Social Software’s Systems Help Oldham YOS Extend Their Prevention Work
Being one of the first Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) to develop a strategy for prevention, Oldham Youth Offending Service (YOS) had a clear vision very early on and has done much in terms of developing their prevention work. The foundation of their strategy has been centred on vigorous targeting of those at risk and ensuring youth crime prevention is high on the agenda of the Children’s and Crime & Disorder partnerships.
Information held in Social Software’s YOIS has been significant in ensuring that their prevention strategy has remained focused and delivered where it matters. Auditing of the information in YOIS has not only played its part in establishing a robust baseline to measure performance against, it has also been invaluable in terms of monitoring vital information on First Time Entrants to keep the strategy on track.
Sharon Quinlan, Information Officer at Oldham explains, “we are continuously learning what a valuable tool YOIS can be. Improved sharing of information from YOIS, with our colleagues within Partnerships is giving us a better picture of what is happening across the borough.”
“Never before have we been able to ask questions on why things are happening the way they are, which is helping us be more pro-active in targeting those most at risk of offending and re-offending. The information is helping the YOS to challenge policy decisions about what and where the priorities should be, and ensuring that youth crime prevention work has a unique position in planning processes.”
Through YOIS the YOS has been able to build a profile of all First Time Entrants stemming back as far as 2002; establishing where local trends exist in terms of who, where and for what reasons children and young people are entering the criminal justice system. This information has played a crucial part in re- designing existing services, as well as developing new ones.
Penny Sharland, Head of Service in Oldham, says “having the right information has been vital to the strategy, and convincing our stakeholders to invest. We now have four active programmes contributing to the prevention measure, compared to just one two years ago. This growth effectively means the YOS is now a service that offers provision for children, young people and their families both pre and post conviction.
The decision to invest in Social Software’s UMIS application as the main tool to capture information across prevention has meant that we have been able to demonstrate these programmes work. One neighbourhood where we have a senior Youth Inclusion Project has seen a year on year reduction in the number of first time entrants totalling 35% between 2003 and 2006 despite the lack of additional funding for extra policing in the same area.
We are now in the process of expanding our use of the UMIS application in other key areas, with the introduction of the RESPECT parenting team who will work directly alongside our prevention service. UMIS will offer the two services the flexibility to share information in real-time, whilst engaging clients in their communities - something we believe is a key component to success.”
The rich data now present within UMIS is also helping to support Oldham’s thinking in terms of designing suitable interventions. Through analysis of referral data the team have been able to evidence their belief that a significant amount of young people referred to the senior YIPs were not achieving their maximum potential in education.
Having presented these critical findings to partners in Children’s Services and Education, the YOT is now an active partner in designing the 14 ~ 19 strategy for alternative education and an approved supplier for delivery of alternative education programmes, meaning it us receiving the relevant funds - something it has not always been able to do.
Elsewhere from a study of ONSET data it came to light that mental and physical health was a bigger issue than previously thought. To combat this, the YOT has formed new working relationships with the children and young people’s health team and CAMHS (Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services) who are now undertaking assessments in the projects and supporting the delivery of new group work interventions.
Additionally the reporting features in both Social Software applications are serving Oldham well outside of the statutory YJB performance returns. In the last 12 months Local Area Agreements (LAA) have taken centre stage for establishing targets for key improvements across the borough. The targets in the LAA help make the links between (re)offending and the associated risk factors. The wealth of information the YOS have been able to provide to the LAA since 2006 has placed them in a healthy position regarding sustainability beyond 2008, when the local authority will move to pooled budgets and a commissioning process.
Oldham are hoping that the robust prevention framework that they been able to demonstrate to Children’s Services, through providing the evidence that their programmes really work, will see them become a key partner in the development and delivery of Targeted Youth Support. And they know that UMIS will play a key role, both in providing that evidence, and in supporting them in delivering more effective interventions for even more young people in the future.
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