Keeping the Promise - Support for Families, Children and Young People
North Lanarkshire Council · 28 February 2023
Back to Education, Children and Families Committee — 28 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Education, Children and Families Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref AG Date 28/02/23 P080.1 Keeping the Promise: Support for Families, Children and Young People. Review of Youth Justice Services From Alison Gordon, Chief Social Work Officer (Education, Families, Justice & Integrated Practice) E-mail GordonA@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 332001 Executive Summary A recent report by the former director of the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice found children in conflict with the law in Scotland experience stigmatisation, trauma and poor outcomes (Lightowler, 2020). A new approach to youth justice in Scotland is required, which proceeds from a rights-respecting approach, supports all children under the age of 18 to participate in decisions about them, directs positive support to families, and offers that support through safe and caring relationships. In this context a youth justice steering group was established in 2021 to review the approach to supporting young people in conflict with the law in North Lanarkshire and ensure services meet the outcomes and priorities outlined in Justice for children and young people – a rights respecting approach (Scottish Government, 2021). A further aim is to deliver the specific call to action in The Promise Plan 21-24 to end the disproportionate criminalisation of care experienced young people. This report summarises the principal findings from this review and the plans to take forward a rights’ respecting approach. In particular, it outlines the plans to integrate Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) with our approach to Getting It Right for Every Child and Empowering Clusters and for a partnership with the Scottish Children’s Reporter’s Administration to improve the experiences and outcomes of children referred to children’s hearings on offence grounds with a view to diverting as many children as possible from the courts to the hearing system. Recommendations It is recommended that the Education, Children and Families Committee: 1. endorse the piloting of Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) through the GIRFEC pathway as part of the Empowering Clusters approach; 2. agree not to retender or recommission an externally provided EEI service, in line with the options appraisal, subject to completion of due diligence and production of a business plan to include consideration of, financial, legal and HR implications; and 3. agree to develop an in-house youth work response to EEI aligned with the support and services being developed through the Empowering Clusters approach.
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1. Background National Context 1.1 The primary role of youth justice in Scotland is to improve the life chances of children and young people, and to work with children, their families, and communities to prevent harmful acts. The recognition that children in conflict with the law are also children in need has been a key tenet of the Children’s Hearing system since its inception. At a national level a welfare approach to young people in conflict with law has been driven by Preventing Offending: Getting It Right for Every Child, which placed an emphasis on advancing the Whole Systems Approach to supporting young people. In June 2021, Scottish Government published a revised framework, Justice for children and young people – a rights respecting approach – vision and priorities, in recognition that a greater emphasis on upholding the rights of children and young people in conflict with the law is required in order that children participate in decisions about them, and that support is rooted in safe and caring relationships. The priorities emphasise the need to continue to advance a whole system approach, improve collation of data, and a need to address mental health issues, and the speech and language needs of children in conflict with the law. 1.2 The Promise’s key findings and calls to action for youth justice are centred on avoiding and stopping the criminalisation of care experienced children. The Promise Plan 21-24 makes the following demands on government and partners: • The disproportionate criminalisation of care experienced children and young people will end. • 16- and 17-year-olds will no longer be placed in Young Offenders Institutes for sentence or on remand. There will be sufficient community-based alternatives so that detention is a last resort. • Children who do need to have their liberty restricted will be cared for in small, secure, safe, trauma-informed environments that uphold their rights. 1.3 In addition, new Scottish Sentencing Guidelines came into force on 26 January 2022 which require courts to have regard to rehabilitation as a primary consideration. The guidelines take cognisance of research on brain development that has found that young people are not cognitively or emotionally mature until approximately age 25. 1.4 In December 2022, the Scottish Government published a Children (Care and Justice) Bill. The Bill proposes a number of measures to improve experiences and promote and advance outcomes for children in contact with care and justice services. In particular it will enable all children under the age of 18 to be referred to the Principal Reporter, removing existing restrictions on eligibility for 16 and 17 year olds. This will enable the removal of nearly all children from the court system and end the placing of children in young offenders institutions. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Support all children and young people to realise their full potential Ambition statement (10) Engage with children, young people, parents, carers, and families to help all children and young people reach their full potential
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Local Context 1.5 Our approach and supports for young people in conflict with the law was last reviewed more than five years ago. As a result of a reduction in youth offending and a shift in national policy away from disrupting anti-social behaviour to a much more explicit welfare response, youth justice work was moved from dedicated workers to social workers in localities and in intensive services. A specific service to support young people reintegrate to the community from custody, Youth Bridges, was also established funded by the Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP). 1.6 Since this time the Plan for North Lanarkshire has set a clear strategic direction to ensure support to children and families is available at an early stage for them to fulfil their potential. In support of this ambition, the integration of children’s social work with education and wider services such as CLD and employability has created new opportunities to deliver an integrated approach to deliver a whole system approach to young people in conflict with the law. 1.7 In the context of this and the national developments outlined above, a review of the approach to youth justice was established in 2021 to evaluate how effectively the service was supporting young people in conflict with the law. 2. Report 2.1 The review was multiagency and started from a focus on practice as well as the experiences and outcomes for young people rather than organisational arrangements. The review was informed by a file audit, feedback gathered from children, young people and their families, staff focus groups conducted by the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) and a staff questionnaire. The evaluation work was undertaken with reference to the standards set out within the new Youth Justice Standards (Scottish Government, 2021). A further aim of the review was to establish a clear baseline of data to support planning and the measurement of impact of quality improvement initiatives. Service developments have been made as the review has progressed. Rights and Participation 2.2 Staff reported having a good awareness of the rights of children. Current research being undertaken by the Universities of Sussex and Durham on trauma-informed practice within the service has observed social work staff ensuring the rights of young people are proactively promoted in meetings and interventions. However, the review has highlighted that practice is inconsistent for young people in conflict with the law. While young people and their parents were invited to meetings, the majority of young people in conflict with the law did not feel fully informed about the process and most did not have advocacy. 2.3 As part of the review a number of themes have come from feedback from young people: • Young people in conflict with the law had a fear of the police which often triggered their behaviour: “I’m not being bad, I’m hurting and I don’t know how to tell them that”. Some young people also did not understand the role of ‘campus cops’ and did not see them as a support.
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• Young people were very positive about the impact and support of CLD. They spoke about how CLD staff made them feel safe, important, cared for and provided spaces and opportunities they might not otherwise receive. • Some young people spoke of nights they had spent in police custody and how it could be an unknown professional who comes to collect them. • Young people were unsure about what formal processes they were involved in, particularly what Early and Effective Intervention is. • Court processes were difficult for young people to understand and they did not always feel there was someone supporting them. Actions and next steps 2.4 A group of young people to participate in the design of youth justice services has been formed and is facilitated by the Promise Development workers. As a result of their input to date, a number of initiatives are planned, or are underway, including: • work with Police Scotland, through Contextual Safeguarding, to take a trauma- informed approach in response to young people when they come to the attention of the police. • action to ensure young people are accessing advocacy from Who Care’s? Scotland • a new partnership with the NHSL speech and language team to promote the ability of individual young people exercise their rights in children’s hearings (or court) to express their views more effectively through assessment of communication needs (see 2.20). • Young people’s views being made central to planning through the alignment of Early and Effective Intervention with planning for children’s wellbeing in schools and Empowering Clusters as set out in 2.10-2.12. Prevention and Early and Effective Intervention 2.5 Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) is a national initiative and was developed as a mechanism to support children who come to the attention of the police for offending behaviour at an early stage. Its oversight sits within Children's Services Planning as specified in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. It is a voluntary process where concerns regarding a child's wellbeing have arisen in response to their alleged involvement in an incident which has brought them into conflict with the law. 2.6 In North Lanarkshire, EEI has been managed by a coordinator based in Police Scotland (funded by the council) and a dedicated social worker. When the police refer a child into the EEI process, the child’s needs are considered by a multiagency group comprising police, social work, education and housing but none of the group members know, or have a relationship, with the child under discussion. The group sits apart from the GIRFEC pathway. Therefore, related issues facing children such as attendance and family difficulties are not connected to alleged offending and considered as part of a holistic plan. In 20/21, 186 children were discussed and the group made the following decisions as detailed in the chart below:
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• ‘Current measures’ refers to children who already have an allocated social worker and are referred back to the social worker for ongoing work 2.7 In terms of current measures an analysis of social work files indicates that an EEI referral did not consistently trigger anything significantly different in the plan to reduce the risk of criminalisation. 2.8 Within the current process young people have limited voice in the decision making, or on what might help them, and their views are only sought through contact between the EEI coordinator and their social worker, if they have one. 2.9 Also of note is the fact that almost as many children in conflict with the law are referred to SCRA as to EEI. In the period 21/22 169 children and young people were referred to SCRA on offence grounds. In total 36% of referrals to SCRA in 21/22 were on offence grounds compared to a national average of 20%. This suggests the need to better use EEI to prevent escalation to the Reporter and reduce the potential for criminalisation. Proposals for change and next steps 2.10 In order to provide more robust and relationship-based support to children who become involved in alleged offending behaviour, the service is integrating the EEI process with the GIRFEC pathway. In practice this means that when a child is referred by Police Scotland into the EEI process, it will be directed to the named person and/or lead professional for the requirement to consider a wellbeing meeting as with all other wellbeing concerns. This will ensure that the views of the child and
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their parents/carers are part of the process and that the child’s needs as a whole are considered. This is crucial given research is clear that focusing on behaviour is usually ineffective by itself (Case and Haines, 2015) and that it is more important for the adults who know the child to take responsibility for supporting the child or young person. Using the GIRFEC pathway will support a more strengths-based approach that leverages and builds on existing strengths within the child, and the systems surrounding them, to shift away from a deficit-based/offence focused model. A draft outline of the process is attached at Appendix 1. The approach will be piloted in seven clusters across the authority. 2.11 Outcomes for the child will be tracked through the child’s plan and the implementation of the Outcome Star and through tracking any involvement in alleged reoffending. 2.12 Research finds that when children come into conflict with the law the responses most likely to prevent any further offending will focus on children’s strengths and capacities as a means of facilitating desistance, restoration and inclusion (Case and Haines, 2015). Such supports are already available to children within schools and through Empowering Clusters to achieve this. A minority of children require some more specific support around their behaviour and this is currently provided by a service commissioned from YMCA Bellshill and Mossend. An options appraisal has been undertaken to inform a recommendation about next steps in providing this service, including whether this contract should be continued (see appendix 2 for a more detailed explanation of this process). The recommendation of this appraisal is to bring the service in-house and take a youth work approach that is fully aligned and integrated with local supports and services at universal and additional levels through the Empowering Cluster approach. The process of bringing the EEI support service in-house would follow the council’s project management approach, including a full business plan and register identifying and mitigating any risks. Statutory Intervention: Children’s Hearings and Court 2.13 North Lanarkshire has a higher than average rate of referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter’s Administration on offence grounds when compared to other local authority areas in Scotland. In the year 2021/22, 477 referrals for 182 children were submitted to the Reporter on offence grounds. However, SCRA take a welfare approach to decision making in respect of these referrals to avoid, where possible, the criminalisation of children. Consequently, despite this high number of referrals only 7 new referrals were made to children’s hearings on offence grounds and a further 62 referrals dealt with under measures already in place for children on a compulsory supervision order. 2.14 While nearly all assessments within the file audit were assessed as good or better, not all children and young people had a robust multi-agency plan. Overall, the review found that plans were mainly focused on the offence and social work intervention, rather than reflecting a more holistic, or family support, based approach. 2.15 The Procurator Fiscal and Courts have a number of options available for young people aged 16-18 who are in conflict with the law. The Procurator Fiscal is able to divert young people from prosecution and refer them to social work for support. The number of young people diverted from prosecution has been increasing over the past 4 years and the file audit found that in these circumstances the support subsequently provided was good, with nearly all the young people subject to diversion completing the intervention successfully without re-offending.
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2.16 When young people under the age of 18 are convicted in court, three principal community based disposals are available: a Community Payback Order (CPO), Structured Deferred Sentence (SDS), or remittal to a Children’s Hearing for disposal (providing the young person is not over 17½ years). In the file audit nearly all the court reports where young people were made subject to a CPO were found to be good with most young people successfully completing their order. 2.17 The aim of the SDS Court order is to prevent further offending through intensive support underpinned by a holistic plan of intervention, and regular court reviews with a consistent Sheriff who gets to know the young person. The key ethos behind the implementation of SDS is a strong focus on the young person’s needs, rather than focusing solely on their offence. The outcomes for young people subject to a Structured Deferred Sentence are very good, with the high level of contact with social work and a consistent Sheriff key factors. However, prior to the review SDS was only operating in Hamilton Sheriff Court resulting in a relatively low number of young people benefitting from this disposal. Following engagement with the Sheriff Principal, as part of the review, an SDS court has been established at Airdrie Sheriff Court and has been in operation since July 2022. 2.18 The Sheriff is also able to remit young people aged 16 to17½ to a Children’s Hearing for disposal. However, in 2021/22 only four young people were remitted to a Hearing. While this reflects low numbers nationally, it may indicate a need for clearer recommendations in social work reports to assist Sheriffs in their decision making. 2.19 Locally the number of young people either remanded or sentenced to custody has been decreasing in line with national trends and sentencing guidance. Nevertheless, there were 21 new admissions to Polmont YOI of young people aged 16 to 21 years from North Lanarkshire in 2021/22. Since April 2022, 8 more young people have been admitted to custody, all on remand, 2 of whom are under 18. Recent research has highlighted that detention in Scotland is not being used as a last resort or for the shortest time possible, with many children reporting being subject to prolonged periods on remand with no option for community-based alternatives (McEwan et al., 2020). To support this group of young people, support staff from Youth Bridges (part of our intensive service) meet with all young people within 3 days of receiving custody and work with prison, health and other staff to support the young people and arrange family contact. Youth Bridges workers prioritise building relationships with young people so they have a trusted worker to support them through the transition back to the community. With the support of Youth Bridges, nearly 90% of the young people who returned to the community were not involved in further offending and 69% reported a reduction in alcohol and drug use. Proposals for change and next steps 2.20 While improving the support to young people appearing in court will continue, the overall aim of the review is to continue to reduce the numbers of young people in conflict with the law being dealt with by the court system. To meet the requirements of The Promise Plan and increase community-based alternatives to secure and remand, ending the use of YOIs for 16 and 17 year olds, a pilot has started, in partnership with SCRA and South Lanarkshire Council, to make better use of the Hearing System to support young people in the community. The pilot has engaged with the Procurator Fiscal service and the Sheriff Principal to promote young people being maintained in, or remitted to, the hearing system. 2.21 The aim of the pilot is to divert more young people into the Hearing system and to provide a tailored approach to those young people in conflict with the law at an earlier
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stage, reducing the likelihood of interaction with the adult criminal justice system by altering the young person’s offending trajectory at an earlier opportunity. An innovative part of the programme is to draw on the success of Structured Deferred Sentencing in the court system by piloting a similar approach in hearings with the aim of young people spending less time on a Compulsory Supervision Order with a comprehensive care plan underpinned by intensive service provision, the measures in the Compulsory Supervision Order and using, where possible, panel member continuity, to meet need holistically. The pilot comprises a dedicated Reporter and senior social worker to oversee the work. Specific social workers in locality teams are being trained in the approach which includes a focus on trauma-informed practice and addressing communication and mental health needs. 2.22 The review group is also taking forward a number of actions to ensure that holistic plans for young people in conflict with the law are in place as part of the pilot and more generally. The service has secured additional support work staff (funded via the ADP) to provide holistic support including at evenings and weekends within intensive services. Funding has also been secured for a post to specifically support young people secure and sustain employment or training, which is being implemented in partnership with Employability Support & Skills Development. To address unmet speech, language and communication needs, as part of the pilot, we have reallocated resources in partnership with NHS Lanarkshire to ensure that all young people referred to a Hearing on offence grounds, will have a speech and language assessment and that tailored support will be given to support young people communicate their views in the Hearing to ensure their rights are upheld. In addition, we are working with NHS Lanarkshire to create a specific ‘youth justice pathway’ for young people to access health care and advice from school nurses. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Children and young people in conflict have their rights respected and are able to express their views in meetings and hearings. 3.2 Outcomes for children and young people improve holistically – measured via the Outcome Star. 3.3 Reduction in numbers of children and young people re-referred into EEI processes. 3.4 Continued reduction in number of 16 and 17 year olds placed remanded or convicted to secure care or YOI with an aim of reducing this to zero by 2024. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 Policy for use of Family Engagement Support Assistant – December 2022. 4.2 Appendix 2 Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) – Youth Justice, Education and Families. 4.3 Appendix 3 Justice for Children and Young People: A Rights Respecting Approach – Vision and Priorities.
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Justice for children and young people - a rights-respecting approach: vision and priorities - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) Alison Gordon Chief Social Work Officer (Education, Families, Justice & Integrated Practice)
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? No adverse impacts are anticipated. Whilst a change in EEI service provider may affect continuity of service, effective contract management will ensure that there is a smooth transition and a seamless handover. If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☒ No ☒ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Additional support worker posts are funded through the Alcohol and Drug Partnership and Employability Support & Skills Development. These monies are temporary as part of the piloting of the new approaches outlined in the Report. The current contract with YMCA Bellshill and Mossend costs £106,387. It is estimated that costs could be brought down to between £80-90K if brought in house. There may be some termination costs. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Bringing the commissioned EEI service in-house may give rise to a relevant transfer under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). If so, all statutory and good practice requirements in terms of TUPE will be adhered to. 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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In the event of the commissioned EEI service currently being provided by the YMCA Bellshill and Mosshead being retendered or brought-in house (as recommended), the application or otherwise of TUPE will be fully considered or addressed. The current contract does not provide the council with a right to terminate the contract at its own discretion so there is a risk that YMCA may object to this. 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? A DPIA is being undertaken to assess the impacts of bringing the commissioned EEI service in-house means from a data protection compliance perspective and if there is anything we require to do in order to facilitate this change. Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☒ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? An aim of the review of youth justice is to reduce the current risks that young people’s rights are not upheld and their needs are not met when in contact with the law. As well as risk to good outcomes for young people, there are compliance and
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reputational risks for the council if it does not ensure compliance with the new national standards for youth justice. There may be a reputational risk to the council in bringing the commissioned EEI service in-house and not going out to tender or continuing the current arrangement, however, this decision has been supported by the council’s option appraisal process (see Appendix 2). A project management approach is being taken to the proposal to bring the commissioned EEI service in house and a risk register has been established detailing the risks and appropriate mitigations. The youth justice steering group will continue post review to monitor the implementation of improvement work and manage risks. 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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Appendix 1 Early and Effective Intervention: Guidance December 2022 Key content: 1. Introduction and Background 2. Early and Effective Intervention 3. The Process 4. Central Point of Contact 5. Routes to Help 6. Staged Intervention and EEI 7. The EEI Process 8. Monitoring
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1. Introduction and Background This paper is intended to set out the process for early and effective intervention (EEI) coming from police Scotland to education families, and how these will be dealt with through the GIRFEC pathway. The paper will set out briefly the aim of EEI and will go on to describe the process with a chart illustrating how this will operate. 2. Early and Effective Intervention The EEI process is based on research messages about effective intervention with children who get into conflict with the law. The evidence shows that the majority of young people who come into conflict with the law will not come into conflict with the law again, provided the conflict is recognised by a figure that is significant in their lives, as soon as possible after the event. Based on this evidence the early and effective intervention process was set up by Scottish Government to operate between police Scotland and local authorities with the following aims: • To as much as possible remove young people from the children’s reporter’s system where the grounds for involvement are based solely on offences • To give early help to those children and young people who require it, particularly where they get into conflict with the law and have previous issues with school attendance or care and protection in their family. • To look at young people who come into conflict with the law as young people with well- being needs. 3. The Process The following process is intended to set out a streamlined process for recognising where young people come into conflict with the law and providing early help to those who need it. It sits firmly within North Lanarkshire's empowering cluster approach and users EEI as a route to the GIRFEC pathway for those who need early help. 4. Central Point of Contact All EEI referrals start with Police Scotland and be forwarded on to the youth justice team. This team will record all referrals and pass them to the CIILs in the clusters to raise with the Named Person in the school. The youth justice team will monitor the process and collect information as to whether decisions are being made within the 20 working days required by national standards. 5. Routes to Help Essentially the process gives three routes to help: 1. No help is needed, and the process ends (often the best outcome for most) 2. He Named Person in the school will call a wellbeing meeting and planning will proceed from there 3. The young person is already being worked with by Social Work and the worker will call a wellbeing meeting to consider any amendment of the plan. 6. Staged intervention and EEI The model of cluster working allows for the needs of children to be met through a joined-up approach to children’s services. The EEI approach will sit within the planning for Children’s
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Wellbeing approach in the clusters. The service sits at the universal and additional levels in the staged intervention model. For those children and young people that are seen as requiring to be diverted out over the system the EEI process will operate at to the universal level. Young people will continue to have supports as needed through their school. For those children and young people that require additional services the GIRFEC pathway will be used. The model is depicted in the following chart. 7. The EEI Process Referral received by a single point of contact within Social Work Services from Police Referral sent to allocated social worker and also CIIL Is Young Person Working with Social Work? Referral is sent to the CILL Yes No
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8. Monitoring National standards are in place for EEI processes to be measured against. These apply to the process of involving young people and families and the timescales that referrals take to reach conclusion. Monitoring will be carried out from the central point within social work services. Each referral will be followed up with the CIIL or allocated Social Worker to gather data on process followed and time taken to exit the EEI process. SW arranges Wellbeing Meeting to review child’s plan End of EEI process CILL Laisses with Named Person Professional Dialogue Is wellbeing planning required ? (5 GIRFEC Questions) No needs requiring intensive or additional planning - EEI referral is discussed with child and family and then ended. If the YP has needs that require Wellbeing planning a meeting is convened Move to planning through GIRFEC process, Assess, Plan, Review.
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APPENDIX 2 Early and Effective Intervention (EEI) – Youth Justice, Education and Families Senior Responsible Officer Alison Gordon Project Manager Andrew Gillies Contact details GilliesA@northlan.gov.uk 1. Background 1.1 EEI has been a feature of Scotland’s approach to young people in conflict with the law since 2015. It is a multiagency process for deploying support in a timely and proportionate way to children who come to the attention of the police for offending behaviour. It is a voluntary process where concerns regarding a child's wellbeing have arisen in response to their alleged involvement in an incident which has brought them into conflict with the law. 1.2 In June of this year the Scottish Government published revised Core Elements for EEI, emphasising alignment of EEI with the principles of GIRFEC and ensuring that the rights of children are central to the process. 2. Objectives 2.1 To ensure the EEI service meets the revised Core Elements 2.2 Achieve best value and better outcomes for children. 2.3 Ensure the EEI service aligns with the key priorities and process of GIRFEC and the Empowering Clusters approach 3. Strategic alignment 4. Options 1. Recommission Bellshill and Mossend YMCA to create an outcome-based and sustainable service contract 2. Invite tenders for the service 3. Bring the service in-house and deliver a youth work response via CLD. Support to be provided by CLD staff to mentor and involve young people. 4. Cease a specific EEI service and support children and young people through other services and interventions that are not specific to conflict with the law. 5. Options Appraisal plan The plan to review the options included the following activities: Priority Support all children and young people to realise their full potential Ambition statement (9) Invest in early interventions, positive transitions, and preventative approaches to improve outcomes for children and young people
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1. Reviewed current service provision (see section 9 below) 2. Secured legal and HR advice 3. Engaged with YMCA Bellshill and Mossend 4. Engaged with CLD regarding potential 5. Completed a SWOT analysis and the scoring of options 6. Options Appraisal governance arrangements The options appraisal has been undertaken by members of the youth justice steering group. This group reports to SMT (Education and Families) as the final decision making body. The options appraisal was undertaken using the council’s revised optoins appraisal framework. 7. Roles Individuals who will contribute to the Options Appraisal exercise. Role Name Senior Responsible Officer Alison Gordon Project Manager Andrew Gillies Facilitator (if different from Project Manager) Appraisal team members Sharon Coats – Education and Families Manager Marion Doran – Education and Families Manager Iain Macauley – Health and Wellbing Lead Xanthe Lennon – Senior Social Worker Other stakeholders 8. Impacts checklist 1. Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the Options Appraisal contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact. No adverse impacts are anticipated. Whilst a change in EEI service provider may affect continuity of service, effective contract management will ensure that there is a smooth transition and a seamless handover If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☒ No ☒ 2. Financial impact Does the Options Appraisal have a financial impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact.
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The current cost of the contract is £106,387. It is estimated that costs could be brought down to between £80-90K if brought in house. There may be some termination costs. 3. HR policy impact Does the Options Appraisal contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact. Following any retendering process or bringing EEI in-house, there is potential for this to give rise to a relevant transfer in terms of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (‘TUPE’). Any procurement in terms of re- tendering will make reference to this and any transfer of staff to North Lanarkshire Council will be done in accordance with statutory requirements and good practice guidance. 4. Legal impact Does the Options Appraisal contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact. In the event of the commissioned EEI service currently being provided by the YMCA Bellshill and Mosshead being retendered or brought-in house (as recommended), the application or otherwise of TUPE will be fully considered or addressed. The current contract does not provide the council with a right to terminate the contract at its own discretion so there is a risk that YMCA may object to this. 5. Data protection impact Does the Options Appraisal contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☒ No ☐ A DPIA is being undertaken to assess the impacts of bringing the commissioned EEI service in-house means from a data protection compliance perspective and if there is anything we require to do in order to facilitate this change. If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☒ No ☐ 6. Technology / Digital impact Does the Options Appraisal contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi?
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Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact. Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 7. Environmental / Carbon impact Does the Options Appraisal contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact. 8. Communications impact Does the Options Appraisal contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact. 9. Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed. There are some potential risks related to this options appraisal including but not limited to: 1. risks in ceasing the service that young people’s behaviour may escalate in seriousness. 2. There are potential reputational risks in bringing the service in house due to a cut in funding to the local provider, YMCA. All risk and mitigations are noted on a register in line with the council’s project management approach. 10. Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the Options Appraisal require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in- Service or ex-Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services. 9. Findings of the Review 9.1 The number of children referred to EEI in 20/21 was 186. There was a slight reduction in 2021/22 to 175. Over 90% of the children referred for EEI are aged 13 to 15. 9.2 The review found that the most common disposals through the EEI process in North Lanarkshire were either a ‘warning letter’ or continuation of current support,
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particularly when the child or young person already had a social worker. In consulting with young people as part of the review, most had no idea that they had been referred into EEI or what the focus of the work was. In order to involve the young person and their family better in tailoring more bespoke and holistic support, for children who become involved in alleged offending behaviour, the EEI process is being integrated with the GIRFEC pathway. This will involve more robust planning for children in response to conflict with the law concerns with the people who know and have a relationship with the child. This is consistent with a rights respecting approach. 9.3 Within the existing EEI process, there is an option to refer young people to a commissioned service provided by YMCA (Bellshill and Mossend) for some specific offence focused work. The table below shows the numbers of children referred and the outcomes as reported by YMCA: YEAR Number referred Successful completion Refused Service 2019/20 21 15 0 2020/21 22 5 7 2021/22 24 7 15 9.4 While the number of children and young people referred to YMCA has remained stable (albeit at only 13% of the total number of children referred to the EEI process), the number of young people completing the programme is low. The pandemic is a contributory factor but not the whole picture. There have been changes of staff and delays in acting on referrals. YMCA has also not been able to provide data on overall wellbeing outcomes for young people and the views of children and young people in relation to their experience of the service received. A positive feature of the service has been the pathway for young people to a befriending and mentoring scheme known as ‘Y Empower’. 9.5 The annual cost of the contract is £106,387 annually. This also included befriending and mentoring for children called the Y Empower service. Over 2021/22, YMCA were supporting an average of 13 young people at any one time referred in Early and Effective Intervention. It is therefore does not represent good value for money. 9.6 Given the data, and the plans to integrate EEI with the GIRFEC pathway, it is imperative we create a service that is consistent with the national vision and priorities for a rights respecting approach to youth justice and the core elements of EEI. This means a responsive service that: • Takes a holistic approach to the needs of children and young people • Works in an integrated way with the team around the child and other family support and targeted interventions • Focuses on children’s strengths and capacities • Is rights based and involves children, young people and their families 9.7 Many of our existing services provided by Education and Families through core or additional funding (SAC/PEF/Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework) will be able to provide aspects of this service. However, there are a number of young people referred to EEI who require additional and targeted support around desistance, restoration and inclusion. 10. Findings of the Options Appraisal 10.1 The options appraisal group looked at the options set out below and conducted a SWOT analysis.
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OPTION ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES/RISKS 1 Extend the contract with YMCA and work on a collaborative commissioning exercise to create an outcome- based and sustainable contract C&P: Good Practice in Procurement | Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (ccpscotland.org). Will build on existing expertise Avoid disruption to staff through potential TUPE arrangements May benefit the resilience of YMCA Bellshill and Mossend and children and young people receiving a service in this area Need to consider how current procurement rules will allow for collaborative commissioning 2 Re-tender Potential to attract new expertise, creativity and ideas from other providers Grow the community voluntary sector locally 3 Bring service in-house and deliver a youth work response via CLD. Support to be provided by CLD staff to mentor and involve young people in their own community/universal provision to reduce the risk of conflict with the law. This will be overseen by the CLD Development Officer. A more efficient and responsive service through alignment with current provision in the service and Empowering Clusters. Ability to flex and adapt the service around the needs of children if within the direct management and control of the service. Enhance the evidenced impact on children and young people through existing youth work provision. Clear and accessible pathways for young people within youth work provision and protecting, maintaining relationship and support Moving the service from local third sector provider may create some reputational risk for the council. 4 Cease the service A financial saving to the council – albeit support and interventions will need to be undertaken in the service. Risk of some young people coming into more frequent conflict with the law without more specialised support in relation to desistance. This may increase risk of referrals to the SCRA for offending and demands on more intensive resources. It should be noted that already more young people than the Scottish average are referred to
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SCRA on offence grounds in North Lanarkshire. Options Appraisal Outcome 10.2 With reference to the findings and the review, the table below sets out the scoring of the options detailed above using the council’s Options Appriasal Framework. Options Weighting 1 2 3 4 Policy Fit 30% 1.6 3.6 4.3 1 Cost/Savings 20% 1 2 2 2.3 Performance 20% 1.6 3.6 3.6 1 Operational Specific – GIRFEC based EEI approach 10% 2 2.2 4 1 100% 10.3 The outcome of the options appraisal is to bring the EEI service in-house and locate it within the Community Learning and Development service. 10.4 This outcome will have the advantage of ensuring integration together with the existing universal and additional provision to ensure good pathways of support for young people by workers with robust local knowledge. During the review process young people also told us they valued the CLD service and there is accordingly the potential to co-design this new approach to EEI.