a youth worker for 20 years so yeah um Okay so we’ve had apologies from Council Andy Smith not um but okay um I don’t have any late items to introduce do we have any Declarations of interest on tonight CH if I could just declare I’m also
Director of Dar YMCA okay I think that’s very relevant and that’s really good to have you here um minutes from the previous board’s meeting you 11 of the 12th 23 are there any changes or um comments on the on the minutes uh um are we happy to accept
These minutes as a true and accurate representation of our need yeah everyone yeah brilliant okay well I will hand over to you from um for the Youth Alliance okay um thank you everybody um I’m taking it everybody’s had access to read the reports not going to go through
It in huge detail um I hope it gives you um an overview of the work we’ve been doing but for those that haven’t been involved or don’t previously know of the youth lines I thought I’d just touch base on um where it is and and um you
Know what we’ve been doing so the youth line started before covid and basically it was organizations in the city who work with young people um getting together to work better together collaborate together and give a better support for young people in the city and to Hope hopefully give them more of a
Voice and I think the last three years coming out of covid we’ve had um more activity and um it’s grown and grown in terms of what we’ve been able to deliver so you know I’m just going to give some highlights for me of of where we are so
We very much focus on the young person as an individual and we do a number number of organizations do onetoone support for young people across the city um and then we do family support um and that’s looking at the whole family where there’s an issue within the family um
That involves young people as well and then we do Place based risk um referrals and that’s where there might be an issue at alveston or sfin or chadon wherever and and and the the place Bas RIS will come in to say Can you look at this as a
Place and it’s very much supporting the contextual safeguarding and place-based risk element that you can’t look at one of them in isolation you have to look at them collectively together so we get referrals for young people families and place from schools offending social care um Derby homes other community groups
Other Charities so they come into Community Action who are the Vanguard for um the youth Alliance and they basically look at who’s the best organization to support that young person that family or do the work in that place or who’s already doing work in that place and do we need to contact
Them or add to it so so that’s the referral base that that comes in um and we might be a safe and sound organization supporting a young person with onet toone support but they’re interested in football so it’s never in isolation so we might be doing the onet
Toone support and we might direct them to Derby County Community Trust for for sport or we might baby people for music or Derby theater so it’s that’s the the the beauty of it that we will work together to make sure we’re looking at that holistically what’s the city like
And all of the majority 80% of the organizations have got a youth voice element where they’ve got Young Person’s group person’s voice so often we’ll um we’ll um get them to get young people together to get their voice or we’ll be asked to ask them something on behalf we just
Done a survey um a few months ago on serious violence and what young people felt about that we’ve certainly worked with the um youth Council and young people’s around this year a fantastic project and I’ve got to commend you on the white ribbon video was tremendous um on actually violence against women and
Girls and and you know for us that’s in essence what the youth Alliance is working together so that’s the onetoone support Family Support um um and place support but then we do projects as well so we’ve done projects really important where we’ve identified an issue or another organizations identifying an
Issue and we’ll work together to resolve that so for example transition from year six to 7 is a nightmare for some children so we’ve worked with some schools it’s the second year we’ve done it where we’ve schools have identified a small number of people and we’ve seen that through that Journey with onetoone
Support with family support with activities in the school and then working with the new school to see how they received Etc small numbers um we did it as a pilot last year um which is covered in the report and then we we’ve just done it again and we’ve already
Planning because I think we’ve learned that we have to plan earlier to try and do that and looking at those children um specifically this year we’re looking at some of the children we send and the you know the extra support they might need another project which YMCA I know we’ve
Got um director here um was they led a project around into employment so some funding was obtained and some work around how to um we look at those neat risks to actually get people into in into employment um so different projects we do we either see an issue ourselves
And say how can we work together or we might have another agency come to us or and say there’s this problem can you help us with it um and that’s in essence what we do um it’s grown over the last three years our funding comes from um
Big lottery um Derby homes other housing associations sometimes Project work from youth offending or social care or whoever we’ve had money previously from the pcc’s office um so it’s not one fund and it’s not one OIP it’s a a collaboration a collective um and we we’re always trying to look at what
Funds are externally as well so that in essence is what we’re about um strategic you know we we we want to our vision we want a city where young people have the best opportunity ities they have a voice and we support them in the best way that in essence is what
We’re what we’re about the Strategic group’s got a real mix of organizations from those that work across the city in different areas and different specialisms but wider than that there’s a cyp group um which is about 80 organizations which is mostly organizations work with two people they
Meet by monthly um so they’re part of the The Wider youth Alliance as well so there’s there’s different projects different funding but it is literally open to any Young Person’s group um that you know that work in the city um and that in essence is what we do I’m not
Going to go through lots of figures because I could sit here and say we’ve done this and we’ve done that you’ve had the report it was just really to give you the reassurance that the voluntary sector work together support place-based risk work with Partners wherever wherever possible um to help young
People primarily aged teenage years but we work with as young as8 nine on referrals and and trans position year 10 um age 101 for the the year six project um right up to 18 or 25 with special needs or leaving care that’s is that is that okay start
That’s a great start um yes yes thank you very much this unfortunately I’ve only seen in black on L so it may be that a lot of the details and uh I have to say um there’s an impressive range of activities here and I think um it’s encouraging to know
That there are there is provision a raft of provision available for our young people in the city um a few observations really um I was looking at the um the front page of your um survey and your evaluation and I have a black and white
Copy so I may not have a full idea the representation here but uh the picture here for young people I would have expected something that’s a little bit more representative of our new um demographics in the city so there’s that because you want to answer each bit wait
No yeah yeah if you just wait yeah you oh course the younger people who can come in for finesse um questions and observation so there’s that um about the front page and and what that is saying um there’s also the page two where you list the areas of
Priorities um the priority areas rather um once again quite encouraging um I just felt that what was missing from that priority which I suppose is indicative of how youth provision is being um delivered in the city which seems to me is almost left to the voluntary sector which is deeply
Worrying is the aheading of resources I think that ought to be aheading because it it seems it is a service that is grossly grossly under resource resourced within the city so I would like resources to be had added to this if possible when you do your review and probably resource stroke infrastructure
Because I think there are issues about the infrastructure there’s also the membership uh and growth uh the next page I think it be page four uh I just wonder whether you could say when you respond how the the list of strategic Partners were determined and who’s missing I represent
Ariran Ward which is one of the most diverse WS in the city I would say that 30% of our young people are from black and ethic minority groups at the same time over 50% of our young people children poverty in my ward um so once
Again for me as a ward counselor I think there are some uh key players strategic players that are probably missing in this list um and then these are just observations where you look at uh local information uh I suppose this observation is is synergistic with the presentation we’re going to have on you
Justice there you highlight that Derby has a high uh the percentage of young people involved in crime has increased um and it’s one of the highest that’s what I’m picking up here and I suppose the question is why why is that the case and on that same page uh
Pictures again I think we should be very very careful about pictures um I think it’s probably insensitive to have a black manale in that picture as a thug on crime so once again that’s not particularly endearing uh in terms of groups and people um page five these are just observation
As I said once again as I said about aruan W that I represent um lots of the young people who are congregated within the city center do come from our war because it’s no youth provision and support in that Ward uh which is quite disturbing
Um I think I will leave it there there are others which I can refer to in due course but I’ll be interested in hear what other of the racist you’re concerned about representation within the within the report and with within the groups yes are is the group are the groups
Themselves representative of the makeup of our city is that ano summary of your question and what were the thought processes behind the selection of pictures okay so so in terms of um the the front picture we we use many pictures I mean I’ve not produced this
So I’m not talking the heart but what I’m saying this is a group activity at Allenton by enthusiasm who did a project and sent a picture in and we focused on it so um you know I absolutely note your observation um but I think it wasn’t anything other than we’ve tried to
Capture different things which have been pled from from my knowledge um in terms of what the priority areas are um the youth Alliance we are a group a collective of voluntary sector so I I take on board your thoughts about resources this isn’t a statutory provision or a statutary
Governance or we’re not open to the scrutiny per se of something that we’re providing for you so I I would argue if if you don’t mind me that it’s that it’s up to us to set our priorities and up to us to say where we’re going to focus on
But I do take note that from your observation resourcing in infrastructure is an issue for the city for young people um but for us we lead it we we we take note of what everybody says but I think it’s down to us as a organization a collective to decide what our
Priorities are so but I do note what you’re saying can I say if um councilor writes um yeah take note of that it’s a really good thing to take note of because if we can see that there’s an area where that’s lacking in resource it might help with applications to getting
Budget for resources to go into a certain area so it’s not just a a poking holes it’s a this is something to in a positive way yeah no no I totally understand that and I’ll come on to the representation but I was saying in terms of listing it as a priority area that’s
Not for me to say take away from this meeting so I’m going to come on to representation but what I’m saying is it’s not something I’m going to take back and say I can reassure you that we’re going to put resources in infrastructuring next time because
That’s not for me to do it could be a discussion Point absolutely absolutely it’s not a critique absolutely um in terms of membership and growth so um the when when it first started it it bore out another youth group meeting and the Strategic members there were
Five to start with and then as the or as the um Alliance has grown we’ve looked to include and ensure there is representation as it’s grown so in terms of what you talk about you know um Community one work in Arboretum Children First are based in arborium Derby County
Community Trust work in arborium just as an example we work in Arboretum um safe and sound sporting communities work in on Arboretum umbrella was the Gap this last year that we saw there was a gap that albeit we had knowledge and understanding of send I know the other
Ones what is umbrella what yeah I was just going to talk they umbrella um are an organization that’s been in the city over 30 years supporting children and young adults with disability um and they weren’t a member before and we almost because it was developing we’re all we
Developed don’t we and I was a trustee for 16 years umbrella so I’m almost was half representing them and would feed as well but but we identified that was an issue we didn’t have enough bearing in mind nearly a third of certainly a third from sa sounds perspective a children we
Support of got special education needs or disability we felt it was worth there were a wider member but there weren’t on the Strategic group so they joined and so each year um we discussed the representation and the membership and if anybody wants to move from the streeted
Group if we’ve had any interest to join the Strategic group um and it’s it’s reviewed on that basis I actually feel we’ we got a good representation and a year ago we did identify that despite the representation there was disproportionality with how many young people from arberit we were supporting
Through the mentor Etc so we’ve done something about it so when you see next year’s report the the um the statistics that show we have supported more individuals in because we identified that ourselves um so from April from the this the year we’re in now we’ve definitely the stats SP supporting um P
Of Sam mes for example has gone up because we actually identified that Gap and focused on it um but I I think we’ve got representation of organizations that work across the city The Wider environment what what we try and do is improve the quality of provision for um
Youth youth services in the city so if if people want to be part of the youth Alliance we ask around their safeguarding we ask around their compliance and if they hadn’t got something we help them with it so there’s a real part of it that we want
Those 80 organizations that come to the cyp group to be part of what we do you know look at funding if they’re doing a project but also can we upskill them can we do training for example we did training about place-based risk so all the organizations know what that is
They’ve had safeguarding training across the board so we try and have the training element to broaden the provision um if there’s any suggestions from this group of anybody that you feel would be um useful to have as a member and they’re not in Ed then I’d be absolutely happy to make a direct
Approach and and make sure they know about it but likewise we invite people to be members but we it’s not something we can say we need you to be it’s Choice isn’t it it’s a volunte I think we’re quite I think we’re quite well could you
Consider some of the uh youth groups of Pakistani origin to come on board and also the Derby West Indian association they are they are it’s just any they are they um I can I can tell you because I’ve just seen um do F yeah but it’s
It’s growing isn’t it you know this is the third this is the third report and you know we’re eight months on from that but I definitely know they are because I’ve been involved with them this last couple of months um so that’s in terms of the representation in in in regards to page
Four around the crime statistics I don’t think it’s for me to quote on what they are why they are it’s set in the context of what we did so I think somebody else is probably better place to answer that than I am but I think we include that
Because we we set the theme with what what are the statistics but also what are our young people telling us and that gives us the picture to feed in to what we need to focus on at that time um I do take your point about the vot at the
Bottom I I absolutely you know think that could have been um a a um I I I didn’t put it together but I will take that feedback um and look at need to be a physical person in that photograph at all you know because they it’s obviously
Stage so could they have use cartoon or something yeah I mean often they’ll use stock photographs W and and I mean certainly from sa and sound we never put our children in a photo in a photo you won’t ever see our children in it some organizations where it’s a Youth
Organization like enthusiasm are happy too if they’ve got the relevant consent so we try and do a mix I think of those that are happy to have the photographs um included um and those that you know for whatever reason don’t en you but I’ll take that back a very fair
Observation yeah can I just say to Tracy Harrison that this is not a critique of of the you’re doing fantastic doing this it’s not it’s just observation and and I take it as absolutely take it as yeah um thank you um so my bit that I picked up on more than anything was
Around like your young people’s engagement themselves um so you guys obviously have incredibly difficult job because not only are you trying to reach out to young people um in many cases you’re try to out to some people who don’t always want to reach back to you
Um so the report talks about a number of ways that engagement is carried out um I noted that in the spond an example and there was an event at school then a survey then a walk um so all of that is like really brilliant obviously and but
There’s one crucial line in there which says that these young people were happy to engage with staff I think back to when I was at school I would have wanted to give feedback in the type of ways that were described but I can also think
Of a number of people in my class who may have not wanted to give that feedback um and in many ways it’s those young people who we need to get who we need to hear from as a board as a youth Alliance um or your partners need to
Hear from them um so it’s when we do get them involved it’s them that normally need that extra help and that extra support um and not just to stay involved with it but to get actively involved on a regular basis um there can be a lot of reasons behind this maybe even like
Social anxiety maybe they’re worried about answers what they might give maybe not trusting that person who’s asking those questions um maybe just not even being interested um there’s not a one siiz spit all reason but I imagine that some of these young people um who are
Involved um they might be in those type of crowns listed on that page for um they might not be willing to engage with things like this as well um so I just wondered if you could outline a bit more about what’s being done to ensure that
We hear from not just hear from those who are happy to engage but also those who are reluctant to give views on things so so um the organizations actually you know I think the success of the Alliance getting some of that youth voices they’re working with children who
Might not be in mainstream school they might not fill in the survey um so a lot of it is from the organization so so if we’re asked for example say we’re asked tomorrow from this group to do if we’ll do a survey on um youth violence um we
Will um as a youth Alliance um send it to all the organizations we we we’re involved with and ask them to do it internally with their own organization their own people that might be one to one that might be a survey that might be an app we’ve used the um barcode app not
That modern what’s it called um the one that’s the one we’ve used that so so whatever means but I think because of the spread of the volume of our organizations I think we get more representation for those that perhaps would would be in that category you talking about alongside when we’re on
Outreach you know we we’ll take phones and and the QR code out where we get more of the you know the The Wider of young people who perhaps aren’t involved in our services so I think there’s a mixture of both there’s Outreach out in the community there’s working schools
Definitely we always when we’re working with schools um look at um getting their voice and then the specifics in the group so from a um safe and sound perspective we have a youth voice group if we asked anything anything we get them together and there might there
Might be six there might be 15 and we ask them not only for their views but actually how we could get it better so we try and involve them in the mechanics of how to do it and and I know certainly YMCA and baby people approach it in a
Different way they try they do it as part of their workshops rather than do it separately they’re try and involve it in what they’re doing so I think we’ve all got slightly different approaches according to the young people we’re working with I guess but we can always
Get better I don’t think I don’t think we were we could we could be and want to be with with young people’s voice it takes time doesn’t it to build that trust it’s not something that suddenly we’ve got a QR code so we you know we
We’ll get them to do that so I think that’s probably an era we can get better at if I’m honest just excuse me I just like to ask you a um because I think you do a wonderful job the whole encompassment everything J but do you think that um you’re picking
Up the slack of what a lot of parents should be doing in the first place a lack of I’ve written here help encouragement support um because it’s just somebody I know doesn’t live in dery um and because he’s getting no support whatsoever from his parents um it can’t be bothered I don’t
I don’t suppose that there’s a group like this where it comes from but there’s an awful lot of parents that they have children and they’ve grown out in nap is they really don’t take a great deal responsibility I think life for our children young people is extremely hard
I would want to be a young person growing up now with with all of the challenges that there are I think it’s tough um in Derby fought with deprivation with poverty with um life expectancy with um you know the the there’s almost the gap of poverty has
Got wider from those that have and those that haven’t so so I think there are challenges for young people and there are challenges for families and that why that’s why we do the family work because some of the families um may not be doing the best job but they’re doing the best
They can in the circumstances and it’s for us to collectively see how we can because if we can help the families um we can then help the children and I’ll use an example that I had to persuade my board when I wanted to buy a cooker and
A dining room table for a family and my bought but are we are we really stretching it you we’re an exploitation charity and I but if they’ve got a cooker the eat and if they’ve got a table they can sit together and they won’t be on the street and we have to
Look outside the box to think it’s tough for young people and how can we collectively um so so I’m not going to say that parents don’t do a good job there will be some parents who lack skills lack perhaps motivation and and understanding but I think life is tough
For young people and families uh and I don’t think that’s not a path I would want to to to suggest because I think we’re um we we need to be positive and and help them rather than perhaps say they’re not doing what we expect them to
Do and and I think every family every single family is different every single family has got a different need I guess can I make a chair yes of course you make yeah just to what Trace is saying as well depends sometimes on parents own experience parenting as well so for
Those kind of children families that end up in systems I work in Trace and I collaborate really closely a number of projects um but children could come the Justice Services or children’s sexual care or our early topic the early Health Service sometimes those parents the way they’ve
Been parented it’s been a kind of cycle over several generations of just not being shown how to parent and that sounds kind of kind of flipping but actually some of the very Basics around consistency emotional warmth sound this and then added to that some of those parents would have face abuses or
Deprivations or privations of ways or experiences which further impacts so mental health L of depression the number of kind of parents that were work anxiety or mental health substance of issues are kind of factors or a combination of those kind of really impact on people’s motivation to give
Consistent parenting you know we’ve got a lot of families that don’t you know experience the same upbringings that probably we’ve enjoyed or been privileged to enjoy so it is a kind of big factor in some of those kind of as well yes it’s the whole it didn’t hurt
Me attitude but actually it did hurt you and it’s affecting your children which we need to break those cyles which you guys I’m sure are doing um one small you said about um if we got any ideas of um somebody you could approach um Matthew is on the YMCA
And I think Rolls-Royce G them quite a bit of support they don’t know if Roo be because out in the community I gather the back quite a lot of community things so I don’t know say be worse I say Matthew would probably even know the person think we probably already got that supporter
Alliance um but yeah but but thank you for saying because I’d rather you say than not so yeah yes the question how do you allocate the right help like which way do you allocate the young people that need help depending on the areas do you meain do it for the teachers um so
When we’ve got quite um um an involved application form referral form and within that um we we ask more around the young person as well as the issues so it might be we ask what hobbies there are so if there and and and depending what
The need of the need is and the risk is so it might be that they’re they’re looking at mentoring and they they like drama or theater and so so they we go to D Derby theater um if it might be that they need the high high level mentoring
Which tends to be safe and sound um but they’re interested in music so we might work with baby people so it’s a very individual there’s not a stop that we don’t score them or anything like that they’re very very focused on the individual referral that is coming and
Who is best placed to support them and we don’t always get it right so it might be that we feel that that might be the appropriate service and for whatever reason um that doesn’t work or the wrist goes up or something changes um so it’s fairly fluid but Community Action
Receive all of the referrals and then they will they will initially say who P based they’ll probably ring the referral if they’ve got any doubt to say we’re thinking of this for the young person what do you think and you know that might change the conversation so very
Bespoke to each one I think um according to what their need is but because we get quite a lot of information about what they like and don’t like and what they’re what they’re perhaps looking for because it’s by consent you know the we the the referrals um aren’t done to the
Young person it’s normally with the young person and the family support or the school support so we tend to get information about what they what they want or as well as what they need so I think that STS the the application funds um I had a question regarding the
Funding first of all how secure is the funding right now and then uh in the long term as well and if there are any plans in the future to expand the services of the youth lines so funding’s not great in terms of we live year by year um because I think
It’s very um we’ve all also got our own funding to do so you know we were all yeah trying to secure our own funding and then we F fund the the long stayer is Derby homes um you know they’re in their fourth year of funding us um most
Of the big ler were in our second year of three um but apart from that we literally on a yearly basis are trying to see what what money there is and we do we we do some joint bids um some more significant we’ve applied for Youth and
Down fund which is a huge one which would secure us for five years but unfortunately you know we’ve not got through to the final stage so it it’s definitely a challenge um and we definitely have to keep on it um collectively um but we you know we we’ve
Managed and we we have grown over the three years slightly but we’re not we’re not significantly funded and and and sustainability is only as good as where we are now if I’m honest and and yes um I think having I think what we we’ve got
A lot of organizations in I think if we got more funding we’d like to be able to do more with what we’ve got so expansion would be expansion of services rather than groups because I think you know a lot have access um so I I think we’d
Like to be able to say that you did this project um last year and actually without you even saying you know we we want to put the money there and for for next year or three years to some some of those because some of the organizations involved compliance really are a small
Community group and you know small bit of funding makes a big difference for them so so definitely um we’d like to do more of that okay any other questions from okay yeah go for just interested on page six uh where the um 113 referrals are not are noted and you’ve got
Breakdowns by postcode ethnicity age Etc um I’m just wondering those referrals if I’ve understood the the U lines correctly um do you have the statistics on where they’ve been sign posted to so I be particularly interested to have the sense of um where there’s yeah indeed
Okay um and I obviously haven’t got that no um yeah who I think that would that would be a big a big job to fit in this but I think statistic wise on who yeah how many how many safe and sound it would you want where they
Did it as well not necessarily because I think we can scrutinize I would imagine the work of individual organizations part of the alliance but that just sense of through flow from what you describe as a comprehensive SCI basting tool I’m just interested in where that ends up Landing yeah definitely I’ll take that
Backk um okay so I have a few questions as well yeah sorry it’s fine it’s good real gr it’s a very interesting subject and we’re all really passionate about the young people of this city and we want to care you know we want to make sure that we get all the
Information yeah agree um um you you mention um obviously you built around the principles of voluntary participation um H but you talk a lot about referrals in how much of the service is available for somebody to just walk in and off the street um do
They have to be referred or can a young person who is lonely access you Club in the city is that um well not I know they can but just you know thinking about not every some people fall through the gaps are not seen by people who might be referring in how do
We reach those young people and are they be is there any sort of aim to Target those and we’ve had two um self- referrals from young people where they obviously haven’t filled in a form about themselves they’ve contacted one of the organizations and Michelle who’s the coordinator to the use Alliance and I
Think we would um we we assessed that as to what that need was and certainly for one of them it wasn’t actually um then needed um more mental health support then and and what we’re really clear in the youthi is that we’re not Mental Health Specialists so it was the
Wrong support so we absolutely open to and I think this last year um we’ve finally got our website um which we have again it’s building bricks isn’t it we’ve got a website and I think we’re trying to raise awareness more with young people to be able to access that
Um and there is a contact us on that so I don’t think we publicly and again it might be something we we we do um look at we don’t we we do say you can call us but we don’t say you can refer yourself or anything and so that might could be
Something we look at but um we tend to even in our own individual organizations I don’t think many of us get young people walking in saying can I refer myself if I’m honest um and and well they wouldn’t use that language no no no no I know they wouldn’t but I’m
Surprising what I just don’t think they would I think some reach out and contact us um and do online chat and and you know we definitely and friends on our Reach people will tell us about a friend and refer a friend we we’ve definitely had that where you know we do the
Awareness we talk about what we do collectively and then somebody say I’m worried about my friends and we we you know we contact them through the friend so um we don’t have an open door I mean all organizations might have an open door certainly sa Town don’t have an
Open door um because we’re sting a mill at darly Abby Mills at the moment um and it’s just not accessible for young person well it they can but they can come a knock at the door but it just doesn’t happen for other organizations like um sporting communities um on the
Park um are absolutely more likely to get somebody you know baby people in the city center so so I think um there is it’s limited I suppose I’m not answering very well is Li definitely there and the exciting news I would like to bring from a safe and sound
Perspective is we’ve been trying to find our forever home for Safe and Sound in the city center because the surveys all tell us young people people want a base in the city center and we’ve been really working at it so we can have our base and offices there and the ground floor
For use by us and the youth Alliance and it’s fair to say we’ve had an offer accepted property in the city center and we’re just going through legal and we might have our forever home which we’re very very excited about and that then would definitely opportune open
Opportunity to have an open door where a young person in the city center who you know at the moment we speak on Outreach and they all there’s nowhere for us to go we that is what we’re looking to do if we if the purchase goes through in
March and we’ve got Renovations it we’d like my board tell me it’ll be open January next year I said it be open September this year and we’ve got some negotiations in between but it’ll be hopefully it’ll be open this year and that is the the biggest risk for me is
Not having a base in the city center for young people um because for where whatever Ward they come from and I think that that would be a really exciting time for us because it would be safe and sound but it would be a real big opening for
The Youth aliance to use it so I’m quite excited about that I saved my my excitement to the end brilliant yeah I just want question I think you’ve answered it to ask it anyway what is there for young people who don’t currently present issues because obviously a lot of what you are doing
Here is about providing provision for those who need support of one kind or another but there are also young people yeah I so I think don’t have youth clubs well I think I think yeah I think the universal offer which is I think what is is a lot of those 80 where there
Might be a wrestling club in chadon or there might be self-defense in spondon or there might be um the youth club enthusiasm at Allenton I think in community centers there are those but they’re not everywhere and they’re not perhaps where they’re needed most uh and
I think part of what um we we’re doing we’ve been doing and it’s really hard to do if I’m honest is to try and find out what is happening on what night where by who so we can almost have that directory of what’s happening to try and you know
Have that that wider approach it’s really hard because it changes on a weekly basis but Michelle is working really hard to try and get a map to say this is where there is and then that will hopefully because there’s things going there’s happening that you know I
I don’t know about you you don’t know about and little Community groups doing some work is the less youth provision than there was three five years ago yeah of course there is yeah that that’s fact isn’t it that’s that’s the situation we’re in but I think so I think that’s
Perhaps where the youth Alliance has not stepped into replace but try and make sure what we do have we make the best of I think so we’re going for Quality we hope um I had another question and it’s gone the thing that has come up at this
Board time and time and time again is that um yeah we are not with um sign posting is not happening that there are children who are falling through S the cracks which should have been plugged with youth work of various degrees um and then ending up in the system for you
Know that they could have gotten help earlier on with services like what you are providing for so many how can we get better at sign posting to you so that those children are being helped how can they those children who are who are being missed and ending up further down the system
Get better um outcomes basically I think the most Ideal World is the prevention world so that actually if we’re out there in communities engaging with young people and supporting them anyway before they come to anybody’s notice I think that that’s got to be our primary aim our secondary aim is that
Earlier intervention the early we get that referral um the more the more likely we have that sometimes when you know when when it is at that higher risk level it’s really difficult if I use County Alliance as an example when they get to that high level it’s really
Really difficult to get them out so how do we I think you’re asking H how do we get more of that early intervention I think by things like tonight by by networking by working together by talking about what’s happening and trying when we do identify in the gaps
Trying to fill them the best we can um so you know I from your perspective from a scrutiny perspective if I sat in your shoes I would probably want to understand first of all what the picture is which we you know we’re trying to do but actually do you actually know what
Is where I think that would be my starting point if I sat in your shoes can can we have a true picture of what is in your ward your ward your you know what is the picture what is happening uh and and that’s pretty much where we
Identified some of the gaps which we’ve done this year around some work in arum to be honest because the stats told us we weren’t supporting enough young people in that area so so I think you need to see the picture in the city and what’s there and what and then you know
What isn’t there and then get people around the table to say how do we fill those gaps I guess CH how how might we do that mapping because that’s basically what you’re suggesting that’s some sort of a mapping exercise what’s the scope for such mapping exercise I think Michelle Community
Action the commun the coordinator youth Alliance is on a journey doing that and I think once we’ve done it from a youth aliance I think the next steps would perhaps be to be able to bring it to a wider audience to statutory agencies to to see not just yourselves but you know
Police and health Etc to see um what they could impart on it and then having probably a workshop with representant of of statutary and voluntary to then say this is what we think we’ve got what do we need to do then I think so I think
The mapping has started well I know I think it has started we we’re doing that but as I say it’s a movable um picture but but if we say right we’ll do it on this day and we know might Chang but this is what we’ve got at this moment in
Time and this month in February 2024 this is who we’ve got and what they’re doing um and then statut look at what they’re doing in those areas and then collectively have a bit of a workshop together to see where where the gaps are or and that
Will either you know it might offer some reassurance it might give some more observations and alarm bells to say actually um we need to do more of that and finally CH what’s the scope for policy what’s scope of policy what’s the ideal in terms of policy what you mean
In terms of Youth provision in this country clearly it doesn’t have that statutory focus and perhaps that’s what we need yeah no no no it doesn’t and and you know we for me we we need we need um a strategy that caters for all young yes absolutely not just those that come to
Our attention we need a policy that has got prevention and early intervention at the heart of everything we do and it’s got to be joined up um in and so many people still it’s still in isolation so that’s my starter for three what do I know you know a
Lot you gave an example ear saying for example a friend could have for a friend they’re worried about um just a big question because the way that young people will be looking information about the youth Alliance will be through social media so I was just wondering if
That social media is possibly managed by some young people as well so they know what’s appealing the generation now so that they know that this is not just an adult thing yes we we did a group with with um the the silk Mill um didn’t we around how do we best commun Comm
Unicate and social media and Tik Tok Etc came up um so so again that has been acknowledged and that’s been worked on as the best ways because certainly I’m not the best person to um communicate on Tik Tok or Whatsapp or any of them what’s the other one Snapchat and
Actually we need to manage that the best way because they are the ones that create for me the greatest risk for our work Snapchat and Tik Tok and some of the gaming platforms are the mo the biggest challenge for us as an organizer ation supporting um Online safety um so
We need to do it carefully and I’d rather um not not rush into that and get it right then then then do it slightly wrong but every you know every time something goes out so as an example um safe and sound um we we’re featured by the the the local television station
Just two weeks ago we had six parents R within 24 hours um so yes what I’m what that Echoes to me is if people know there’s a service they might want the help but if they don’t know they don’t know where to go so I I definitely think
The communication side is is still still got some way to go you mostly get referrals right so do you is there a certain amount of people that you reach out to on your own as well you find out about um no not directly because I think we we
Have enough referrals and I think we we’d have to be able to me meet that increased demand I guess if we if we went proactively I mean if we know there’s an issue so if we know so one of the transition works for year six to
Seven we actually went to the school and said can we do this because we knew there was an issue with children from that school not transitioning well so we will proactive definitely for projects but we haven’t for referrals because we haven’t been missing we’ve had enough
Referrals to be able to deal with and I think that’s probably why I’m not saying we couldn’t or shouldn’t but I think we we yeah we’ve got quite a lot already so um but definitely for project we we are if an issue a particular W or areas I spondon definitely we it yourself
Spondon spondon definitely there was some issues raised and we went to say what can we do so we we didn’t necessarily wait for um a referral on that are we everyone El still their questions they’ like to ask okay um so what should we do so um obviously we’ll note your report
And um i’ quite like to make some recommendations based on what you’ve been saying tonight um to go to Cabinet um fellow counselors can you help me I would like to recommend that we ask cabinet to look at the work shop I did had across our agencies and I would also like to
Recommend I would also like to recommend that we send this report out to all the councilors with a explanatory note as to why we’re sending it so that they are aware of what is available all and who they if they come across organizations within their Woods or within their
Wheelhouses um that they can take look here’s the youth Alliance absolutely yeah um so how do we word this is it sorry sorry for interrupting is it is there something before the workshop yes absolutely the mapping I think it was the mapping so I think that recommendation is that we’re asking so
We want a community audit an audit and we would assist with that which was the technical I was taught at University mapping what the terms changed I was trained 20 years ago so it’s mapping now um so how do we how do we phrase that to go
To cabinet so it actually does all all officers can we yeah what what we would you like our assistance the alliance we’re going to send a recommendation to support the allowance their mapping exercise and potential future workshops across agencies within the council and Beyond yeah yes yeah that sound like where putting it
Youth youth Prof yeah okay yeah anything you want to add to this and yeah and and the sending send and recommend sending out your report to to counselors to counselor toward counsel because I think it’s really important that everyone is aware actually I think this is a very I really
Appreciate the work you do um the you know the youth service in the council has been what is it two youth workers you’ve got in the council you for for the council itself um and the fact you know but having being a youth worker in the voluntary SE
SE for many many years I also know that you are on the ground and you really know what is is important and it’s so valuable what you do um you know and the fact that you’ve been there so long means that the real fruit of your work
Will be showing now so this is brilliant I think the only if I if I could feed something but the only thing I I would I would say if there’s any influences where where there is funding opportunities yes um I would ask that and and I know commissioning has to take
Some statutary and there are rules in it but um what we find frustrating is where um funding might go to announce an organization that isn’t based in the city hasn’t got the knowledge in the city and my plea would be Go Local if it’s not local then go elsewhere but
There are some fantastic organizations right across the city the youth Alliance first if you need a service not necessarily youth Alliance because I don’t want to say we’re the be all and end all there’s lot of organizations but local local res absolutely and then if it’s not there go elsewhere whereas
Often it is open for any organization um to you know to bid and they might might be a large organization where they’ve got a nice glossy um brochure and they’ve got but they don’t know our city and they might perform better because they’ve got a funding bid writer um compared to a community
Organiz ation that hasn’t got lots of experience in bid writing but they’re at the Grassroots and at the heart suppose you could talk about the efficacy of supporting resourcing and added value yeah and added value that actually fish absolutely and local local knowledge is in back yes in in especially in you but
Often that’s not in a scoring Matrix yeah so um yeah so should we put as a recommendation as well that we um that the cabinet consider to go to local um providers providers within within the city before they tender out to the city it’s out of the
City not out to the city out of out with the city yeah sure she’ll come up with yeah Lindsay will sort me out it’s okay L’s got my back so thank you that’s um I Heard thank you much sorry copy your I have a copy of your
Yes the one in col is that the only no I’ve written all over it I’ll ti do store you oh dear oh don’t worry you can yeah no you can I’m just I’m just in the documents that’s no but I I mean printed I printed an A3 so I could read it because
My no I’ve only made the notes of what you what You’ said so read your notes then hey councelor councelor like to request an A3 col thank you so you keep your notes to your not okay um you thank you so much are you you are welcome to stay for the
Rest of the meeting if you want to um our next is the youth justice so you might want Andrew you’re happy to go go forward yes excellent so without much further ado questions so terms of the make of service service these Services when they came
Around in 90s on the back and lots of kind of public outcries after the bul murder things like that and what the government and the number of agencies s quite weak system which were just kind of like junks to Children social care services back in the 80s and early 90s
So the crime disorder acting 1998 by 2000 we had more statutary multi agency youth thems in every in England and Wales and they’re made up of representatives from children social care services Education Health relation we’ve got those services in house in Derby and every youth offending team or
Youth just to service now same Partners spons their service the key role is preventing offending re offending by children and young people s aim um the work of the services around assessing children young people prevented it and diversion risk area and those children that got in trouble been arrested and
Been charged the court so we have a pre-t postc court area so some stat legal work so better um we also work in courts so the magistrates and Crown courts so when children have been charged Court we have court officer manager team supp children in court always Advocate children and
Kind use Justice and last year we changed our name from a youth fending service to a youth Justice service to try and encapsulate the direction we’re going both nationally and locally around working children young people to try make sure that we we Justice in all that we do so that we’re not just
Criminalizing children people we’re supporting an advocating we’re Bing on their strength but we also help them protect public by trying to manage risk you justice board and all the latest literature research says the best way of trying to reduce offending behavior manag and reduce risk is to build on the
Strength of children young people very much strength based Model D me our children social care services which is Justice’s part and we’ve got to kind of say for the city as well around kind and try to build strength and the youth Justice board which provides a lot lot
Of fun the youth Justice team and also holds us to account for our performance um they have a CH what they call CH first set of principles and Visions which is about seeing children’s children first offender second in the Mantra is about actually should be in school you know good parent good
Friendship networks St un you social interaction activities the these are all things if we’re building on they’re naturally reducing risks when this system came about in the early 0s late ‘ 90s it’s very system to a number of kind of incidents in the media moral outs panics and moral
Outbreaks around Killers lots of Joy Riders gangs all those types of things very much focused on criminogenic risk You Know M Arrangement starts and police antisocial Behavior orders and the system will kind of move from a overly welfare and kind of not quite responsive enough to almost to Draconian to
Policing of children people that’s the kind of context in background and that’s why we changed our name to news so in the supportting information um I’ve got some of our kind of key functioning leadership we have um some board Arrangements called a use justce partnership board a statut requirement
And that’s made up of all the statutary partners of these Justice Service Plus other members they meet on a quarterly basis and what the board will do is scrutinize our performance our finances our quality assurance but they’re also there to try and offer Challenge and support so not it’s not just that
Actually first time entrance or you vending data it’s about actually can we do anything to support we agenda and there is a kind of responsibility and an accountability for those board members to actually drive the agenda in the city so Trace has been to board and reti
Consent on the youth Alliance the PE of clim commission comes despite not being a strat partner our community safety teams here we also part of that because they deal on some Community cohesion so it is quite a diverse um set of kind of membership that we have as part of our
Board arrangements and somebody is around trying to unblock or give some funding to try and look at what the needs of the children are and what we can do for that so one example I’ve got is the police and cl commissioner with some much to buy in some speech and language
Therapists because what the research says that what read somewhere between 65 85% of children come into the justice system speech langage and communication difficulties when you meet our children young see that it’s quite obvious it’s got high level of additional needs for children that come into our system often they come inen
Schools needs picked up because actually some of the behaviors really quite challenging for some some of our young people we deal with some quite High situations and it’s very difficult to manage some of those children young people so some of those needs go on noticed because they’re have exclusions
Time tables parents that don’t always come knock on your door and say actually my ad parent in a consistent way sometimes it’s how can make Mass generalizations but these research say people so anyway we got the money in from the police commissioner we mat funded it ourselves we’ve got a team of
Three and speeching language there share with the county they all of our documents and say to us you’re actually going to do some work with a young person based on that no you need to change it because your young people aren’t going to understand that you’re
Not going to get the best outcom that work so we’re changing our interactions based on that and actually using those speing language therapist some of my other services residential to kind speak around when you’re engaging and working with young people the way you said that or how you say that is actually provoked
Reaction an netive reaction maybe if you kind of tried this s of communication you get a better kind of response to that so we are trying to use some of those kind of services um in a kind of really multi- agency way because children use justce service and 50% of
Them are known to Children social care or our targeted early health services so it kind of shows the kind of needs to that group children um in terms of Staff resources we’ got a management team myself as a head of service but I’m shared across several of the teams so children care
Disabled children um B care leers residential children’s homes I’ve got those responsibilities as well but I do have a principal service manager that operationally leads at T two and a half service managers and an analyst and the analyst role is to send back returns to the E Justice board on our eformance
Indicators which will come to lat later but also I asking to do deine reports on a number of thematic things also to help us understand on an annual basis what the needs of our children are so he’ll do something called a strategic intelligence assessment every April first two weeks
He’s got his head down crunching the numbers of all the children that been into our service in terms of age gender demographics language needs is it accommodation is it mental health it speech and language what has our offending rate been only previous 12 months was it worse than
12 month B more that what are kind of most consistent themes around defending behaviors we then take that and it for informs our annual youth Justice plan which again is a statutory requirement our conditions of Grant depend on submitting that the timely way good quality it also kind of sets out what
We’re going to try and do with our children with people in the fourth coming year so that’s our analy and that’s kind of syth he does we have 4.8 fulltime quent social workers um um so you know this kind of service was adj to social care historically and they
Are responsible for managing the court ERS promly so higher risk children children create more high risk situations so those that might be risk of UST to community orders C where some our alternatively do with those children that haven’t been to call and also so service Court as well
So the right Court reports present them to the courts cover bank holidays and weekend courts there supposed by a probation offender manager not name we choose but that’s part of the adult system then that person’s role is around supporting our older children when they transition into pration service which is
A very different one and they’re treated very differently so what we’re try to do with pration is make sure that there’s a smoother transition so one day the not is kind of put on your strengths you know we’ll kind of what you saying and then next week when you to probation service it’s
You tell State you got warning letter you know want to kind of probation to be working in kind of slightly more young person focused way when they Mak that transition they don’t or the manager do some that work and then we’ll kind us transition across to pration service for that group of
Children young people we’ve got two full-time equivalent youth Justice workers who manage our pre- court cases so those children that have been diverted from the police station not going to cord need some intervention and support they will deliver coordinate that work and then in terms of partnership
Staff we’ve got a range um we’ve got criminal justice Le on diversion team they’re based in the police custody CES and their role is trying to pick up those children that coming through that might have some additional needs so when some of those behaviors they spot in the
Custody Suite they’ll kind of interview people do an assessment send it up to our health Team and service here to the council house and we’ll kind of make sure we’re assessing children’s needs it’s on the right Health pathway we have a cams officer so those children with emotional mental health
Challenges are refer to Cam’s officer we have a a halftime clinical psychologist and that’s now been made a permanent role we lobby at the integrated care board that is around training staff it’s around doing intervention with a small group of children that are kind of most challenged trying to get a trauma
Informed approach so stand they have those childood experiences children and then how to work with them in informed way questions to ask kind of degree of understanding what types of interventions we need to do with those children got speech and language that I spoke about earlier then that’s balanced
Up with kind of other roles we got two halftime police officers um that make one full what we call full time equipment and their role is around intelligence gathering so they go out to the tasking meetings understand what’s going on in our city go to the child risk exploitation
Meetings Tracy talking about people in places earlier well it’s us know some of those places risky places is River Gard one bar is it somewhere else who the people in places are concern and that informs our social workers our Justice workers assessments of risk for our children so when saying been hanging
Around here or you know I know this been person we can kind of start to kind conversations with doing some direct work to people they might be facing get them to develop their controls around them um we have a halftime education officer and she work with uh schools
Especially those children that are on part-time timetables go to secondary bement panel where we discuss children who are been excluded or at risk of exclusion might having some managed move we trying to kind of make sure that our children’s needs are kind of discussed at that meeting
We linking in with schools to try and increase the part-time time table because one of the key things children tell us is when things start to really escalate in terms of offending Behavior it’s when they’re out of school that’s when they need kind of peer groups that are involved in offending Behavior
That’s when risk increases that’s when we don’t know where they are so we’re trying to do quite a bit of work with schools around that and part of ouren work moment Trac mentioned earli around trying to Target earlier children earlier our service is in is our Junior schools um who are feeders to
Secondaries with higher exclusion rates so we’ve got a commission service called remedy direct work our secondary schools particularly try to Target those the high resolution or children high enous in part-time Tim tables once we’ll go t school for some direct Works some of those children um we also have full prevention
Officers which just call the youth Justice prevention officers and they are funded again joint between ourselves and the local authorities theice 2025 they’ve been with nor years it’s been year on Year from oncc those RS and they are collocated our help teams social care and locality teams 2 four and then will receive
Referrals from our vulnerable children’s meeting it could be schools Health the user groups could refer can come from anywhere and they will do time limiting pieces Ted work Children and Families um around those children’s needs behaviors based on a kind of thorough assessment so the same principles as children that
Are charged to cord apply to our prevention and diversion children and we’ve also increased our partnership work with the police so our staff will now go down to the police station do the triage and the assessments any child where there could be decision made by the police at the
Police station it now goes through something called prevention diversion Clinic so we try to avoid the numbers of children that are charged court because they then become what’s called first time entering we measured up that what the research what you Justus is born what we know locally from our own
Research and I deep GL reports is that when children given high high tariff Community orders or custody that reoffending risks actually increase so if we can use prevention and diers intervention that been shown locally to be more effective avoiding defending that something is born out by National
Research as well so the police rro that um our first time entrance figure had been historically quite High compared to other local authorities simple demographics to Derby we actually starting to move that down a little bit um in a slow sure way what’s a challenge
For us at the moment in Darby is the children charged with motoring offenses to court um the last quarter thir eight out of the 13 of charged children were Mot defenses these AR highend drug driv drink driv defenses usually STS car taking that 8% no license no insurance
Yeah risky if they go to PO what often happens is fines kind of license kind of indorsed and they don’t get any intervention so they have punishment they don’t get the education and actually risk of doing it again are not really affected in any positive way what
We’re trying to do is say to the police CR consecution so this to court if we can put a program together do you be happy to offer an out of court disposal to child we’ll deal with the intervention they’ll get the education they won’t get the punishment both of
Which increases their kind of probability of actually not doing that kind of same act again please CPS are on board and we’ve got a kind of draft program written already so we’re hoping by April the new Financial year will ready to go and those children come to
Our clinic and can offer them then out to court disposal reduce our first time entering and actually give those children a bit of an education program have not been getting the approach has been taken so far um in addition to our early Health we’ve also got something called a
Turnaround program which received some funding from Ministry of Justice 2022 um for a program for two and a half years and again it’s for early heal so children that are at police station that Poli investigation or the Deferred prosecutions and it offers early help intervention for wider number of
Children so we we’ve appointed two and a half children’s practitioners within that team again Bas in our early Help Services because that’s what research has works really well prevention early help assessments deliver direct work have hold down the time approach and we’re hoping that that funding will continue after April 25 from central
Government but we’ve got no kind of indication one way of the other so we’re about to go into our final Financial year on that um and if we don’t get that funding we’re going to have to work out locally how we kind of replicate some of that work which is a challenge because
We need nearly 300,000 mostly kind go um we have a responsibility and statute duty to with a victim code of practice um so that’s around delivery and what called restive Justice and that’s repairing the harm caused by events from kind New Zealand Mary culture Heritage where kind of community
Get together and kind of work out when some harmed or wrong has been done how we going to kind of prare that harm use that kind of community approach and around viting participation so we commissioned something called remedy some of you might have heard of and they facilitate reparation activity so some
Children people go out and do work for good causes and it’s also some the children young people them a chance to do some social interaction some experience it’s almost experience for them as well and we do that for nearly all of our community sentences we also have a full-time
Victim leaon officer who works with um victims of crimes and we have a 100% rate of making contact with all victims of our crime so really successful service with remedy um quite often those victims don’t always take the opportunity to direct what call mediation ration between the victim and The Young
Person’s committed the behaviors um but if they don’t what they will do is they say we have to do this as call go out and do their Community reparation in terms of performance I’ve kind of touched on this already we have 13 key performance indicators three have been long-standing historical indicators
So our first time entrance that’s actually the number of children coming to the E justice system um reoffending so the number of children committed on our books that have committed a re offense and number of re offenses they committed and then the number of children that have been sentenced to a custodial
Sentence there’s been 10 new indicators very recently brought in by the youth Justice board for all youth Justice Services across the country and these are a bit more qualitative in their kind of nature so it’s things like our children living suitable accommodation are they where they’ve got an assessed
Need receiving mental health treatment and support same for substance misuse and then there’s others that the number of children to services so just targeted early help whether our kind of stary board membership is kind of 100% um and at the minute we’ve just submitted our first return on that and
The E Justice board and I said all local authorities are working on the data glitches before they’ll publish the public data so it’s more of a discussion point to take to boards to kind of open the discussion around actually access to Mental Health treatment for children people in this city isn’t great so
Health Partners what can we do about that what are we going to do to fre he what are the issues so it is more for that challenge to Partners to drive the kind of the partnership the youth Justice agenda um as I said first performance is kind of improving slowly our reoffending
Historically has been really strong and remains so um so our kind of good relational Social Work practice where we kind of um really engage with children young people got quite High rate of contact to our children young people they like to see our social workers because actually they get to know them
They build on strengths they try and get them things that engage them work in a learning style that is suitable to that young person and it’s not all about actually if you don’t come we’re going to breach you we we’ve lost all of that kind of punishment retributive type language we
Are language and it’s improve engagement so yeah it’s worked in terms of our reoffending rates which are really positive custody can fluctuate um it depends very much what’s happening in the city and post lockdown when we first opened back up we did see a number of really serious
Events people the city and people from the city going out committing really serious offense and talking H side level um thankfully in the past of 12 and 18 months we’ve seen that number of serious of penses really down um both in Derby for young people and outside of the city
So our kind of reality of what people say about serious violence what our two reporting the media sometimes different because they can be a kind of panic about live crime that serious evenses but we see severity kind of reduced out slightly in the city and involving our
Young people of late and that’s born out by our secure man figures so when children have committed a really serious offense certain criteria have met the legal requirements children can be securely remanded to a secure Training Center institution we have to pay for that as well it comes from our budget uh
And then the last 12 months we’ve been significantly UND spent because the time spent remanded of children abanded is significant reduced from the year previous so that’s positive that we’ve seen in the city don’t get it wrong still some serious events committed and they usually serious groups harm serious wounding
Usually very serious Assa B weapons children people um in terms of our quality assurance so the qualitative things we are inspected by his Majesty’s probation there’s different types of inspection so some of it might be thematic and we had one of those last year in June thematic inspection around B demand practice so
Children appear record are the B to community or from land to custody or to local Authority accommodation there was a joint inspection in b um and they were looking at at what our practice was we were doing all we could to make sure that children wen’t securely remanded say options and what
They said um was that there’s a really strong interface social care defending service no tensions really good co-working we had a specialist what we call Independent reviewing offic for children so an independent reviewing officer is somebody who has AOL looked after children to scrutinize and make
Sure their care plans are being aded to they’re being kept safe when they’re living in care we’ve got a role in Darby which was specifically made appropriate to those children who are remanded so that we should apply the social care standards and look after standards to those children sentenced to custody or
Commanded into custody really like that sort is best practice nationally as well uh and said that there’s good relationships with def defense list in the city which they didn’t experience in other areas so it’s it wasn’t a judged inspection it was just a narrative that led to a national report but this some
Recommendations which were already starting to realize in Derby and our last full inspection judged inspection was in 2018 I’ve just come into this role actually we rate it good um we’re expecting a new inspection round in early 2025 a new regime framework and they’re just Consulting on
That now and we fed back on that HMI appear looking at making it more risk based so those with the poorer outcome in this inspection probably T first alongside some which are Trailblazers so I’m not quite sure where we’ll kind of sit in terms of do because we’re good
And we just scrap it last time we think with strength significant since last time so they Hing for stronger at least in our next inspection so the managers and the staff all the time um SE requirements we also as I mentioned earlier have to submit an
Annual youth Justice plan it is a huge document youth Justice board provide us with a range of things that we have to include in the plan that will be around our governance it’ll be around our operational Arrangements key performance indicators what we’ve achieved in last year’s plan not quite got to development
Plan Workforce Development and what we’re doing around that participation and voice of children and young people so we have submited on time if we don’t your commission granty Grant can can be withheld we’ve always submitted in a tly way and we have received positive feedback about the quality and depth of
Our plans and D so never had Grant spended or kind of reduced as a result of that mentioned earlier about additional needs for our children young people so any one time between one and5 and a quarter of our children young people opening the service have an education
Health care plan so some you probably heard about feeds spent to combine those Education Health and Social needs F those additional needs and the last time we looked we thought around 40% R part of What’s called the graduated approach in schools so additional needs but not the threshold needing education
He you can see the kind of level of need a group of children and young people and so what we’ve done in this service is try to kind of bring in more Health Resources around this children young people so criminal justice lers and diversion speeching language the camps
Clinical Psychology are all part of health so every childing person can be Tried by that group professionals they can then consult with the staff to kind of inform what how to deliver that work orer on to different Pathways neurodiversity whatever it might be or actually de deliver some of that word
Directly themselves so good health Arrangements servoss Wells about those kind of arrangements to try and learn from that always all we can do in what to add a physical health resource to that because some of our children people actually don’t don’t GPS Ms and dads
Don’t take to GPS it’s s of those kind of needs that go by and only get treated an adult but you know it’s too late by um we’ve also got other kind of really good partnership Arrangements in place so for our looks after children we’ve got something called a cord and
Agreement across Darby where all services look to avoid unnecessary criminalization of children in care recognizing their unique experience first childhood experiences TR has been part of the gr place since 2018 along with our residential homes and range of Partners to have an action plan in place and a
Pledge to try and avoid that anization look what we can do to spot our children’s homes and Foster Care is to avoid that support them when children’s Behavior more challenging and we’ve also worked in combination with Partners in children social care or Workforce toam Dev things like a sexual harmful sexual behavior
Pathway so that we make assessments children where that behavior can be a challenge to make sure there’s good risk management but also children are stigmatized which kind of dve these things on the ground increase the risk of it happening again and then participation we do try and engage our children young people in
A range of participation um this year is Young people’s voices informed by an’s Justice plan so we sent out surveys surveys we included young people back in that methods for reparation AR children young people inform that so what they like to do what they found boring what would work for
Children young people in the future our referral order panels are run so that they’re not so stigmatizing for children young people engage um better in that and then when we rebranded the service we also sent out these are the options to children with people get the options they’ve P back we’ve also recently
Changed our kind of Icon so we had a kind of iography the youth defending service we now changed it we did not competition for remedy so children that were doing reparation did all their kind of icons said them we did a big vote children people all sou big vote chose a favorite
That’s going to be our new icon which we just launched um two weeks ago email children your people services so and we’re wanting to increase that as well so we did some quite discreet pieces of participation so we just surveyed uh gr majority children trying to understand what their experiences at
Our service and also partner Services impact on their lives Heth what they’re saying about those services so we’ve got the turn that to a report try and learn what that voice is telling us can do differently we also turn that back to partners because we’re part of a disproportionated subgroup as part of
The criminal justice board subgroup working with c help Community safety other to look at what we can do to try and address some the disproportionality we see in some parts of the Criminal Justice System uh finance and value for money we’ve got a combined set of funding arrangements so the local Authority
Provide some of that funding the youth Justice board a significant amount through the youth Justice Grant and the ministry of Justice also with things like the turnaround program and for secure demands partner agencies also contribute that is cash but mainly in kind so Fender management probation our health
Staff placing resources so you can see it’s quite a mixed bag multi- agency multidisciplinary multifunding Arrangements which are great it’s actually trying track through when funding starts and ends so that we don’t kind of lose that funding long the term so that’s a bit of a Whistle Stop
Tour use just for service um so yeah I can take question it was was a lot of information thank you so much okay thank you for that oh right okay yes thank you for your rather comprehensive um presentation on uh the service um I do welcome the fact that uh the the re
Branding of the service um denotes the change of narrative in terms of young people and children rather than than them being seen as a moral Panic for society and more case of how Society impacts and creates the situation that you’ve just described that we have our young people entering
Into these types of behavior and display the types of behavior and acting out as you described I I think it would have been perhaps interesting to extend your uh rebranding to youth Justice and rights service to Accord with the United Nation the rights of the child but even
So I I really do like the direction that you’re taking for um in seeing our young people who are caught up in this situation as victims in many instances I’m particularly wanting to focus on the um schooling and particularly the exclusion permanent exclusion of children uh from
Our schools and the right to an education and how that institution can act as a pipeline into criminal into criminality um and I just want to hear from you how you work with schools if you can work with schools I mean just in as side it’s interesting that the faith schools
Particular the Catholic schools secondary ones are particularly good at minimizing School exclusion and disruption problems in school so clearly there’s good practice in some areas of school so I just wondered particularly about it exclusion and how that then manifest itself in young people but to use a term here the
Devil will find work for and so to speak um and also what he said here about the attempts to um avoid the stigmatization of young people who are brought up in care and I just wondered why there is that stigmatization why is there such a perception that if you’re in care you
Are likely to automatically be uh vulnerable to criminality so those two areas for please School exclusion pipeline many uh adults who are in the criminal justice system will tell you that they would have been excluded from school had a very difficult story I think what we’re trying to do is trying to reach
That group of children will be even Secondary School think it’s probably too late stage so we’re in for of those feeder schools mentioned early to try and identify which of those children need just a general piece of intervention piece of group work that kind of be enough to kind of you know
Put off kind of or kind of make them aware give the education that can make more informed decisions and which of those children within those Junior schools do we need to do some direct targeted work with and what are the needs and I said earlier about trying to
Apply some of those uh services to children that come into the court system to those in the prevention diversion space so our Health Resources so is it speech and language is it kind of M pychology and trying to understand and then kind of support the for those two
To get the right services at the earliest possible point because some of those sometimes those young people behav in rules are a symptom of an unmet need and you know if that kind of unmet need isn’t picked up isn’t identified we can have a real tricky situation further on down the
Line we’ve also just recently gone to the secondary steering and I’m going to the primary Steering group in March it’s around engaging the heads in that kind of discussion around we’re here got a huge resour got four prevention workers to Diversion workers but we’ve got e Alliance we’ve got kind of children’s
Targeted early help social care to just make schools aware again and keep the relationship alive around what what we see in our system and it is sometimes a symptom of 12 13 14 year olds coming in with leads of me and school period and trying to kind of say we’re
Here to work in Partnership these are our services what can we do better how can reach out more the schools have not toch particular we’ve used the data to kind of identify where we do have of exclusion my time time kind of Challenge and have a really good relationship the
Alternative so mik is kind of respect with schools a number of our children on 10 people refer unit and actually what we started to see is the attendance black group children to approve so we have a good relationship there and it isn’t always going to be possible for
That group of children to go back into mainstream school because actually they they just wouldn’t be able to manage that kind of mainstream environment because we probably got there too linked so it’s trying to identify at the early as possible before got a situation where actually people feel is the only option
For that child but the thing is about being inspirational not giving up because actually there’s lots of AR children people that going to you great things we had a group three weeks ago had a partnership board in January and invited three of our young people back
And one of the young people has just started working she’s going to Paris a few weeks with firm she’s a fiveyear plan for a career it was fantastic just to kind of see that Char 24 unit is involved in a really really serious City Center incident W really seriously
Harmed about two years ago and see her in there to where she was so we didn’t give up strength social work give up on her so it’s about you know even if it’s p un We Won’t Give Up will be strengths there as can I just come in there there
There is a challenge with parttime time there is a challenge with on parttime Tim taes where they might be on a timetable where they go in an hour a day and the child will actually say it’s not worth me getting out of bed and and it
Actually adds to the issue and there is been doing some work but I just want to highlight it there is an issue with certain with Children at Risk of criminal exploitation where because of the risk or or because behavior issues or because of the need not being met
They’re they’re not in mainstream school and they can’t find their preious SCH that there are a number and it’s it’s our biggest challenge parttime timetables and children on one hour it’s just can’t be right yeah attracting all those children we know every child in our service in a part-time Tim table
There was a plan around or assistant around six weekly reviews between the schools and local Authority which is Fallen away bit it does need to be resurrected so we kind of we’ve moved forward I’m just saying that it’s probably the biggest challenge from my perspective within the organizations but you’re
Right it’s been identified and I think not going to not going to change overnight is it but that that’s the biggest challenge for me around that can’t oh don’t worry don’t worry it was about stigmatizing children in care young people in care it just can I ask a
Related question I’m sorry sorry I’m head of you um everyone ask want question um so when children are exploded and through undiagnosed my diversity of any description they are going to be falling behind in school what provision is happening to make sure the children okay you’ve got a part-time
Time table they’re they’re only there for an hour they’re falling behind which makes it even harder to be able to sit back in a classroom and listen to a teacher who’s talking about something you absolutely that’s going to trigger behavioral issues I know from personal experience as well that I’ve seen it
Happen um with young people I’ve worked with in the past what what provision are you in place to to help the children keep up and make sure they’re not being dumped back in a not that you’d everever dump a child that’s the wrong word but go back into an environment where
They’re just it’s just alien to them um it’s the responsibility of the schools okay just te pick up the symptoms of this we pick up do prstic work work people forious but ultimately this is kind of school’s responsibility but we will challenge the school back with our education officer our education
Teams challenge try to make sure the education arrang the right ones that children child one person but ultimately it’s school’s responsibility so it is about partnership work and relationships to kind of say child that say that probably ultimately does come back to because we are ultimately responsible for all the children and the
Local authorities It ultimately does come back to us as a responsibility but anyway the 1944 Education Act still leaves a responsibility not necess um thank you J um I had a question about speech and language therapist in particular do they work with a certain age group because it is
Evident that after a certain like critical period is much more difficult to work with young people in regard speech and language and if they do work with older students would it would what sorts of provision would be in place to support them he just diservice work with
Children from the age of eight in the prevention been you can’t be cried CT till the age of 10 so it is kind generally the older cohort children people and the speech and language is mainly an advice consultative resources we Ed to engage people how we are engaging them kind of communication Styles
So usually that kind children okay um was there a councelor down here I know you did but I know there was okay um technology I think I can get there um so I’m interested in three things um I’d be fascinated to hear Tracy’s take on part-time time tables from practitioners
Of perspective um that’s not put you unfairly on the spot um I’m also fascinated um by um the strategies you use you reference the two fulltime you justice workers and I was interested in in almost their what interventions do they employ um uh to try and have impact um let me just sorry
Tracy parttime timetables are a bit of a Sticky Wicket because they it depends can vary school on school the policy that has been in operation in Derby City is relatively new as policies go um but you’re right the review of that timeline has slipped away we tend not to have
Children on part-time timetables apart from the very youngest children and I am not unique in saying this you you could talk to any primary school at a minute then the needs that we are facing as primary schools coming into the mainstream I have never seen after 30 years in education I have never
Seen it as it is now so the challenges are there I think for all organizations and I think your organization my goodness would be lost without you but for part-time timetables the key thing is with you it’s not designed as something that is supposed to go on endlessly otherwise you do have young
People that are thrown back into a situation that has just moved on past them so it is designed as a as a shortterm interim issue it is or support mechanism if you like but it is not designed to be a long-term plan that just goes on forever because nobody
Knows what to do with that your person that’s my understand absolutely is that they don’t know what to do that that’s absolutely the most Reas technology being kind to me again can I just res sumarize so there’s two questions I wondered if you might comment on the nature of the youth
Justice workers interventions what approaches they take with the young people they’re working with and the second point was a really specific question you mentioned that uh remand into custody rates are down um and that prompted a reflection in my head about um where young people on the city are
Remanded to and how they’re enabled to stay part of positive meaningful networks where that’s not all networks are helpful they’re in the most UNH helpful Network yes that time it depends on on the age of a human person so if you’re under the age of 15 or more vulnerable you place this called
Secure Training Center which is like cross between a young Defender institution and Children’s Home institution there’s only one in that’s commissioned at the moment been reduced and that’s down our local young Defender institution is at warington which is just outside Stone content so 40 million
Drive but what we do is we take parents on visits we there’s a grand get families as well to go and visit people in custody so we recognize the importance of parents staying connected children um it is such a kind of hostile really difficult environment because you got so many young
People who behs the most risky in St cont dery and kind of you know staffer Al together so it’s a really really difficult environment I think the key thing is keep with family good resettlement plans and the youth Justice board is really interested in resettling some accommodation how we keep LS with
Family back into education as well so we’ll try and do things like release on tempor license um which is where come out for day go see some accomodation got home challenge go back to school for a day interview or college or whatever might be one person came to our day
Couple weeks ago we’d gone out to do a barbering course in Stafford to won so took out Dro Barber Shop the baring decided it was wasn’t but again the chance to actually do something try he wanted to do and is part of that Rehabilitation process really interventions wise it depends on
Um the type of offense the person might committed might do some Community project might do some knif crime interventions so that might done by the police officer it might be done by a specialist program remedy deliver work is education risks consequences just got some VR headsets
So we’re going to be doing some V our work around serious use violence SE of scenarios and kind of using I’ve not put it on got no idea after to these one of our practitioners is trained in it she knows what to do one of the other things
That we do and this is sounds very simple but actually a lot of the most of our clients are n out of 10 has official statistics and we’ve got two what we call Therapeutic mentors one’s the next police officer comp traces one’s the next youth worker Paul and they will takeing people fishing
Basketball Outdoor Pursuits which lots of all males really like the fishing they’ll go out sit the fishing casting out the do fishing do and having conversation with young people that go back have conversation with psychologist say that thing just advice guidance steer and it’s therapeutic in the sense
Of they get time with the mail because often that’s not or if there’s a man in the home not the man’s not it’s violent so they see these guys who just teach them out to fish do do support with them have conversations with them have some meaningful time with
Them actually that in itself let alone the kind of consultation between psychologist is a really positive intervention then we’ got stuff like say about motoring offenses or kind of acts of violence um what we’ll try and do is we used to do years and years ago things
Used to be worksheets now is let’s do some stuff on laptop let’s do some games on a laptop or just get a piece of on flip chart and let’s kind of talk about and we would be very open with young people risk used to be a thing the professionals
SP because they did this and thenis there now it’s more open conversation because if young people are going to develop internal controls you’ve got they’ve got to know what we’re thinking about in terms of risk what we’re worried about it’s that kind of culture of kind of child friendly language I’m
Really worried about because you did this and if you do that that again somebody might be harmed some you might die you know you know you’d be kind of in pris it’s the kind of it’s the language of care kind of doing these exercises with the young person flip
Chart and get them to identify their own risks their own GRS out so it’s trying to be creative as possible and not make it like things that they don’t like what failed out in the past so lots of different types of interventions trying to get a bit more techy with the VR
Headsets a challenge around how much they cost for the software for some progam um but yeah and then this refers on to the specialist so the health intervention it’s quite broad R interventions going be you do anything academic with them okay you do practical we don’t know anything specifically academic now
Um the skills for that we there to kind of engage them get invol Pro social activity try and get the education to get back into that kind of formal education as opposed to formal oh right informal is informal education the principles of you know are require you to they’re building those skills
Those life skill building yeah life skills of things sorry sorry yeah hello yes um just going back to those V or headsets have actually have a look into those and me being old person shall we say older um I find it quite frightening to actually see what’s on there I’d encourage anybody
That’s given the opportunity if you haven’t already um because there’s all sorts of different scenarios they put you in a place and there’s one about knife cry somebody’s coming along and basically if you don’t conform you’re going to get knifed and the other one is about gangs and if you don’t again
Conform well I say nothing like that ever happened when I was younger times and things have been not improved moved on and so as a as a child being faced with that on a daily basis must be a frightening experience and I find is so and on those VR
Headsets there there’s different ways you can go you can try and be the good person and it still doesn’t help and you can be the bad person um but I’d recommend anybody that hasn’t had a look at one to get the opportunity if it’s given use lines as well as
Representatives of these Alliance organizations that have had the training so they’re starting to use as well very very good any other questions anyone can I just I know you’ve given a very comprehensive report um you did mention on page four the but you had your um inspection and there there were some
Recommendations just on page four the paragraph 4.11 uh the final Parra some of those recommend service yeah one of those recommendations around postal support So What mean by that is that when they came to look at us there were number of children who had been arrested very serious events is they’d been securely
Remanded so they spent quite a period of time in custody and then it went to trial and they were quitted a trial so that’s it that’s it and what the what the wanted to see was that those children be were offered some support because actually they’ve gone
From being arrested to go into prison and there no education no support no you know psychosocial support around that so it’s we’ now put together a program where we will kind of offer the turn around program um to all children of people that have been acquitted in a
Cord for serious offenses um so we off the same types of interventions um through our early out team based in localities using the turn around funding for those children people if that turn around funding that ends um then have to kind of think of a different way of
Doing that but he justce prevention Works might have to do some that work that that was one of the kind of key recommendations really the recommendations were a national set as well so we’ve just looked through it today at our prac and development board and we think that a number of those
Things we kind of got didn’t really apply to dby because there saw quite a lot of strengths in the work that we a to show them to make quite a lot of evidence in advance some really good Deep dive work work between ourselves and social care
That was one of the key things that we’ be able to do something hey um if there are no further questions I think your report was extensive so and and and what you’ve just said has been very very interesting um so do we have any suggestions recommendations or shall we just not the
Report and but there is one around the the the problem for Society of excluding children from education I don’t know whether we can last meeting we did discuss school exclusion but I think we we could we underestimate the effects the effects of that I agree uh for the young person their family but
Ultimately for society between Andrew Tracy and Trac yeah there was there was a consistent point about picking up the monitoring of um parttime timetables yes ab and school okay so you can do some we can do some recog around that um so uh um so maybe just I guess or is this the
Again Sharon B’s got the leader around education and servicein the monitoring on started so Sharon and got stake obviously is just about sh be good to make recommendation so um this board recommends that the work that around monitoring the um part time the impact the impact of the impact and
Exclusion the impact of part-time timetables and school exclusions continues and expanding yes yes yeah yeah because they are doing it already Yes you don’t want to acknowledge that but it is also needs to get bigger and more in detail I feel I is there a wider
Sorry I don’t even know if my place I’m going to say anyway but is there a wider piece of work to actually look at three or four cases and look at what learning and good practice there is so rather than monitary moving forward put a bit
Of a a scoping of what you know a number of cases what happened what can we learn which is what happens in most organizations so actually see if there’s any learning as I said and I don’t know Trac would agree but from what I know my own research is
That um Faith schools particular Catholic ones are very good at working with children who have struggled exclusions and as you’ve described it part-time time table all schools are facing issues we might want to identify good practice yes amazing so we might want to identify so to with the aim to identify good
Practice and produce some case studies for future for future good practice to go forward yeah you’ve got something add no no you’ve got something thank you um I think that’s great um but the other thing I just heard on monitoring point was that there was if I remember Andrew
Correctly comments there was a six week monitoring cycle um and I know that that dropped off so I’d be interested to know yeah what could be done with a monitoring cycle as well as the impact I think it is about really understanding where that review and monitoring has got to you need to
Reestablish that because it that was the mechanism going back to challenge where you got parttime time table okay so said it wasn’t about that should continue for a long time an update an update on the okay that make any sort of sense excellent she’s loing she’ll for she she
She’ll help us um thank you so much both of you um this is has been a long um grueling two hours for both of you because you know obviously you’ve had food but I I I left space on on our table so that we could talk in depth to
You guys that’s wonderful that you have given us both both of you have given us a very good um better understanding of um of the alliance and and I’d like to Echo the right um words I am pleased that it is moving away from um it’s moving away and away
From sort of persecution type and um punishment type attitudes towards Justice and towards restoring young people into a right balance with society that they can live and succeed in their Futures and that is a wonderful thing to you are doing a wonderful job thank you our service as well I would
Love yes yes I would really like to St that to go and visit the Justice service that would be everyone here would be like absolutely can we sort out us where are you bases and wonderful we would like and anyone who wants thank you so much thank you very
Much to you both thank you we have one final bit of our um agenda to go somebody will need to let anyway sheet um our next meeting 25th of March we’re talking about education attainment I only integrated care system update School pup health check and childhood obesity that was something you
Mentioned Council and um is there anything we wish to add the uh to the next this is our final meeting as this board um before PM I believe so is there anything more that this board as it stands would like to investigate obviously it’s quite a packed agenda for the next one
So what and you know we’re happy with through that Year’s work we have we have It’s Been a Good Year I think we have yes has ourselves on the back but I feel we have talked about some very interesting very important subjects on this board um and it’s been extraordinary and I you
Know my personal thanks for all of you you are extraordinary we we’ve made some pertinent recommendations as well I and for Action which I suppose should be what we um what we should be doing absolutely um on the topic review we’ve got some progress at last um the
Questions that the we we formulated some questions to go out to various services and services are working on them to create some um meetings for us to attend and have conversations with things um more on in a more informal um setting so look keep a lookout for invites to
Things like that I would love to see everybody to if they can um but obviously that you know that’s extra to on top of this this the the standard work this B so for tonight um I thank you all um well done and I’ll see you at all much