Agenda item

The Chairman invited the Director for Children’s Social Care to speak to her presentation.

Families First

The Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities (MHLGC) had confirmed further funding for Barnet to work with another 111 families to March 2021. The current programme is due to end in March 2020 with almost 5000 families having been attached.

Barnet was performing strongly nationally and was 4^th in London.

A Resource Hub with other agencies had been set up, bringing additional expertise around reoffending, DV and drug use. This enabled more joined up work particularly in relation to DV services and probation services. An impact analysis of the Hub was underway.

Youth Offending Team

·       Barnet continued to perform well against the London and national data for the young person as first time entrant and in custody. A Resettlement Group had been set up to support young people coming out of custody. Reoffending rates were at the lowest point in the past three years.

·       First time entrants are much lower due to the out-of-court options such as community sentences which were being used effectively.

·       Analysis had identified that mental health concerns appeared to be present in reoffending young people. Being out of education was another negative factor as were households with DV. Funding had been made available from NHSE for screening for mental health concerns, a forensic psychologist and some interventions.

·       The Youth Offending Team (YOT) had moved to Family Services and this worked well and enabled greater wraparound work with parents in a whole-family approach, looking at the context of the child’s environment.

·       Fresh Start in Education had been commissioned to do 1-1 tuition with pupils permanently excluded from school, particularly those over 16, aimed at trying to get them into work or training

·       The current caseload profile is older children and BME is disproportionate in the cohort. Most were male and over 15. There was a shorter time to intervene with the cut off at 18 for statutory children’s interventions.

·       Caseloads were increasing but this was positive; caseloads had been reduced so much that staff had capacity to do other work beyond the statutory levels of intervention.

·       The team was preparing for the last inspection for Youth Justice 2012 - around 40% had received out-of-court disposals and early intervention work.

·       Self-assessment of the new framework for YOT Management Boards was underway and due in March 2020.

·       Barnet had developed some best practice including an activity-based residential trip with young people which had taken place for the first time in October and was likely to be repeated. This had enabled young people to learn new skills and experience a different environment. Any agencies would be welcome to join them at the next trip; this was an opportunity to speak to and influence this group.

·       The team co-produced an information video for and with young people with the help of a local artist. The Youth Justice Board had requested that this be shown to others as an example of best practice for informing young people who entered the criminal justice system. 

·       The Trusted Relationships Project was in its second year of delivery together with Art Against Knives and MAC UK and was working well, ensuring that young people were at the centre of the work and decision making. It would be expanded to include the transitioning period into secondary school which was a group at risk of knife crime and grooming.

·       Barnet had received funding from the Youth Endowment Fund for a Sibling Mentoring Project to work with siblings of young people involved in the criminal justice system with the aim of diverting siblings from following this path.

The Director for Children’s Social Care reported that MOPAC had provided additional funding which Barnet would be using to support 16 schools that had had a high number of exclusions and absences. The team had commissioned Unitas to carry out positive activities with this groups of children.