Issue - meetings

Cabinet received a report on the Youth Justice Strategic Plan which was produced every year to set out how youth justice services in the local area were to be provided and funded; and how the Youth Offending Team (YOT) or teams established by them (whether alone or jointly with one or more other local authorities) were to be composed and funded, how they were to operate, and what functions they were to carry out.’

RESOLVED: Cabinet AGREED the 2020/21 Youth Justice Strategic Plan.

Cabinet received a report on the Youth Justice Strategic Plan which was produced every year to set out how youth justice services in the local area were to be provided and funded. The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services commented that last year the priorities had been to address disproportionality, prevent exploitation of young people and embedding an evidence based model of practice. During the covid-19 pandemic the Service used alternative methods to contact young people and they had managed to contact every young person apart from one who had been unavailable before the pandemic started. Funding was always a challenge but the budget remained stable.

The priorities for next year were to reduce first time entrance into the Service, reduce reoffending and the use of custody. There had been excellent collaboration between key partners and the Cabinet Member thanked the police and staff for all their hard work.

During discussion the following points were made:-

·         One of the past priorities had been to address disproportionality however the figures for custodian sentences in Buckinghamshire were high compared to the South East. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services reported that part of their work over the past two years was to look at local demographics and for some groups of young people they were at greater risk of reoffending. Whilst the numbers were generally low there were some young people with complex needs and a number of options were being explored to address these.

·         A Member asked for a gender breakdown of those young people who used the service and asked if they were mostly male. He also commented that in the report it did give a breakdown of those working in the Service who were mostly female. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services reported that they looked for staff who could relate to young people regardless of their gender. In some years there have been an increase in male young offenders but there were no stereotypes.

RESOLVED: Cabinet AGREED the 2020/21 Youth Justice Strategic Plan.