Mr Fletcher then introduced 2 young people to speak, Adnam and Jodie, who were young offenders, and now part of a team set up by the National Youth Agency that aims to curb youth crime. Adnam began by mentioning that article 12 of the UN convention mandated youth participation in some of the issues that involve them, the youth had a right to speak. Further, Mr Fletcher acknowledged that this helped with issues such as accountability, by which he meant if we allow young people to be responsible for what they do, they can feel pride and not feel alienated or separate from success.

Professor John Pitts of the University of Bedfordshire spoke more on the theoretical aspects at looking at youth crime, particularly gang-related crimes, detailing how gangs can act as surrogate homes, a sign of hopelessness and an indicator of societal disharmony. He dropped a mention of the rapid deindustrialisation process that has taken place in the UK, working out what relevance that has in the severe income, educational and occupational polarisation that has occurred alongside.

A speaker from the London borough of Hounslow introduced discussion on the Detached Youth Work Team, which works with disengaged young people in unusual settings. The first year data, collated by Met Police figures, pointed to reduced crime in hotspot areas by at least 45%, a concerted effort at intergenerational work, frequent area cleanups (to clean the local area) and simply to provide young people with something to do, instead of boredom or petty crime. The Team was established in 2004 to counter anti-social behaviour in Hounslow’s “Hotspot” estates, and is located in Hounslow’s Integrated Youth Support Service, sitting alongside Connexions, Young Carers and Children and Young Peoples Participation. Their team consists of 4 full time detached youth workers with each full time worker taking on 12 part time hours as well. Funding is from the Integrated Youth Support Service as well as core budget for the council, with a small amount of money from Hounslow’s Community Safety Partnership, and other sources such as housing providers and the police. Alongside this, Hounslow has set up an ASBAG, which are Anti-social Behaviour Action Groups – set up as prevention of anti-social behaviour.

Interesting that how the meeting finished was with how intervention, prevention and participation can steer crime away. The logic here is to show that vilifying young people is not always the best way to prevent crime from happening again. This is not to say that crime should be tolerated, but in many cases the punishment does not always lend itself easily with prevention.

It emerged in the Q and A session that Halifax were focusing on only incarcerating children who were at risk to themselves, to say that for young people who were not severe or exceptional cases, the solution can be found with other means, and seeking alternatives to simply handing that young person an unnecessary criminal self-fulfilling prophecy. Halifax is a minister town inside the council of Calderdale, where the YOT received the runner-up prize for Team of the Year earlier this year. With young people in custody, for example, there is not the presence of “prison wardens” but rather youth workers.

In Scotland, also, no child can go before a court; instead there are children’s panels that a young offender will need to go before up until the age of 16 (the possibility of extending the age until 18 is currently being developed). In the Channel Islands of Guernsey as well, laws have just been passed which will introduce a Child Youth & Community Tribunal (CYCT), taking “over responsibility for many of the cases that currently appear before the courts.” The law will also increase the current age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to 12. The move, to be born out of The Children Law 2008 and The Criminal Justice Law 2008, seeks to balance between justice being done and bringing repercussions to criminality, but addressing at what age a child might be fairly allowed to take full responsibility for his/her actions, and how the legal system should operate thus.

What the panel discussion did bring to the table was that there are many innovative moves taking place with regards to youth offending (and participation in particular) in and around the UK, much of which can easily be tailored to suit individual local authorities. Best practice, be it in the channel islands, Canada, the United States, simply means that councils do not have to reinvent the wheel to appropriate good measures that stand up to scrutiny.

Owing to oncoming tight spending regulations and possible cuts, the Scottish government has put forward proposals to reform merges between NHS boards, police forces and fire and rescue services. For this reason, joint working plans are now the issue of the day. The NHS Plan that Alan Milburn signalled to envisioned ‘care trust’ status – a joint model straddling health and social care – “as the next step in the evolution of PCTs” according to Healthcare Republic. Unfortunately for those who embraced such a move only “10 PCTs have ever held care trust status, and two of these have reverted to their former state”.

It could be argued that the urgency of joint working, and money saving, was not quite as it is now in today’s economic landscape, and this fact alone could be the thing that spurs on a concerted effort to make the move.

What must also be made clear is that where economic sustainability is concerned, quality of performance must not be jeopardised in the process. Sir John Oldham, a GP and member of the DH national quality board, recently said: “Looking at the interface between health and social care is extremely important.

“[However,] I don’t think we can achieve synergies by seeking to impose a medical model of care on a social model of care. That’s why we should focus on the patient’s eye [perspective on services].

“We should think about how we integrate relationships rather than focus on structures.”

Perhaps it is not necessary to share his cynicism of the project, but the message is clear that what is right for finances must be matched with what is right with substance and value. And who wouldn’t support measures that promoted these things.

Further, alongside the safer school partnerships now at 5,300 participating schools, there will be dedicated police officers allocated to schools for out-of-school monitoring. It seems a like a major presence, but the government justify it by showing results demonstrating that it works. Reoffending, the report shows, has been reduced by 6% between years 2006/7, and 80% of the priority areas in the Youth Crime Action Plan achieved a reduction this year since the July-September 2008 report.

The government – as part of their dedication to this, and in knowledge of the up and coming thrift spend in public services – have promised to continue with initiatives that work, as stated in the report. But youth justice groups will be keeping a close eye on both what works, and what is fair in society. In the Channel Islands Guernsey, for example, has just passed a law which will introduce a Child Youth & Community Tribunal (CYCT), “which will take over responsibility for many of the cases that currently appear before the courts.” The law will also increase the current age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to 12. The law, to be born out of The Children Law 2008 and The Criminal Justice Law 2008, seems to seek a balance between justice being done and bringing repercussions to criminality, but addressing at what age a child might be fairly allowed to take full responsibility for his/her actions, and how the legal system should operate thus.

A recent example of where UK law might conflict with established European regard for youth justice is on strip-searches. As an article on the conflict of interests has told

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), which visited Huntercombe YOI at the end of last year, said it considered “the routine practice of strip-searching of juveniles is a disproportionate measure which could be considered as degrading.”

To which the government replied that it did not feel the use of strip-searches were disproportionate, but rather that “It is used to safeguard individuals, other young people and staff in these establishments.”

Another area where the UK seems to fall, where its European counterparts tend not to, is prison conditions for young people. An audit by the Howard League for Penal Reform analysed all recent reports into young offenders’ institutions (YOIs) by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate of Prisons back in August of this year, to find that “children are regularly denied access to showers, toilets or outside exercise areas, and are subject to strip searches by adult staff.” Earlier this month, the Youth Justice Board published all its findings from surveys of every juvenile prison establishment in England and Wales during 2008/09. One of the main findings were that the “perceptions of safety had improved for young men, though one in four still said they had felt unsafe at some time.” There are reasons to believe that justice for young people is working, but there are evident discrepancies which do need tweaking, in order to make the system achieve reachable goals.

Justice does need to meet fairness, and one area – which has received much air time of late – where this might not be evident, is the detention of child asylum-seekers. In a report drawn out by Refugee and Migrant Justice entitled Does Every Child Matter? – which claims not to want to criticise the government, but rather to “show how far they have to go in meeting their genuine aspirations to protect children from harm and promote their welfare” – they find reason to believe that children in detention centres are given no legal representation, are treated with hostility marked by a “culture of disbelief” and owing to incorrect age assessments, are forced to make their claims as adults.

Further findings show that in conflict with the government’s UK Border Agency Code of Practice, children’s special needs are regularly disregarded, they are often taken out of care by social services at 16, and, especially grave for those who may already be traumatised, have to go without stability and uncertainty about legal status.

The report details that 2,000 children are locked up every year, but that there are no real comprehensive statistics on the removal of children, back to countries that they may be fleeing for fear of death. Moreover, the government does not publish statistics on the outcomes of age disputes, on outcomes of appeals against refusal of asylum, or on how long welfare assessments take, as well as not including children seeking asylum on poverty national statistics.

This has not gone unnoticed. A contingent have recently called the government up on the subject, which include high-profile names in the medical establishment, from The Royal Colleges of Paediatricians, General Practitioners and Psychiatrists, to children’s literature figures such as Michael Bond, Phillip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson. Their pleas focus on transferring healthcare in detention centres from the remit of the Home Office to the NHS. The Home Office has replied saying that services have all been improved, but the charge against this is that the Home Office is using out-of-date material to judge positive results. This issue has all been brought back to the fore by the heavy-handed way in which staff at a detention centre in Yarl’s Wood handled a local vicar dressed as Santa Claus wanting to bring presents to the children.

What a lot of this information shows is that the government, though having made shoots of progress in youth justice, still has plenty to do and offer before it can say significant progress has been made. With especial regard for justice for child asylum seekers, measures such as frequent reviews – not unlike the reviews it delivers in all other aspects of the public sphere – will either curb the suspicions that something is drastically wrong in this field, or testify that we were right to worry in the first place, and measures would be better placed reviewing why justice for detained children are not receiving the rights that should be bestowed upon them.

Sources: CYPNow and here and here / Refugee and Migrant Justice (pdf) / The Independent / Youth Justice Board

It is always better to prevent failure than tackle a crisis later

(memorable tagline from today’s report)

Among other informal details, the report notes a reduction in NEET (not in education, employment or training) 16-17-year-olds – which is the lowest level for more than a decade, brief details of a forthcoming families green paper set to be released early 2010, positive information on the multi-agency looked after partnership and the successful year it has had, proof of which includes;

·         Innovative participation with young people and families

·         Work with young people as part of staff and foster carer training schemes

·         Improvements in placement stability

·         A double in statistical figures of 5 A-C GCSE attainment from 7% in 2000 to 14% in 2008

There was also a large focus on youth crime and justice. The DCSF feel they are on target for meeting youth crime reduction standards they have set for 2020. Since 2007/8 there has been a reduction of young people entering the youth justice system. This is due in part to increased interventions by youth offending teams who have been more instrumental with the police, street-based teams in the 69 areas the report studies, operation StaySafe and after-school police patrols.

Research suggests there is still plenty to go before the targets for 2020 are met.

The Government’s new strategy Healthy Children, Safer Communities, for example, focuses on early intervention to address health problems to ensure the underlying causes of bad behaviour are tackled before problems become serious. Care services minister Phil Hope said “Government reforms are already cutting youth crime, I’m confident that through more effective use of health services we can reduce it further.”

In a Youth Justice Board response from practitioners on youth crime, a recent meeting of senior figures in the Criminal Justice System was a plan to:

• promote understanding of how different criminal justice agencies work together promote advocacy of modern justice via education and information-sharing
• improve the way the system works in terms of processes
• provide a mechanism for practitioners to feedback.

And with regards to issues on prison leavers, less than a quarter of young men had been spoken to about getting a job on release, while less than a third had a Connexions personal adviser.

The figures and interventions on this subject are impressive, but the government have given themselves a difficult task that, though tough, if successful, would be best for all society.

Sources: CYPNow and here / YJB

There seems to be no reason to doubt that he might believe this, on the notion that confidence is evident, and for this reason the opposition’s charge that Darling’s plan for the tax relief of carers, for example, is all strategic is categorically erroneous. The charge has stemmed from the matter of Darling planning to drop these tax reliefs after the election, if indeed that takes place after April. However, the relief – and other measures for the lesser off – is with the intention to help families when the economy is contracting, and, as Darling predicts, when the economy is the on the grow, taxes can be levelled again.

But what does the coming shift in the economy mean for the public sector and enterprise on the whole?

VAT will return to 17.5% on January 1^st, meaning – among many other things – that all conference prices will change after the New Year.

Plans have been set to defer the increase of corporation tax to small businesses, meaning that tax will remain unchanged from the 2010 plans for 850,000 small businesses. Further to this, a £500 million growth fund will be available to small and medium-sized enterprises through a 12-month continuation of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (a guarantee facility for small businesses intended primarily to improve the availability of working capital through term loans and the consolidation of overdrafts).

Income tax will also be brought down in 2013 on income based on profits derived from UK patents, making the UK a priority area for future investments, particularly in manufacturing, coinciding with Darling’s plans to double apprenticeships – which have already trebled since 1997 – especially in areas such as advanced manufacturing, low carbon, digital technologies, and biosciences.

On the other hand, news regarding the public purse has not got such a positive tone. The 1% pay rise cap for public sector workers is said to save approximately £3.4bn, which according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies leaves a gap of £15bn in the intended amount to be saved by this measure. The NHS will be safe from slashes (which also means that the budget will stay in line with inflation) meaning that other departments will have to cut around 6.2% of their budgets a year in order to make up for the shortfall – however it’s predicted to come from defence, higher education, transport and housing.

Andy Burnham is to guarantee nurses their jobs in exchange for less pay, which will involve talks with unions to come to an agreement. Plans to move nurses and treatments to community settings are another way to plan for public sector savings.

The DCSF have been told that they must cut £350 million in order to save. The money will come from central budgets, non-departmental public body efficiencies – or quangos, such as the Children’s Workforce Development Council, Children’s Commissioner and family courts body Cafcass – and will entail a review of current pilot schemes to concentrate on what interventions are actually working.

Notable news on the PBR has been the plan to cut civil servants’ salaries where they exceed £100 million. The Telegraph has reported that 806 civil servants earn 150K and over, while 8 earn over £1 million. Any public sector position with a salary of 150K or bonus of over 50K will have to go through Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, personally – all part of what Gordon Brown has called “efficiency savings”.

One plan that has received celebratory comments is the increase of 500,000 families whose children will now be eligible for free school meals. Currently the 656,000 eligible families are waged at below £16,040 and have no working families’ tax credits, whereas now families earning below £16,190 will be eligible. This move should now be furthered to rid the voucher system and replaced with school electronic cards, to rid the stigma of FSM children.

Sources: Community Care, here and here / HSJ / The Telegraph / 24dash.com

The Mental Health Helplines Partnerships, an umbrella charity assisting with other mental health helplines, have reported of notable increases in work. A spokesperson for them recently made a plea to commissioners for careful consideration at such a time, when budgets are tight, but when recession exacerbates mental health problems.

The government have responded with a 10-year mental health strategy on depression – called New Horizons   - which, in the words of Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham, represents a decade of investment in mental health services.

The programme is based on prevention in areas such as English schools and the workplace, and will be released alongside 2 further strategies to help people with mental health conditions stay in work.

Work in this field will be seen by some as a needed extension to Access to work, especially given that JobCentre plus will employ mental health specialists, as well as introducing 9 occupational health advice line pilots for small businesses.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper said that the “government was keen to help people find and retain work because evidence suggests that employment benefits a person’s mental health.”

Paul Jenkins, Chief Executive of Rethink, welcomed the government’s vision, but added that he was concerned by the government’s failure to explain how its vision would be funded. Certainly innovation in how best to operate funds and commissioning is a must, and spurred along by some of the hat tips emanating from the pre-budget report. Frontline services are to be protected at least until 2011, so a concerted effort must be made by government, and services themselves, to prepare in the best way possible for that, by devising plans to deliver quality in an economic squeeze.

One way that the government has already planned to make best use of existing services, with the intention of cutting waste and coordinating planning, is to merge health and social care commissioning functions. In a white paper, due to be published in the new year, consideration will be made for all social care funding to be delegated to Primary Care Trusts, rather than rolling out to local authorities, to avoid the “shunt” of costs from “NHS to local government and vice versa.”

Whichever way government chooses to act, innovation and quality in health and social care will have renewed focus on ideas. For this reason many council leaders seem optimistic in these times. Sensible spending and focus, not waste and speculation, should be the mode of operation in the years to come, from government through to front line.

Sources: Community Care and here / HSJ / Disability Now

The Department of Children, Schools and Families will be giving 1.6 million in extra funds to the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass) to deal with the pressure they have found themselves under, with the surge of new childcare applications.

It would seem that since the Baby P tragedy the amount of care proceedings – and therefore caseloads for social workers – have taken an increase, from 700 last year with no case backlogs, to 748 this year – the highest on record.

Some see this as a reflection on how risk averse social workers have become, and less willing to leave children at risk. Harry Fletcher – assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo), which has 650 Cafcass members and for whom have threatened Cafcass with industrial action – has pointed out that there is around 12-20 cases per worker, and that there were 916 unallocated cases last month. Anthony Douglas, chief executive of Cafcass, disputes the number of unallocated cases, suggesting that it was actually 511, but agrees that there has been an increased workload, and thus, increased pressure.

Before the release of their report Building a safe, confident future the chair of the social work task force Moira Gibb told a press conference that “individual employers should be responsible for capping social workers’ caseloads according to the complexity of cases”, and Lord Laming – who was appointed to investigate Britain’s social services on a national basis following the death of Baby Peter – in his  national review of child protection in March found caseloads for children’s social workers were “consistently high”. The question of quality and quantity in caseloads is very much a central point in social work at the moment.

Caseload caps were not able to be included in the final report, but questions on it are still circulating; namely, would caps come into conflict with a risk averse social work force?

Certainly the problem of heavy caseloads is real and apparent. Rotherham council is the latest local authority to receive an improvement notice from the government. An Ofsted report in september revealed that concerns included inaccurate records, poor auditing and increased caseloads for social workers. Leeds council, also, have had their child protection criticised by Ofsted who have bracketed it as an ‘area for priority’. Both councils have set up improvement panels, in conjunction with Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families Dawn Primarolo, who has said that she looks forward to seeing how exactly improvements are coordinated.

Ofsted also added its own criticism of Cafcass after inspections in Lancashire and Cumbria showed the authority to score inadequate for services. Their report revealed that waiting times were unsatisfactory, but Ofsted did admit that once cases were allocated they were worked on with immediate effect.

Much work is to be done before caseloads can be capped, for this puts into jeopardy children at risk, however what is also clear to see is that excessive workloads also cause damage. The task force have set the wheels in motion on easing pressure, with ideas generated from their recent report and the creation of the Royal College of Social Work, but increased focus should be put on how best to tackle the problem of quality with quantity.

Sources: The Times / CYPNow and here / Community Care

Community Care notes that:

England’s 90,000 practitioners will also have to apply for a “licence to practise” in future, with new requirements for all newly qualified social workers to complete a supported and assessed probationary year before gaining their licence.

Regulation of manageable workloads, professional supervision and time for professional development will also be dealt with in the new reforms, as well as the first Royal College of Social Work, which ‘is expected to receive £5m of government funding in its first two years of existence, after which it will become self-sufficient.’

The commitment to introduce “binding standards” on employers for caseloads, supervision and professional development comes months after the government promised to place the employers’ code of practice on a statutory footing, a change recommended by Lord Laming in his child protection review.

The Community Care article continues:

In its final report, Building a Safe, Confident Future, the taskforce also called for:

• Tougher entry criteria for social work degree courses to address “acute” concerns about poor literacy and analytical skills among a minority of students. Entrants would have to pass a written test.
• An overhaul of the social work degree through a common curriculum and robust assessments of courses.
• The system for regulating social work education to be strengthened. The General Social Care Council should implement measures to improve the monitoring of courses.
• New arrangements to ensure sufficient, high-quality practice placements, delivered in partnership by universities and employers. Required placement days should be cut from 200 to no less than 130 to help improve quality.
• Frontline social work managers and aspiring managers to receive dedicated training and support.
• A more coherent and effective system of continuing professional development, building on the current post-qualifying framework.
• A national career structure linked to the CPD framework, alongside a review of pay levels led by unions and employers to ensure salaries reflect social workers’ career development.
• A more sophisticated workforce planning system to improve recruitment.
• A campaign to improve public understanding of social work.

]]> http://carlcmp.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/report-released-today-by-social-work-taskforce/feed/ 0 carlcmp http://carlcmp.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/balls-plans-for-schools/ http://carlcmp.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/balls-plans-for-schools/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:48:01 +0000 carlcmp http://carlcmp.wordpress.com/?p=72 ]]> Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has approved the development of the first studio schools, which will offer students practical multi-disciplinary learning and paid work.

300 14-19 year olds will mix national curriculum with enterprise-themed practical learning, as well as participating in paid work experience.

“Balls said: “There are lots of students who will learn better through developing their natural interest in business or practical skills rather than spending most of their time sitting in a traditional classroom. These first two schools will also provide a model for other studio schools to develop across the country.”"

(More)

…

“Mr Lansley explained that the Comprehensive model for social care – which would require everyone over retirement age with sufficient savings or assets to pay into a state insurance scheme – amounts to a new tax, and the Conservatives would not support it. Instead, the party favours an optional model similar to the Partnership and Insurance model in the Care and Support green paper.”

…

The Big Care Debate moves into Parliament today, with MPs debating the care and support green paper in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, the Health Select Committee begins its inquiry into social care.

For more see here and for more on the Big Care Debate see here