Wiring Up Youth Justice Using technology to achieve the Youth Justice Boards objectives'

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Wiring Up Youth Justice Using technology to
achieve the Youth Justice Boards objectives.

• Frances Done Chair

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Youth Justice System what is it?

• Organisations working together to administer
• justice and help every young person live crime
  free
• and successful lives.
• Youth Justice Board
• 157 Youth offending teams
• Police
• Crown Prosecution service
• Courts
• 30 secure accommodation providers

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The YJBs objectives

• Preventing offending
• Reducing reoffending
• Safe and effective use of custody
• Improving public confidence

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Before Wiring Up Youth Justice

• Caseworkers not notified by police until too late
• Excessive time spent sending faxes and waiting in
  phone queues
• Young peoples information not protected
• Young person arrived at secure establishment
  before their files
• Young person kept waiting for a bed

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Before Wiring Up Youth Justice
There was always the possibility that something
could go missing This potentially put them and
others at risk and lost the confidence of the
young person, their family and professionals at a
time when people most need reassurance that
everyone is working together and knows what they
are doing. Gary Roberts, Sunderland YOS
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Wiring Up Youth JusticeThe Task

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Wiring Up Youth Justice The Vision

• To ensure that information critical to improving
  the lives of children and young people can move
  securely and quickly across the youth justice
  system by
• Building on existing systems and shared services
• Creating web-based information sharing tools
• Partnering youth justice practitioners with ICT
  professionals

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Wiring Up Youth JusticeThe Principles

• Programme management small projects
• Stakeholder engagement key role of
  practitioners
• Procurement use existing ICT capability
• Data, technology and interfaces keep it simple
• Benefits realisation local roll out and
  ownership

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Wiring Up Youth JusticeThe Challenges

• 30,000 practitioners across 200 sites
• Partner agencies managed by different Departments
• How to bridge public and private sector networks
• Incumbent technology, processes and culture
• Keeping end-to-end sentence management as driver
• Limited use of technology plenty of paper!

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Wiring Up Youth Justice The Achievements

• Police Electronic Notifications to Youth
  Offending Teams
• Young person more likely to be diverted away from
  further offending when YOT involved
• Opportunity for restorative justice involving
  victim
• Clearer more concise information from the
  Police gives a better picture of what the reality
  is. Essex Youth Offending Service

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Wiring Up Youth Justice The Achievements

• Over 2000 hours a month now used for time with
  young people. Time spent with young person not
  fax machine
• Additional effectiveness benefits equivalent to
  1m pa
• Less court adjournments
• Improvements in sentence planning

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Wiring Up Youth Justice The Achievements

• Secure communication for all partners
• Secure eMail
• Encryption devices at YOTs and non prison service
  sites
• Connectivity information sharing facility

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Wiring Up Youth Justice The Achievements

• Electronic yellow envelope process used by all
  YOTs, YJB Placements team and the secure estate
• complete, legible, quality assessment
• quicker notification for establishment so advance
  preparation of room and staff
• Having the information in advance gives us time
  to look at the young person so we have an idea of
  the risk issues raised. HMP and YOI Hindley

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Wiring Up Youth Justice The Achievements

• Single sentence management system used across
  England and Wales
• Assessments imported straight in no re-typing
• All staff in establishment can see current
  records
• If young person moves, records are made available
  to receiving establishment
• There has been a 100 improvement in care
  planning since using eAsset. Huntercombe YOI

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Wiring Up Youth JusticeAn independent view

• In the experience of the review team it is
  unusual to encounter a project which demonstrates
  good practice in so many dimensions.
• Office of Government Commerce
• In youth justice, very modest investment has
  been used to make significant incremental
  improvements in getting critical information to
  move with the young offender across organisations
  at the right speed.
• Sir Ian Magee, The Review of Criminality
  Information

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Wiring Up Youth JusticeLooking ahead
Prevention
Offender management
Resettlement
Wiring Up Youth Justice
Public confidence
Social inclusion
Safeguarding
Attainment
Efficient effective practice
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Wiring Up Youth Justice Lessons for the wider
Criminal Justice System

• True engagement of end-users
• Smaller projects loosely joined
• Make use of existing system-wide investment
• Agree end-user benefits up front, then commit to
  them
• In the present financial climate, the youth
  justice approach could be useful across the
  Public Protection Network.
• Sir Ian Magee, The Review of Criminality
  Information