Agenda item

This report outlines some of the common themes and considerations in working with Looked After Children (LAC) within the youth justice system and known to the Brent Youth Offending Service (YOS). The report sets out learning from the Youth Justice Board’s response to the Laming Report, considers the links with data held across the Children and Young People’s Department, identifies areas of improved joint practice between the YOS and LAC teams and considers a recent YOS Critical Learning Review.

Nigel Chapman introduced the report which provided an overview of the common themes and considerations of working with LAC within the youth justice system and those known to the Brent Youth Offending Service (YOS). He outlined that the data as of June 2017 had shown that there were 32 LAC young people who were the subject of a youth justice court order and subsequently under YOS supervision. He explained the data within the report which highlighted that the majority of this group tended to be: males; over 16; of black African or Caribbean heritage; not in employment, education or training (NEET); and that violence or drug offences accounted for 50% of the crimes. He emphasised that it was considerably more likely that young people would offend before they entered care, rather than offending whilst in care itself.

Sue Gates (the Council’s Head of Early Help) continued and gave the Committee an overview of the four common themes identified by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) into why there was an overrepresentation of LAC with court orders compared to young people with court orders in the general population. The themes included: the complex emotional needs of young people if attachments were not formed early in their care placement; multiple placement breakdown for teenagers leading to greater instability; young people living in areas of high crime and deprivation; and the management of behaviour in residential homes varying which resulted in inconsistent outcomes. She also drew the Committee’s attention to the statistics on paragraph 3.6 of the report which highlighted that, within Brent, the number of young people sentenced and in custody was eleven, of which five were LAC.  

Onder Beter (the Council’s Head of LAC and Permanency Exclusion) stated that the issues raised within the report remained a challenge and required different service areas to work closely together in response. He highlighted the various different operational partnership working arrangements which had been developed between the Brent YOS and social work teams. Members also heard about the different strategic level initiatives which were being carried out to better understand and respond to the challenges of young people caught up in the youth justice system (as detailed within paragraph 4.6 of the report). Mr Beter also spoke about the recent Critical Learning Review (CLR) which had been prepared in February 2017 and analysed a very serious incident of a LAC who had been charged and later convicted of murder. He concluded and re-iterated that joint partnership working was critical to improved outcomes for LAC within the youth justice system.

The Chair welcomed the comprehensive report and invited Members and CIA representatives to ask questions. A Member of the Committee referenced that ten looked after young people who had been in care for more than a year had received a final warning, reprimand or conviction from 2013 to 2016 and questioned whether more could be avoided through earlier intervention. Sue Gates said that the methods to improve early interventions were being assessed, but she also highlighted that by the time of the final warning many of the issues surrounding the young person were already very complex and that the individual may already be too emotionally withdrawn to be receptive to any support aimed at behavioural changes.     

(Councillor Conneely joined the meeting at 6.31pm)

A CIA representative questioned what support was available for LAC with emotionally complex problems. Sue Gates said that training had been provided to LAC and YOS staff to enable them to understand emotional trauma in young people and different types of therapeutic approaches to try to prevent any problems from escalating. She also mentioned the mentoring scheme and the work of the Early Help Panel to help to identify the level of support that the young person required. 

It was RESOLVED that the report be noted.