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MERTON COUNCIL
Merton Youth Crime and Prevention Executive Board (YCPEB)
Board Members’ Induction Pack
August 2019
Contents:
1. YCPEB strategic priorities.
2. Principles and aims of the Youth Justice Service.
3. Youth Crime and Prevention Executive Board (YCPEB) governance.
4. Merton YCPEB partnership arrangements.
5. What is the role of Merton’s YCPEB?
6. Membership and attendance of the YCPEB.
7. What are your key responsibilities as a member of the YCPEB?
8. How will we work effectively together?
9. What does an effective YCPEB look like?
10. Calendar of management meetings
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Appendices:
1. Legal basis for a YOT.
2. Modern Youth Offending Partnerships: Guidance on effective YOT governance in England
3. Merton Children and Young People’s Plan 2019-23
4. YCPEB Terms of Reference.
5. Equalities Statement.
6. Merton Youth Justice and Crime Prevention Plan 2019-2024.
7. Ministry of Justice, annual youth justice statistics.
8. Youth Offending Services Inspection (see Domain 1 rules and guidance)
9. Glossary
1. Youth Crime and Prevention Executive Board (YCPEB) strategic priorities:
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The strategic priorities of the YCPEB and how these will be achieved are
set out in our key business plan: Merton Youth Justice and Crime
Prevention Plan 2019-2024. The strategic priorities are as follows:
Develop closer joint working relationships in order to integrate
and improve early help services for vulnerable children, young people
and families and to improve outcomes for youth justice, social care
and SEND (special educational needs and/or disabilities) cohorts.
Develop early mental health pathways to address the link between
mental health problems and risk of offending.
Ensure best use of data to target, divert and prevent – a better
understanding of trends, connections and areas of priority to facilitate
crime reduction.
Addressing disproportionality to reduce bias in the recognition,
referral and responses to young people in the Youth Justice Service.
Creative education solutions which support young people at risk
disengagement from education including reducing exclusions and a
developing a vocationally led provision which provide opportunities to
gain work skills, legitimate income and a sense of self-worth.
Continue to take a ‘Think Family’ approach to support including
issues related to poverty, housing, domestic violence and early help
via our Transforming Families Team.
2. Principles of the YCPEB:
Prevention: To promote, through targeted programmes, with
children, young people and their families, responsibility, resilience
and law-abiding behaviour to prevent their further involvement in
criminality.
Victims: To support children and young people exposed to
victimisation by promoting personal safety and confidence among
children and young people thus reducing the fear of crime.
Risk / Offending: Utilising legislation and YJB guidance, respond
through a range and diversity of partnership / multi-agency responses
to the individual needs of young people who have offended and those
vulnerable children and young people at risk of offending within the
wider community.
Safeguarding Responsibilities: To ensure that the health and well
being of all children and young people receiving a service from Youth
Justice and prevention services are fully safeguarded. and where
there are ‘risk’ issues (around serious harm / adverse outcomes / self
harm) these are effectively managed especially those involved in
serious youth violence / gang activity.
Enforcement: To ensure that those young people who fail to comply
with their court orders are promptly returned to court. Where there
are criminal activities / antisocial behaviour involving young people /
groups that require enforcement activities these should be planned
and implemented via multi-agency initiatives especially through the
available Risk Management Panels.
3. Youth Crime and Prevention Executive Board (YCPEB) governance.
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Merton’s Children’s Trust welcomes you to
Merton’s Youth Crime and Prevention
Executive Board (YCPEB). The board is a
high level multi agency forum consisting of
Senior Managers responsible for the work of
the YOT (Youth Offending Team) Partnership
of which the Youth Justice Team (Merton’s
Youth Offending Team) is the principal
operational member.
The Board oversees Merton’s response to
new legislation, the HMIP inspection regime,
and its local crime reduction and prevention
initiatives. It monitors issues concerning risk
and safeguarding and ensures staff and
resourcing levels are in place to maintain
performance and effectiveness within the
Youth Justice Team and any services
delivering the provision of youth crime
prevention. The board’s business plan is the
Merton Youth Justice and Crime
Prevention Plan 2019-2024.
As the image (right) illustrates the YCPEB
reports to Merton’s Children’s Trust Board
(CTB) and the Safer and Stronger Partnership
– these are subgroups of the overarching
Merton Partnership (Merton’s Local Strategic
Partnership). The CTB business plan is the
Children and Young People’s Plan 2019-23.
This sets out how children’s trust services will
work in partnership to improve outcomes for
all youngsters and their families in all realms
of their lives.
Merton
Safeguarding
Children
Partnership
4. Merton YCPEB Partnership arrangements.
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The Youth Crime and Prevention Executive Board (YCPEB) acts as the
‘YOT Partnership Board’, meeting quarterly and taking responsibility for the
management, oversight and strategic direction of the borough’s youth justice
and prevention services, including the staffing arrangements, resourcing and
delivery of services.
Our Youth Justice Team (YJT) is a multi-agency service with case practitioners
and specialist practitioners, many of whom are from partner agencies. The
team is part of the Adolescent and Family Service (AFS) that sits within
Children’s Social Care and Youth Inclusion (under Children, Schools and
Families Directorate).
Youth Justice Team Managers continue to contribute to key groups such as
the Merton Safeguarding Children Partnership (MSCP); Promote and Protect
Young People; and the Think Family Strategy Group. And, the Youth Justice
Team Manager is a member of the MSCP and its Quality Assurance sub
group, and is a lead for ‘contextual safeguarding’.
Communication with the courts is through the Youth Court User Group and
Court User Group, with a Youth Panel magistrate being a member of the
YCPEB. .
The YCPEB aims to ensure that the needs of young offenders are on the
agenda across criminal justice and children’s welfare services and are able to
input into relevant planning processes.
The board also works in partnership with young people: A termly ‘Youth Board’
consisting of young people open to the Youth Justice Team is held to discuss
issues on service delivery and to influence improvement planning. This
information is fed back to the YCPEB along with ‘key case studies’ which the
board discuss, reflect on and problem solve. We are also currently developing
a ‘peer leadership’ group of young people who have ‘exited’ the service and
who will become a member of the YCPEB.
1. The YCPEB encourages and facilitate ‘supportive challenge’ across agencies and
services to deliver better services and outcomes. This includes:
• Sharing analysis which helps design effective action and robust evaluation.
• Sharing information to keep young people safe and prevent crime.
• Telling the people who need to know about the role of the YCPEB and how it achieves
its strategic objectives.
• Being honest and transparent
• Striving for value for money decisions including on commissioning and co-
commissioning of services
2. It is vital for the YCPEB to promote public confidence in the work of the YJT among
children’s, community and justice services. We do this by:
• Engagement with service users and victims, transparency in our dealings with partners
and the public, by telling stories of shared success and learning if things go wrong.
• Deepening our engagement with communities, services users, victims of crime and
voluntary and community groups so that we can evaluate and develop our provision,
and build public knowledge, engagement and confidence in our work.
3. We take steps to continue learning from experience elsewhere by:
• Running a service using highly skilled and motivated staff, learning from experience,
using evidence and by continually looking for opportunities to improve our work.
4.1 Good practice in partnership working:
5. What is the role of Merton’s YCPEB?
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The Board provides oversight, support and challenge to Youth Justice Services in
Merton in order to:
• reduce reoffending.
• reduce first time entrants into the Youth Justice system.
• reduce use of custody.
These are the three targets the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales sets
for all Youth Offending Teams.
In addition our YCPEB monitors and reports on performance against targets for
young people supervised by the Youth Justice Team:
• Reduce the use of custody (custodial sentences).
• Support young people engaging in education, training and employment.
• Ensure equal treatment regardless of race.
• Support access to appropriate accommodation.
• Measure of pre sentence report (PSR) Concordance.
• The Level of Compliance with all Orders.
• Restorative Justice: Contact with victims and engagement in restorative justice
(indirect or direct) processes
Progress on these targets is monitored by the regularly produced Youth Justice
Board dashboard which is presented at each YCPEB meeting.
Modern Youth Offending Partnerships: Guidance on effective YOT
governance in England (2014) sets out guidance on the general and specific
requirements for the provision of local youth justice services and their management
arrangements. Merton’s YCPEB has been established with reference to the
following aspects of the guidance:
1. Role of a YOT management board:
• determine how the YOT is to be composed and funded, how it is to operate and
what functions it is to carry out;
• determine how appropriate youth justice services are to be provided and funded;
• oversee the formulation each year of a draft youth justice plan;
• oversee the appointment or designation of a YOT manager;
• as part of the youth justice plan, agree measurable objectives linked to key
performance indicators, including the National Standards for Youth Justice.
2. Good governance of a YOT management board:
There are many different local arrangements that may achieve appropriate
governance and oversight of youth justice services. However, evidence
suggests that this is most likely to be achieved where there is a clearly
identifiable management board with responsibility for:
• leadership and oversight of youth justice services
• contributing to local multi-agency strategies and work with local and national
• criminal justice organisations
• safeguarding children and young people who receive youth justice services.
• Management boards that effectively discharge these responsibilities are likely to
• ensure an integrated approach to youth crime prevention, offending and victims
• of crime.
5.1 Statutory requirements:
6. Membership of the YCPEB
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Core membership
Our YCPEB’s core membership is drawn from senior managers from within the
council and other statutory and community agencies who are able to advise and
take strategic oversight for the response to youth crime and prevention within the
borough. Members are be responsible for representing the views of the
partnerships and / or organisation they are representing at the meeting, and for
keeping their respective partnerships and/or organisation up to date on progress.
Members are as follows:
• Director of Children, Schools and Families Department (Chair)
• Police Borough Commander – Merton (Vice Chair in absence of the Chair).
• Assistant Chief Probation Officer Merton, London Probation.
• Assistant Director - Head of Social Care and Youth Inclusion.
• CCG Representative – Merton CCG.
• Head of Education – LBM.
• Appointed YOT Manager - Youth Justice Team.
• Transforming Families Manager – Family and Adolescent Service.
• Clerk to the Justices - Wimbledon Magistrates Court.
• Safer Merton Manager – Safer Merton.
• Service Manager – Housing Needs Manager.
• Senior Representative from the Voluntary Sector and Faith / Communities
Manager - Cultural / Equalities Services – Merton.
• Senior Representative from identified ‘prevention services’ delivering services
as per the Youth Justice Plan or YJB National Standards.
The Chair of the board is appointed at the discretion of Merton Council’s Chief Executive. Their role at meetings is to ensure that the agenda is adhered to within the time scales set down. The YCPEB authorises the Chair to act on its behalf between meetings and to report items of Chairs action(s) to the YCPEB at its meetings, particularly action(s) agreed that have been delegated by the YCPEB. They may be called upon to act as an ambassador for Merton’s YCPEB to other external bodies, or attending public functions and other such occasions as appropriate.
Rachael Wardell has been Merton’s Director of Children, Schools and Families since May 2018 and is the current chair of Merton’s YCPEB. Following a 20 year career in the private and public sectors, including seven years with Ofsted, Rachael took up a local government role as Children’s Commissioner at Wokingham Borough, Berkshire, in 2009. She spent a further nine years in Berkshire, first as Assistant Director for Early Help and Community Support in Wokingham and from 2013 as Director of Communities
(combining the statutory roles of Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services), in West Berkshire before joining the London Borough of Merton. Rachael chairs the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Workforce Development Policy Committee. She is also a board member of The Staff College and a board member and trustee of Skills for Care and Become charities.
"Welcome to the Youth Crime and Prevention Executive Board, I look forward to working with you to shape our crime prevention priorities and plans. I would like to invite you to meet the team and perhaps shadow some of our work. We are based on the 2nd Floor Annex in the Civic Centre - please phone 020 8274 4949 and ask to speak to one of the Operational Managers to arrange a visit. We are proud to maintain a multiagency team with seconded staff from across the partnership so you may also wish to link with your seconded staff member to find out more about their work in the team. We represent Merton at the Wimbledon Magistrates Court once a week on a Wednesday and we can arrange for you to observe our work there too".
Roberta Evans is the Head of the Adolescent and Family Service, which includes the Youth Justice Team. She acts as the Designated YOT manager and provides a link between the team and the board. Roberta has worked in Youth Justice since she graduated as a social worker in 1998 and after moving to London in 2003 she has worked in three youth offending teams and has achieved a Professional Doctorate in Youth Justice from Bedfordshire University. She has been the YOT Manager at Merton since 2014.
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Attendance
All members will attempt to send a named substitute to meetings that they
are unable to attend.
If a YCPEB member misses more than two consecutive meetings without
sending apologies / substitute or three with apologies then the chair on
behalf of the Board will write to that member. If non-attendance continues
then the Chair on behalf of the YCPEB will write to the senior person of that
agency requesting a replacement. This would also apply to any sub
committees / working groups established.
Attendees by invitation
From time to time there will be the need for others to attend the meetings.
These people will be formally invited to the meetings and their attendance
will be agreed where possible at the previous meeting to that which they
attend. This would include the Regional Manager - Youth Justice Board – at
least once a year.
6.1 Attendance
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7. What are your key responsibilities as a member of Merton’s YCPEB?
As a member of the board you are responsible for the following:
Strategic direction: relating to crime and its prevention in the borough, involving
statutory partners (Local Authority, Police, Probation, Health and Education) and
additional partners with capacity and authority to negotiate with services on matters
concerning the Youth Crime and Prevention agendas without having to refer back to the
‘chief officer’.
Resources: Oversee the composition and funding arrangements of the Youth Justice
Team and how services are provided or funded, and the appointment designation of the
team manager.
Oversee formulation of Youth Justice Plan ensuring this meets Crime and Disorder
Act requirements and Youth Justice board guidance, and is monitored and reviewed
throughout the year.
Manage the performance of the Youth Crime and Prevention agendas, agreeing and
monitoring measurable objectives linked to key performance indicators. Ensure delivery
of principal aim at a local level, oversight of partnership agencies and particular oversight
of the performance of the Youth Justice Team and Transforming Families Team.
Inspection readiness: Support and direct the YCPEB’s preparation for inspections.
Ensure the Youth Justice Team and partners delivering Youth Crime and Prevention
initiatives are kept up to date of HMIP Inspection Frameworks and Reports, review
quality assurance and auditing processes and ensure subsequent action plans are
monitored.
Oversee Safeguarding and Risk processes within the Youth Justice Team and
prevention services to help raise standards and aid greater consistency in the work with
young people. Receive updates from the chair of the Youth Offending Management Panel
and ensure ongoing robust multi-agency partnership responses occur with the most high
risk and vulnerable young people. The YCPEB to have authority to resolve any partnership disputes for high profile cases.
Support partnership working: ensure that the YCPEB has effective
communications across services and adequate resources to meet its workload
commitments and gaps in provision.
Make recommendations to the ‘Safer and Stronger Merton Executive
Board’ and Children’s Trust regarding the work of the YCPEB and highlight
where funding is required to meet targets.
Share and receive information from other boards (Children Missing Education,
Substance Misuse, Promote and Protect, Offender Management) that will help address youth crime reduction and its prevention within the Borough.
6a. What are your ‘partnership commitments’ as a member of the board?
Harness the involvement of all participating agencies providing services to
young people and families. This needs to take full account of Section 17* of
the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment
of Offenders Act 2012, Children’s Acts (2004) and other relevant legislation.
Ensure communication between partner agencies in identifying and
resolving issues that might affect the success of implementing local crime
reduction initiatives to reduce and prevent youth crime and safeguard and
minimise risks to young people.
Ensure all key agencies contribute towards the YCPEB either with staff or
‘in kind’ and that the YJT is resourced in order to meet its legal and statutory
responsibilities.
Ensure that the strategy development of the YCPEB and implementation of
practice is inclusive and responsive to the needs of Merton’s diverse
community
Ensure that service user views (especially those of YP) and comments are
routinely collected about service provision.
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8. How will we work effectively together?
Induction
The YCPEB will support induction of new board members by setting up initial
meetings with the Chair of the board or the Youth Justice Team Manager to:
• work through the induction papers.
• clarify roles, responsibilities and skill set.
• Visit the YJT to see work in progress (if desired)
Attendance and substitutes
The board requires prioritisation of attendance by members who have the right
decision making seniority. Sending substitutes should be a rare occurrence but
any substitute must have delegated authority for that meeting.
Conflicts of interest
All members of the board share responsibility for all aspects of the board’s
business. Should there be an agenda item which may, or may be seen to,
pose a conflict of interest they should seek guidance from the chair and if
necessary withdraw from that discussion.
Papers to board meetings
• Will usually be of a standard format so that the board can easily navigate
complexity of issues, understand choices and make effective decisions.
• Will be circulated one week before board meeting
• Minutes will be distributed following the meeting
Annual review
As part of the annual cycle, the board will:
• review its effectiveness against national standards and plan its own
development.
• formulate strategic goals for the YOT Partnership
The agenda will contain certain core items that will appear each meeting, as well as
meeting specific items.
The agenda will always include:
• Welcome/ apologies
• Outstanding actions
• Minutes of the last meeting
• Communications
• Performance (Dashboard - KPIs and YCPEB targets)
• Youth Justice:
YJT Manager’s report - Finance / Staffing / Initiatives
• Prevention:
Transforming Families report - TF Performance / initiatives
• Youth Justice Plan and Youth Crime Prevention Strategy
• Inspections update / Monitoring
• Youth Justice Developments iincluding Gangs Update / Police Operations
• Focus themes – Serious Youth Violence / Knife Crime
• Other Agency updates
• Any other business (AOBs)
8.1 What is a typical meeting’s agenda?
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9. What does an effective YCPEB look like?
HMI Probation inspection of youth offending services
Our recent analysis of six HMI Probation inspections of youth offending services
(Domain 1: Organisations) shows that inspectors are looking for the following
evidence of an effective youth offending services, oversight of which is the
responsibility of the YOT management board:
YOT management board has operational and strategic oversight, and a
clear line of sight to practice.
The board has a good understanding of needs through access to a
comprehensive analysis of children known to YOT.
There is evidence of positive relationships between the YOT and partners and
access to a wide range of support services.
Staff are skilled and motivated and benefit from effective and well received
oversight and supervision.
There is access to information systems which are used skilfully and can provide
performance data.
There is a QA process which includes analysis of diversity and user voice and
results in clear improvement planning.
Issues raised by HMI Probations include:
Restorative justice/reparation interventions are limited, and there is no clarity
on how victims’ safety, needs and wishes are met.
Lack of access and involvement of young people in ETE.
Lack of national guidance on county lines limiting the effectiveness of
support.
Out of date risk management policy.
Cases involved PSB are not co-worked.
Lack of a bespoke training and induction for YOT staff.
Lack of a communications strategy so that staff understand the roles and
responsibilities of the board and to celebrate success
Youth Justice Board guidance: Modern Youth Offending Partnership
guidance (2014),
This guidance states that an effective management board may be said to have
the following characteristics:
all statutory partners are represented, together with other key delivery
agencies and stakeholders
it meets at least quarterly, with a continuity of board membership and regular
attendance.
the board works to agreed terms of reference defining its remit, membership,
delegation, attendance and decision-making powers.
individual members are inducted into the role, are able act as local
‘champions’ for youth justice and have lead responsibility for key areas of
activity.
the views of service users, victims of crime, sentencers and the wider
community are actively sought and considered.
it actively oversees the formulation and implementation of the youth justice
plan, as required by statute, and encourages the service to invest in self-
assessment and peer review processes as ways of developing practice and
improving outcomes.
YOT income, expenditure and commissioning activity are regularly reviewed.
compliance with relevant statutory standards is regularly reviewed.
there is a culture of learning and wider dissemination of lessons from
community safeguarding and public protection incidents, thematic inspections
and other relevant processes through local safeguarding and public protection
structures.
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10. Calendar of management meetings
Meeting When? Contact
Management meeting First Tuesday of the month -
afternoon
Head of Service
Case Discussions Tuesday mornings Operational Manager
Case Practitioner Tuesday mornings Operational Manager to confirm
Triage multiagency panel Monday mornings Restorative Justice manager
Triage Clinic Tuesdays 4pm at Wimbledon
Police Station
Police officer
Court Preparation meetings Tuesdays - midday Operational Manager
Wimbledon Magistrates Court Wednesdays Court Duty Officer
MARVE panel First Thursday of the month [email protected]
