Agenda item

4.1       Cllr Michael, Chair of the Safer, Stronger Communities Select Committee welcomed members of the Children and Young People Select Committee to the meeting for this item.

4.2       Councillor Janet Daby, Executive Member for Community Safety introduced the report. In her presentation to the Committee the following key points were highlighted:

·         The inspection was a partnership inspection including looking at the Police and the Probation service.

·         The “unsatisfactory” result had been a surprise and disappointment. The final result was very close to being “satisfactory” and work was commencing on a robust action plan to ensure improvements could be delivered as quickly as possible.

4.3       Geeta Subramaniam, Head of Crime Reduction and Supporting People, presented the report to the Committee. Keith Cohen, South London Resettlement Consortium Manager and incoming interim Youth Offending Service Manager was also in attendance. During her presentation the following key points were highlighted:

·         The areas of the inspection included: reducing reoffending; protecting the public; protecting children and young people; making sure the sentence is served; and interventions. All received 2 stars/unsatisfactory except “sentence served” which received 3 stars.

·         Many of the areas of inspection were scored very closely to the threshold of 65% which was the threshold for the “satisfactory” grading.

·         There would be a greater focus on key performance indicators going forward to ensure that they were being met and that there was a greater understanding of their relevance in practice in terms of improved outcomes for children and young people.

·         The Improvement Plan will be monitored by the Youth Justice Board and be reported to the Safer Lewisham Partnership. Updates on progress would also be submitted to the Safer Stronger Select Committee from September 2017.

4.4       In response to questions from members of the Committee, the following key points were highlighted:

·         Lewisham had an increase in the number of young people in custody and higher numbers of reoffenders than previously. Other London boroughs were facing similar challenges in terms of levels of reoffending.

·         Across London, budgets had fallen year on year for youth offending services causing additional pressures for the service. Staffing issues were also a factor and high turn-over of staff and an over-reliance on agency staff could be a problem. There would be a focus on developing a workforce strategy as part of the improvement plan.

·         Performance indicators prior to the inspection were not being met which had been part of the reason for an inspection taking place.

·         There had been some very positive feedback as part of the inspection, in particular the feedback on some officers’ determination to improve outcomes for the children and young people and the work in courts had been very positive.

·         There would be a review of the financial resource allocation in light of the inspection and the resulting action plan.

·         Patterns of reoffending had changed and this needed to be carefully looked at. It was understood before the inspection that offending rates were going up.

·         The volume of young people in the youth justice system had fallen but the complexity of cases had increased. It was essential that the Council was working proactively with other agencies and the new Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) should help this work.

·         When responding to any follow up questions to Council on the inspection, budget reductions should be noted in the response.

·         Multi-agency auditing was an important tool to ensuring a thorough understanding of the Council’s own performance.

·         Supporting and investing in staff was essential. LB Southwark had done some very successful work in developing their workforce and Lewisham would be looking at that and focusing strongly on workforce development.

4.5       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and that the Committee receive quarterly updates on the delivery of the improvement plan.