Report and presentation of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services)

The Youth Justice Plan outlines in detail the vision, priorities, performance, and impact being achieved.

The Committee considered the report and presentation of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services whichoutlined the vision, priorities, performance, and impact being achieved in preventing and diverting children and young people from the criminal justice system.

Key points and themes in the report and presentation included:

• Vision and strategy;

• Governance and leadership arrangements;

• Youth Justice service model;

• Progress against priorities from 2022/23;

• Impact and feedback;

• Priorities for 2023/24; and

• Innovation and developments.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the progress made and the joined-up working that was taking place;
• How robust was the diagnosis of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD);
• Where schemes used mentors, how were they recruited and trained and did they reflect the culture and heritage of the children they were supporting;
• Requesting further detail of the early intervention work; and
• The over-representation of mixed heritage and black boys in the Criminal Justice system and what were officers doing to try to understand their lived experience.

In response to the question about FASD, the Assistant Director (Early Intervention and Prevention) reported that work was taking place to improve awareness of this from the Early Years.  She advised that there was a higher prevalence of additional needs among children in the Youth Justice system and she outlined some of the support available, including speech and language therapy and psychotherapy, as well as the role of Personal Education Plans.  She stated that it was important to ensure that children had the right diagnosis and to look behind the behaviour and acknowledged that this was an area for further work.  In response to Members’ questions, she outlined some of the work taking place in different parts of the city to prevent and divert children and young people from the criminal justice system including community pilots, work in schools and Youth Zones and work by Greater Manchester Police (GMP).  She informed Members about the key elements of the early intervention work, which included bringing partners together to identify issues early, co-ordination and leadership, restorative practices and mentoring and looking at the wider offer for the family.  In response to a Member’s comments, she recognised that the role of communities and families was crucial and outlined some of the work taking place.  In response to a Member’s question, she confirmed that there were plans to use remand fostering in future.  In response to a question about supporting young people into employment, she stated that the service worked with Careers Connect and the Virtual School and a range of partners on this.  In response to a further question, she said that she could provide the Member with the requested data on the demographic profile of staff.

The Head of Youth Justice reported that Youth Justice mentors were volunteers from the community, that children were matched with volunteers from their own communities, that they tried to ensure that mentors were culturally appropriate and that they were well-trained.  He outlined some of the other support his service offered to children which included a musician-in-residence and an artist-in-residence, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), psychotherapy, including art therapy and drama therapy, specialist Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Restorative Practitioners, who taught children how to problem solve and worked with children on their identity and self-esteem.  He stated that this work took place within a participatory youth practice framework and a trauma-informed, strength-based approach.

In response to a Member’s question, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services stated that engagement with children on preventative work needed to start at the top end of primary school as it was a key stage of transition at which they were becoming more independent and influenced by peers.

Superintendent Chris Downey from GMP informed the Committee about child-centred policing, stating that in many circumstances this included not criminalising the child but that it needed to go beyond this and include taking the right action to prevent them from entering the Criminal Justice system in future, looking at the causes of the behaviour, how to prevent a reoccurrence and consulting with partners to find the right support for the child.

The Head of Youth Justice acknowledged that there was a lot of work to do to address the over-representation of mixed heritage and black boys in the Criminal Justice system.  He stated that his service now had a very diverse staff, including in leadership and management roles, which helped to challenge their practice, language and decision-making, and that staff had received extensive training in this area.  He stated that the participatory youth practice framework, which underpinned the work of the service, was about fairness, equality, children’s rights and understanding children’s lived experiences and how that had influenced their presenting behaviours, which staff then articulated to the courts.  He stated that his service was collaborating with AFRUCA, to strengthen its approach, including having a Culture and Identity Worker who worked with children on identity and self-esteem.  A Member stated that it was important for staff in Youth Justice to receive training to begin to understand and empathise with the lived experience of these children.  The Assistant Director (Early Intervention and Prevention) reported that all staff in Youth Justice had attended Let’s Talk About Race and Unconscious Bias training as well as work led by staff within the service.  The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services reported that the Council was currently undertaking the discovery phase of the Child Friendly City work and that it was likely that identity, including racism and discrimination, would emerge as a key area of importance raised by the children and young people.  Therefore, he suggested that the issues raised by the Member could be addressed in the report that the Committee was due to receive on the Child Friendly City work, as this would include how the city was responding to what young people said was important to them.

The Chair suggested that it would be useful for Members to undertake Unconscious Bias training.

In response to a question from the Chair on the use of stop-and-search on young black men, Superintendent Chris Downey acknowledged that this was disproportionate, although in Manchester the data indicated that the use of stop-and-search was intelligence-led, as approximately 20% of stop-and-searches had positive outcomes and around 18% led to arrests, which compared well nationally.  He stated that the use of stop-and-search was targeted on crime hotspots and based on intelligence, being proactive in particular areas based on this, but that the result was that young black men were disproportionately stopped and searched and he outlined the work taking place to review why this was happening.

The Chair of the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee welcomed the report, while recognising that there was more work to be done.  She asked officers about Manchester children attending schools outside of the city’s boundaries and joined up working across local authority boundaries.  She also commented on the importance of embedding the poverty strand of equalities into this work and expressed concern about understaffing in the Complex Safeguarding Hub.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services assured Members that there were protocols for working across local authority boundaries and good relationships and communication with neighbouring authorities.

The Chair highlighted the role of and responsibility of schools in managing pupil behaviour, in partnership with families, communities and partner agencies, and how behaviour by Looked After Children was responded to and how that differed from the ways families might treat their own children who had committed a minor offence at home.  She informed Members about the planned visit to Wetherby Young Offenders Institution in September.  She expressed concern that a request to visit Barton Moss Secure Children’s Home had not been approved.  She also commented on the impact of the pandemic and delays in court hearings. 

The Deputy Leader emphasised the depth and breadth of the work taking place and the complexity of the context this work was taking place in.  He highlighted the impact of child poverty and commented, that, while Making Manchester Fairer would work to address this, more investment from the national Government was also needed.

Decision

That Unconscious Bias training be made available to Members.