Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Childrens Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Children’s Services which notified the Cabinet that The Coventry Youth Offending Service (CYOS) Contingency and Recovery Plan has been agreed and signed off by its Chair, the Director of Childrens Services, and to seek Council endorsement.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB), in recognition of the unprecedented circumstances and challenges created by Covid 19, removed the expectation and grant condition that youth offending teams submit a standard Youth Justice Plan.

The new grant condition, notified to Youth Offending Teams (YOTS) on the 7 April 2020, was that each service must submit a Covid 19 Contingency and Recovery Plan by the 30 April 2020, which was done. Given the indeterminate period that the impact of Covid 19 will be experienced for, this decision by the YJB is entirely appropriate and welcomed.

Youth Offending Teams were established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (‘the Act’). The functions assigned to the Youth Offending Service include the duty upon the local authority, under the Children Act 1989, to take all reasonable steps to encourage children not to commit offences. The Act imposed a duty on each Local Authority, acting in cooperation with its Statutory Partners (Police, Health and Probation), to ensure that all Youth Justice services are available in their area to such an extent as it appropriate for the area.

The key tasks of the service are:

·  Assessing and delivering interventions to the out-of-court-disposal cohort

·  Management and delivery of community sentences

·  Management and delivery of secure estate sentences and resettlement

·  Servicing the Youth Court and Crown Courts (in terms of provision of a court team, bail & health assessments, provision of pre-sentence reports and stand down reports)

·  Victim services

·  Parenting services and management of Parenting Orders

The Crime and Disorder Act also imposed a duty to complete and submit a Youth Justice Plan each year, this year as an exception, a Contingency and Recovery Plan.

The Plan provides an overview of Coventry Youth Offending Services activities, in response to Covid 19, in order to discharge its statutory functions and activities to aid recovery.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet recommend that the City Council endorse the Youth Justice Contingency and Recovery Plan 2020/21.