Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education & Skills to present the recommendation of the People & Health Overview Committee.

The Cabinet member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills presented the recommendation from People and Health Overview Committee to recommend approval of the Plan to Full Council.

It was proposed by Cllr C Sutton and seconded by Cllr S Bartlett

Recommendation to Full Council

That the Youth Justice Plan be approved.

Reason for the decision

Youth Justice Services were required to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan which should be approved by the Local Authority for that Youth Justice Service. Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service works across both Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. Approval is therefore sought from both Dorset Council and from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

To consider a report of the Head of Service – Dorset Combines Youth Justice Service.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills introduced the report.

The Head of Service for the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service outlined the report and the annual Youth Justice Plan. He highlighted the key points in the report, which included how the Youth Justice Plan meets the statutory guidance, performance and priorities for the year ahead.

Members discussed the report and asked questions of officers. The following points were raised:

·         Since the report was written, the annual grant allocation had now been provided with a 1.5% increase.

·         The Re-Engage Programme was used to identify which children at risk of exclusion had speech, language and communication needs. Since September 2024, 70 children had referrals to the programme and 70% of those assessed had communication needs, which would not have been known without the assessment.

·         The Re-Engage programme was operating in Key Stage 3, however it has been used for some children in Year 6.

·         The Re-Engage programme was funded for 2 years.

·         Dorset HealthCare has a speech and language champion for every school, so community provision can provide speech and language support outside of the Re-Engage programme.

·         The Youth Justice Partnership Board would review the Re-Engage programme in July. The Board would review the programme’s effectiveness and how it could be sustained.

·         There were no local places for children to be kept in custody, due to the very low numbers of local children needing to be kept in custody. This could create disruption for families and friends of those children.

·         Core funding was used for maintaining a good Youth Justice service, however short-term funding, such as Lottery Heritage funding, was used for some projects and programmes.

·         There was a difference in health commissioning arrangements across Dorset for diagnosing ADHD in young people. This caused some differences in arrangements for young people in the East Dorset area.

·         The 21 young people taking part in employment and training programmes had not taken part in a structured evaluation of the programme. This could be added to the action plan to ensure feedback is collected.

·         Speech and language therapy was a resource that social workers could access for children on the edge of care.

·         Children’s Services Localities worked with the Youth Justice Service for some families or specific areas.

Proposed by Cllr Jones, seconded by Cllr Holloway.

Decision:

That the Youth Justice Plan 2025/26 be endorsed and to recommend that Cabinet recommends its approval to Council.