Transcript Postcard from Scotland…

Young people:
throughcare, transitions,
integration and reintegration
Claire Lightowler
[email protected]
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Layers of transitions
• Childhood to adulthood
• Supported to independent living
• Custodial setting to the community
• Education to employment
• Youth to adult justice
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Scotland 2012-13
• 4.7% of children involved in offending (23,726
kids)
• Charged with 43,117 crimes
• Young people responsible for 16% of all crimes &
offences
Scottish Government (2013) Scottish Policing Performance Framework,
2012-13.
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Fall in detected offences
between 2008/9 and 2012/13
10%
0%
-4%
-10%
-20%
-45%
-30%
-40%
-50%
youth (under 18)
www.cycj.org.uk
adult (18+)
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
No. children referred to the
children’s reporter on offence
grounds
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Prison population – under 21.
10 October 2014
young men: 410 | young women: 29
Young women: 7% (5% of adults)
Untried: 26% of under 21s (16% of adults)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
% change in prison receptions
2002-03 to 2010-11
20%
9%
10%
0%
-10%
-20%
-41%
-30%
-40%
-50%
youth
www.cycj.org.uk
adult
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
2718 young people leaving prison
2011-12
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Secure care population
• 90 beds - 2 beds available (15 October 2014)
• 35% girls (31 July 2013)
• 51% are aged 16 or over (31 July 2013)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Secure admissions 2002/03 to
2011/12
400
350
346
250
314
307
300
276
272
273
258
251
242
237
200
150
124
112
100
94
94
93
94
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
100
106
112
2009-10
2010-11
94
50
0
www.cycj.org.uk
2006-07
2007-08
Admissions
Places
2008-09
2011-12
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Secure discharges
350
300
250
200
Close support
Secure
150
100
50
0
2011
www.cycj.org.uk
2012
2013
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Around 3000 young people
transitioning from custody or secure
each year
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
“Since I turned eight it’s just been a life of jail. I
must have spent about a year since I turned
eight, with my mum and dad, the rest of its
just been in and out of secure, in and out of
residential and now this”
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
“this is the fifth time I’ve been in jail and I’m
only 17. I’ve not actually had a chance to
prove I can work. Every time I get out I stay
with my mum, but I end up getting chucked
out because I smoke weed and I end up sitting
out my nut every day in my house”
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
“I’ve been locked up most of my life so I’m
used to being locked up. Jail doesn’t bother
me. I’m in that routine now where I’ve always
been in trouble from a young age, so it doesn’t
really bother me”
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Care leavers: Key concerns
1) having to go back to abusive/problematic
families
2) feeling alone and abandoned
3) poor accommodation
4) no support from services and
5) experiencing homelessness.
310 care leavers aged 17 –78
Duncalf (2010)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Bereavement and Loss
“How many more people do I have to see die?
I’m only 19 and that’s five people died already
and I keep thinking to myself ‘are the rest of
them gonna die?’ And then I’ll grow up alone”
(Vaswani, 2014)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Bereavement and loss
• 33 young men in Polmont YOI
• 91% had experienced at least one
bereavement
• Over three-quarters experienced traumatic
bereavements (murder, suicide, overdose)
• Two-thirds suffering from substantial
bereavements (four or more)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Seasons for growth
• Polmont YOI trying out new group work
programme -Seasons for Growth.
• Designed to help people deal with loss.
• Weekly sessions 8 weeks
• First time anyone has run Seasons for Growth
in a Young Offenders Institution.
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Interventions for vulnerable
youth (IVY)
• Young people presenting a significant risk to
others
• Scotland wide service – free for use
• Forensic and clinical psychology, and social
work
• Level 1 - consultation clinic
• Level 2 - specialist clinical forensic psychology
assessment.
• Level 3 - (specialist treatment)
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Mental Health
• IVY project –September 2013
• All had input from social work services and
looked after status
• 76% exposed to domestic violence
• 88% experienced some other form of
maltreatment
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Psychological/Mental Disorders
Diagnosed or Suspected Difficulty
Anger
Anxiety
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Attachment Disorder
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Communication Disorder
Complex Post Traumatic Stress
Deliberate Self-Harm
Dissociation
Eating Difficulties
Emotional Dysregulation
Learning Disability
Low Mood
Oppositional Defiant/Conduct Disorder
Psychosis
Sleep Difficulties
Substance Misuse Difficulties (Alcohol/Drugs)
Suicidal Ideation/Action
Thought Disorder
Toileting Difficulties
Tourette’s Syndrome
Unusual perceptual experiences
n
9
3
12
7
10
2
12
12
3
3
7
3
2
2
2
2
15
8
1
3
1
4
N=30
MEAN = 4
Edinburgh Study of Youth
Transitions & Crime
• Cohort of 4,300 young people who started
secondary school in Edinburgh in 1998
“school exclusion is a key moment impacting
adversely on subsequent conviction
trajectories”
(McAra and McVie, 2010)
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Polmont study
• At least 80% of the young men had
experienced exclusion from school (in 20% of
cases there was no mention of this)
• High levels of school exclusions at primary
school age
• However, the majority had some positive
experience of education
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Speech, language &
communication needs
• Prevalence in the youth justice population
between 50% and 60% (UK wide)
• Survey of Scottish local authorities (17
responses received)
• 35% reported that their area used tools to
assess children and young people for SLCN
• Only 41% reported that there were services
or interventions available in their areas to
support young people with SLCN
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Outside In, Youth Work
service
• Outside In, Youth Work service
• Provided in Cornton Vale and Polmont for young
people between 16-21
• Delivered by Barnardo's Scotland in partnership
with Caledonia Youth
• Informal education: duke of Edinburgh, music,
health and well-being, film making, arts and
crafts, mental health, anti-bullying, alternatives
to violence
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
“Last time I got out the women from Plan B
helped me get a college course but when they
got back to me I was in court and I ended up
getting the jail”
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Activity agreements
• Young people who without additional
support might not successfully transition to
work, further education or training
• Formal agreement between a young person
and an advisor
• early identification of those in need of
additional support
• Might receive Education Maintenance
Allowance (EMA) for complying
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Activity agreements and
youth justice pilot
• 10 local authority areas
• To better identify and support young people
at risk of disengaging from learning
• To provide them with bespoke learning to
prevent them entering the justice system
• Establish a joint coherent approach between
WSA and Activity Agreements
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Polmont – supports
• Young men’s mothers were the main support
for 34%.
• Other sources of support: fathers, stepparents, relatives, friends and girlfriends
• Sources of support not noted in 27% of cases
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Supports for the family
• Family help hubs – Cornton Vale (Sept 2013),
Polmont (2014)
• Family group conferencing
• Family mentoring
• Multi-systemic therapy
• Specialist fostering
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Transition package – secure
care
Good Shepherd offer transition packages
including:
• Individual support in the community
• Continuation of programmes
• Family support work
• CBT
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Polmont - accommodation
• 49% young men were residing with their
parent(s) prior to entering custody.
• 59% intended to go home to live with their
parent following their release
• Benefit implications – bedroom tax etc.
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Research suggests that most young people
return to their family of origin on leaving
secure care and prison establishments
regardless of suitability (Gray, 2011)
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Ordinary Homes –
Extraordinary Lives
• Young people leaving Polmont
• Facing homelessness
• Each young person supported by a mentor
• Live with the mentor on release, who
supports their reintegration
• Mentors receive specialist training
• Young people and mentors matched
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Peer support & Advocacy
• 28 young
people’s groups
• 340 young
people involved
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Transitions and Polmont YOI
• Social work reports for 125 young men
• November 2012-October 2013
• 11 interviews
• 6% of reports specifically indicated that
throughcare provisions were in place
• 59% of cases there was no specific reference to
throughcare
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
“All young people should have a multiagency single plan that moves with them
regardless of where they are placed or live.
..In secure care or the prison setting, the key
worker or personal officer should act as the
named person, with the local authority
where the child resides maintaining the role
as lead professional to ensure effective
transitions for these young people.”
Scottish Government (2011) Reintegration & Transitions; Guidance for Local
Authorities, Community Planning Partnerships and Service Providers, Scottish
Government, Edinburgh (p.16)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Funding issues
• Used to be up to £10k transition fund per
young person for leaving secure - now
withdrawn
• Assistance, including financial provided
under section 29 (Children (Scotland) Act
1995)
• What will the impact of the Children and
Young People’s Act be?
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Cost of return…
Average cost per young person per year:
• HMYOI Polmont - £32,371
• Secure care - £268,320
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developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Evidence suggests that young people who
leave custody with a lack of resources and
support have a higher risk of returning to
custody, particularly when there is limited coordination between agencies
(Griffiths et al., 2007)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
What works…
• Holistic - reintegration strategies that
produce the most favourable results
(Bateman, Hazel and Wright, 2013)
• Support integrated across custody and in the
community
• Long-term support
• Build connections to parents, school, training
providers, employers, community
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Partners need to:
• Work together to plan for a young person’s return
to their communities
• Involve the young person and their family where
appropriate in all planning
• Start the planning process the day the young
person enters into the establishment
• Ensure organisations responsible for meeting the
young person’s needs are involved and ready for
their return (including employment/training;
accommodation; health services; financial support,
leisure/recreation)
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
Supporting the transition
• Prior issues/needs
• Responding to issues exacerbated by youth
justice
• Building strengths and capacities
• Maximise opportunities to use skills
• Maintaining, building and strengthening
community connections and relationships
• Building capacity of parent(s)/sources of
support
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice
www.cycj.org.uk
www.cycj.org.uk
developing, supporting & understanding youth justice