£3 million pilot to reduce reoffending by young adults
Young adults supervised by the probation service will receive specialist drug and mental health support at a new £3 million centre to reduce reoffending.
- Specialist support for 18-25 year olds under probation supervision
- First hub to be based in Newham, London
- Range of specialist services, including drug and mental health support, will based under one roof
Young adults have a particularly high risk of reoffending and are more likely to carry out drug, robbery and possession of weapons offences, and be caught up in gang crime.
Mental health and substance misuse experts will work alongside National Probation Service staff, as part of an innovative new approach ensuring vulnerable young adults, many of whom had troubled upbringings and poor education, receive the enhanced support they need to avoid a life of crime.
Offenders released without a home or a job are significantly more likely to reoffend, so accommodation, training and employment services will also operate from the hub to help cut crime.
This support is already available but bringing this range of services under one roof and tackling these complex issues together at an early stage can prevent thousands of people becoming victims each year and save some of the £18 billion annual cost of repeat crimes.
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, MP, said:
"This ground-breaking new model will help offenders get their lives back on the straight-and-narrow before it’s too late and they become career criminals. It will mean less reoffending and fewer people becoming victims of crime while also giving these young adults all the tools they need to make the most of their lives."London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, said:
"It’s vital we do everything we can to prevent reoffending and give young people who have been through the criminal justice system the support they need to turn their lives around. We know the pandemic has meant fewer jobs and opportunities for our young people and that is why this new hub in Newham is so important. It will give us the platform to make vital interventions and deliver specialist support to vulnerable young people, helping them turn away from crime and rebuild their lives through access to housing, education and job opportunities."The pilot will launch in July and run until March 2023 for 18-25 year olds who are assessed as having low levels of maturity and 17 year olds transitioning from the Youth Offending Service to adult probation. It will then be externally evaluated and, if a success at reducing reoffending and improving outcomes for this cohort, rolled out across the country.
All staff will receive specific training in the brain development of young people. Young adults have distinct needs, which are different to both older adults and children and treating them as a specific group will ensure the root causes of their offending are spotted and addressed earlier on in their development.
This £3 million of Government funding follows a £148 million investment to protect people from the scourge of illegal drugs and a £70 million package to support offenders into temporary accommodation upon release.
Taken together, this £220 million of funding highlights the Government’s commitment to tackling crime.
There are many events which celebrate the vainglorious bullshit of overpaid fuckwits, but none more so than the merry-go-round of astonishing new criminal justice initiatives being announced to the world by The Minister For The Bleedin' Obvious:
ReplyDelete"This ground-breaking new model will help offenders get their lives back on the straight-and-narrow before it’s too late"
It makes my piss boil.
Why? Because for the last thirty years there have been too many 'new initiatives' to count. Too much public money has been wasted on vanity projects which usually only last months, maybe a year at best, before the funding dries up, nothing more happens except that... we return to the status quo but with ever-reducing resources.
DeleteIF, and its a very rare 'if', an initiative is effective and/or successful, the ongoing running costs are taken from pre-existing budgets, staff are taken from pre-existing posts...
Around the time the Trusts were created it was often said that NOMS had 'more pilots than British Airways'.
It is not helpful or productive or progressive to persist with such stupidity. Getafix is dead right - "The wheel can be reinvented, even if reluctantly, and ever so slowly." But where does it get anyone?
The MoJ scrapped the well-respected, perfectly functional vehicle that was a nationwide probation service, paid well over-the-odds for it to be stripped & taken away, and threw what they couldn't sell into the skip - which they also paid over-the-odds for.
Now the MoJ are buying the wheels back - probably from the dodgy dealers they originally paid to take them away. And they think they're getting a great deal because they think they're brand new wheels!!
Think about it. New Choreography, NOMS, Trusts, TR... if the £billions of wasted public money & other resources had simply been poured into what was in existence pre-1999 we would now have the most progressive & successful probation service on the planet.
And thus... piss is boiling.
And this is a perfect example of what happens to those pie-in-the-sky promises of everything being better. All of that £300m+ a week that would be re-directed to the NHS, the nothing-is-too-much, protect-the-nhs guff:
Delete“Our NHS is the beating heart of this country,”
“It is the best of this country. It is unconquerable. It is powered by love.”
“the healthcare heroes”
“nurses are about more than superficial soundbites, I think nurses love their job. They do their job because they love their job.”
"We’ve discovered precisely how much Johnson really values NHS staff – it turns out the answer is one Pret a Manger sandwich. Yes: £3.50 a week is precisely how much extra he thinks each NHS nurse deserves."
"If the prime minister can afford to spend two-thirds of the entire NHS annual budget on a very fast train, he can also afford to reward NHS staff with a real-terms pay rise. The fact that he has chosen, quite deliberately, not to do so speaks volumes."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/05/boris-johnson-clap-patients-pay-offer
I worked in a "Young Adults" team not long after I started work as PO. That was in the early 1990s. Similar ethos, it was effective and abandoned when National Standards were introduced. The wheel turns... recently I heard someone talking about an approach to interventions that sounded remarkably similar to Systems Theory!
ReplyDeletehttps://t2a.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Probation-guide_Ver4_sml.pdf
Deletewonder if these are involved?
"68. We have not been able to determine the extent to which the prison governor empowerment and Transforming Rehabilitation agendas have facilitated more dedicated approaches towards young adults. While the Government’s response noted examples of CRCs which were providing distinct responses to young adults, the cohort model adopted initially by London CRC proved complex and unsustainable. The Transition to Adulthood Alliance recently confirmed that the majority of Community Rehabilitation Companies (private probation services) have developed strategies for managing 18 to 25-year olds as a distinct group."
Deletehttps://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmjust/419/419.pdf
Published June 2018
The aim of this guide is to give probation practitioners, whether in the National Probation Service or Community Rehabilitation Companies, the tools to deliver a more effective approach to young adults. It provides practical suggestions for effective ways to engage young adults and support their desistance from crime. It also includes suggestions for managers on what they can do to enable practitioners to improve outcomes within probation services.
DeleteYoung adults (18-24-year-olds) constitute less than 10% of the general population but make up one third of those involved in the criminal justice system (CJS). However, young adults are the most likely age group to desist and grow out of crime, and the wrong intervention at this time can slow desistance and extend the period that a young adult is involved in the CJS. Getting it right at this critical time is crucial to assisting young adults to make a successful transition to a crime free adulthood.
It is now known that brain development and maturity are not complete until the mid-twenties amongst the general population, and young adults in the CJS often face additional challenges as a result of abuse or neglect in childhood. In recognition of this, almost all European countries have accepted that the specific needs of young adults should be reflected within their justice systems, and many have set their youth/adult threshold at 21 or older.
Probation services often find young adults harder to engage than older adults in services, which can be due to maturity levels, chaotic lifestyles and difficulties building a trusting and effective relationship with the practitioner. Young adults are the most likely age group to reoffend and to breach Orders.
In other mean-spirited news, after handing unaccounted-for £billions of public money to struggling friends & family during the covid-19 pandemic - and the 1% pay rise for nurses - it seems the Tory government can no longer afford to help anyone else:
ReplyDelete"Some of the poorest and most conflict-ridden countries in the world will have their UK aid programmes cut by more than half, according to a leaked report of discussions held in the last three weeks among Foreign Office officials."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/05/uk-foreign-office-discussing-aid-cuts-more-than-50-leak-reveals
What disturbed me most about this story was that Tories claim that the majority of the UK are in favour of cutting overseas aid in this way. I find that hard to accept & wonder on what basis that claim is being made. I haven't been able to find a source as yet... other than it fell out of Boris's gob in PMQs.
Oldies like me get a bit exhausted as things go round the block again, but this is to be welcomed, I guess (sigh), My main concern is that Pilots are always run by the enthusiastic and ambitious and then get rolled out underfunded as the enthusiastic and ambitious are required to demonstrate it can be done on a shoestring, Been there, done that.
ReplyDeleteThe wheel is spinning so fast that a) hamsters on the wheel just keep running b) those hamsters who look out of the window just lose the will, and look for an exit.
ReplyDelete"Mental health and substance misuse experts will work alongside National Probation Service staff... accommodation, training and employment services will also operate from the hub"
ReplyDeleteIt never ceases to amaze me how many different services a person needs to attend, which in my view would be more effective if probation officers were trained and given the professional discretion to deliver meaningful services ourselves, directly. I'm not saying people should only ever attend with one person; but the only "groundbreaking" thing about this project is the fact the services are all "under one roof" - the poor person still has to attend with five different services (in addition to the jobcentre and their GP, so 7) if they are an unemployed drug user with mental health and accommodation problems. I've said it before but it's worth repeating, this approach de-skills the value (and point) of attending with probation, and whether "under one roof" or not complicates the lives of people who are, by very definition of the inclusion criteria for the service "young, vulnerable and immature". I just don't get it.
* but the only "groundbreaking" thing about this project is the fact the services are all "under one roof"
DeleteBeen there, done that - intensive probation for prolific & persistent offenders - remember them? We had police, probation, substance misuse, mental health, housing & DSS staff all in one building & immediately accessible to those who had been accepted into the fold - it was necessarily selective & targetted (as is the ground-breaking world-first Newham project) because time, money & space were limited if we were to ensure meaningful involvement with each case, as opposed to rushed or superficial engagement.
TR meant the experienced & skilled probation staff were made 'redundant', funding was pulled & the police morphed the project into community surveillance, i.e. the project doesn't actually exist anymore but the single police involved is called a 'case manager' who has a list of numbers to call if s/he feels its necessary.
But as many prehistoric hamsters will attest, the 'one-stop-shop' approach is most certainly NOT new.
From Twitter:-
Delete"Agree - will it be any different with this ‘new’ service or new CFO Probation Activity Hubs, Probation Dynamic Framework contracts, ‘Local Leadership Innovation Fund’? Lots of duplicated spending pockets, instead of strategically funded/coordinated Services to meet needs.
I started my career in 80s as a volunteer at a Probation Centre in Liverpool, then in 90s managed a Probation Centre in Bucks - all multi-agency partnerships, multi-activity and very successful.
Significant relationships/trust are proven as the key to changing behaviour. Sadly too many staff required to dedicate their time to mechanistic systems rather than building skills to develop trusting relationships to effect change."
More blatant Boris lies & other related Tory twaddle:
ReplyDelete"Dozens of Covid contracts had not been published when Boris Johnson told MPs they were "on the record for everyone to see". The High Court has confirmed that 100 contracts had yet to be revealed at the time the PM made his comments."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56281934
Meanwhile the Tory spending of non-existent money continues, but not on the NHS of course:
ReplyDelete"Downing Street has spent more than £2.6m on fitting out a new media briefing room, it has emerged.
No 10 plans to start televised daily press conferences, like those held at the White House - to be fronted by spokeswoman Allegra Stratton... An advert for her taxpayer-funded role said the salary would be based on experience, but reports suggested pay would be around £100,000 a year."
The news comes as further details emerged about plans to renovate Mr Johnson's Number 10 flat, including possibly asking the public to donate to it... this in addition to the maximum £30,000 public grant available to prime ministers each year for the upkeep of their accommodation.
£30K of public money EVERY YEAR... and its not enough!
Mystery man says something quite apposite:
ReplyDelete"Ed Davey accused the government of being “addicted to wasting taxpayers’ money on bad contracts with private firms, while refusing to pay our NHS and care staff properly”"
"New contract for firm behind school meals voucher fiasco; Gavin Williamson’s department will have paid a total of £615m to the French company
ReplyDeleteThe French company Edenred’s new contract, revealed on the government’s website, appears to bring its total income from the scheme to £615m since the pandemic began. An earlier investigation into the scheme by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that previous contracts had been signed with the company despite “limited evidence” of its capacity to deliver."
There is a familiar pattern that has developed over the last ten years or so, i.e. large value contracts are awarded to private sector companies with limited or no track record, companies with poor reputations, companies who are under criminal investigation or simply companies that are owned by friends/family.
And the UK voter loves it! Apparently the UK voter prefers giving public money to these companies over providing aid to people in crisis around the world; people in places where we have directly contributed to their misery by supplying weapons, stealing assets, annexing land or failing to challenge oppressive regimes.
Or nurses.
Huzzah!!
Tory capitalist ideology has seen them spend billions on track and trace that did not work. A fraction of that money to private wasters would cover the NHS fair pay rise. It makes you realise we don't have a cent coming to probation even with the fantastic Napo performance of talking up a bad deals. Perhaps the NHS need Ian Lawrence to tell them it's the best that can be achieved. It means trouble for us less pay more work and amalgamation in 3 months . Early retirement looks attractive. Napo have any of your spin for us.
DeletePublic opinion is -quite rightly- pretty much onside with the nhs rejection of paltry wage offer. How are we in the shadows feeling?
ReplyDeleteThey deserve it 100 times more than we do
ReplyDelete