Y outh Resettlement and the Law Care into Practice Applying - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
NAYJ Y outh Justice T raining Seminar - Monday 2nd April 2012 - John Moores University Y outh Resettlement and the Law Care into Practice Applying Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations to the Y oung Peoples Estat e Principles Policy
Care into Practice Applying Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations to the Y
NAYJ Y
raining Seminar - Monday 2nd April 2012 - John Moores University
Principles Policy
➡ Provide an historical summary overview of
youth justice development of recent years
➡ Establish that policy & research have
repeatedly identified looked after children and ‘children in need’ in the YJS
➡ Highlight how their needs are recognised
and better addressed by the Children & Young Persons Act 2008
Who are we talking about...?
YJ reforms?
Things to consider:
Chadwick - 20th Century Commentator
➡ Cited several instances of, ‘...great havoc committed by mere boys...’
The Poor Law Commission of 1842
➡ ‘...a population that is young, inexperienced, ignorant, credulous, passionate
and dangerous...’ and as having, ‘...a perpetual tendency to moral as well as physical deterioration...’ Matthew Davenport Hill -1855
➡ ‘The delinquent is a little stunted man already - he knows much and a great
deal too much of what is called life... He is self-reliant, he has long directed
he submits to no control and asks for no protection. He has consequently much to unlearn - he has to be turned again into a child’
1989 Children Act - Section 105 A person under the age of 18 Definition of a “Child” Definition of a “Child in Need”
Section 17(10) (a) he is unlikely to achieve or maintain,
provision for him of services by a local authority under this Part
The Delinquent
➡ Was there based on his behaviour... Was sent to Reform School
Neglected child
➡ Was there based on his state of being for which he was assumed to
have no responsibility... Was sent to Industrial School Ingleby Committee (1960)
➡ Agonised over whether a juvenile magistrate could have regard to the
welfare needs of the child whilst at the same time being asked to focus
Lord Longford (1964)
➡ The Labour party published a report: ‘Crime: A Challenge to Us All’
‘Move away from court proceedings.... Establish a type of family support....’
Legislation >> Regulations >> Practice Guidance >> Policy >>
‘...the building blocks towards improved L/T outcomes ...’
Spirit? ------- Intent?
Labour Government (1965)
➡ White Paper based on the Longford philosophy: ‘The Child,
The Family and the Young Offender’
➡ Move away from the punitive approach towards a welfare based
ideology that sought to decriminalise young people Children and Young Person’s Act (1969)
➡ Civil Service Paper ‘Children in
Trouble’ led to the C&YP Act (1969)
➡ Act enable local authorities to set up local schemes of community
based interventions for young people at risk of court. They were called IT Programs and,
➡ ‘...lay between disposals which intervened little in the young person’s
life and those which disrupted it by removal from the community’ (Curtis (1989)
Drafting the 1989 Children Act
➡ Suicide of Philip Knight (1990) - 15 year old in Swansea Prison on
remand for 3 weeks
➡ At the time, the youngest suicide in a prison in the UK. He was
sentenced but a secure bed could not be found.
➡ He returned to Swansea Prison and died the same day
(Hansard 26th July 1990 vol 177).
Government policy at the time
➡ Starting with the remand population - remove all 15 & 16 year
development programme designed to increase the number of secure beds within local authority type secure units
➡ In the event, not only did the removal of 15-17 year olds never
materialise, but their number almost doubled from 1993 - 1998
We Advocate Using the Law Because of the Principles
‘...the welfare of the child is paramount...’
Why?
Principles represents a set of values that orientate and rule the conduct of a concrete society. The law establishes an obligation in the individual's conscience that belongs to the cultural field in which such values are accepted. A principle is a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed... The principles of such a system are understood by its users as the essential characteristics of the system, or reflecting system's designed purpose, and the effective operation or use of which would be impossible if any one of the principles was to be ignored.
All young people will fall into one or more of the following categories:
1) Child in Need: Known PREVIOUSLY to have been provided with intervention and support from a children and families social worker subject to a child protection plan - s.17 / s.47 2) Child in Need: Identified NOW as possibly requiring social work assessment and intervention (e.g. possibly homeless) 3) Looked After: Subject of a Full Care Order (s.31) so that the local authority shares parental responsibility for the child 4) Former Looked After: i.e. accommodated by voluntary agreement (s.20 & s.21) prior to custody, which means the local authority does not have any parental responsibility for the child 5) Care Leaver:
6) Priority Need for Accommodation: Under Part 7 of the 1996 Act if no local authority duty under s.20 7) Returning Home
Accurately identifying a young person’s legal status is essential if legal entitlements to post-custodial support are to be accessed
Are you able to be an Advocate...? Are you forced to be Risk Averse...? Following the 1989 Children Act Judgment (2002)
The Children Act 1989 The Crime & Disorder Act 1998 The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 The Children Act 2004 The Children & Young Persons Act 2008 Judicial Reviews
2002: Mr Justice Munby ‘...very large numbers indeed of the children in YOIs are, in any one sense of the phrase, “children in need” - indeed children in desperate need’
2003: Child Protection & Safeguards Review ‘Children looked after by the Prison Service should be accorded the same status and right in law, as children looked after by local authorities’ 2003: Key Elements of Effective Practice - Resettlement ‘Successful resettlement, affecting all aspects of a young person’s life, is collaboration between a range of agencies, with often distressed and excluded young people, resettlement will
effort... There will be no quick fixes’ 2007: Secretary of State ‘...there is also a clear need to make sure that when young people leave custody, they are properly resettled... The transition from custody needs to give them the foundation to establish a better, more stable life outside of custody. One question we should ask ask is whether young people who leave custody have the same kind of support as children leaving care? In practice, this doesn’t happen...’
Social Care
at some point in the 12-months prior to sentencing
arranged for them on release
Education
prior to custody
prior to custody
that of an average 11 year old
Youth Justice
communities
will be from minority ethnic communities Health
depression, anxiety & post-traumatic stress
think less about their problems
have a substance misuse problem
Notification & Visiting Section 15 The Children & Young Persons Act 2008 Former Looked After Child Purpose of Visit
Within 20-days - to complete an assessment
in custody and on release
to sentence or remand
virtue of being remanded to LA care under s.23(1) of CYPA 1969 Representative must not be a YOT Worker
Care into Practice Applying Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations to the Y
Essential Professional Development T raining for Y
Care Practitioners and their Managers DEVELOPING RESETTLEMENT PRACTICE TRAINING EVENT
www.resettlementuk.com/home/events.php