Milton Keynes Youth Justice Support Service Overview
The Milton Keynes Youth Justice and Support Service presented their Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Exclusion project, offering education and speech therapy to at-risk children identified by the Early Support Project. The service focuses on diversion and prevention, including assessments, training, and partnerships to address youth offending behaviors. Access pathways involve various referral routes for social care, education provisions, and diversion programs.
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Milton Keynes youth justice and support service have shared an overview of their promoting reintegration and reducing exclusion (attach slides) project, which offers primary, secondary and further education providers in Milton Keynes, free speech and language therapy provision in order to identify any additional needs for those children and young people identified Milton Keynes Early Support Project (ESP) by the school as being at the greatest risk of school suspensions and managed moves to alternative provisions. The model includes involves offering assessments to educational providers and providing free SLCN training which is delivered by our Speech and Language Therapists and Senior Educational Psychologist who is attached to Milton Keynes youth justice service. Youth Diversion and Prevention Service Milton Keynes have also shared a short presentation detailing an overview of their youth diversion and prevention service, of which the promoting and reintegration and reducing exclusion Jenna Palmer - Service Lead for Out of Court Disposals, Diversion and Prevention model is part of. The above presentation were part of child first effective Angela O Flaherty Senior Youth Offending Team Officer partnership practice webinar ran by Microlink Education Focused Solutions.
Service Breakdown The Early Support Project is a Youth Diversion and Prevention Service that sits under the wider remit of the Youth Justice and Support Services (YJSS). We have a strong health and education focus, including offering Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) assessments to all young people that access the service. The Diversion aspect of the service offers voluntary support to young people receiving Community Resolutions, including the Drug Diversion Scheme (DDS) which is facilitated by the Young People s Drug and Alcohol Service (YPDAS). This element of the service focuses on diverting young people from the formal Youth Justice System upon the delivery of an informal Out-of-Court disposal. We have a new knife-crime pilot delivered in conjunction with Thames Valley Police and this forms a recently introduced element of diversionary work. The Prevention element of the service offers Social Care, Early Help and local partnerships access to the project where there are considerable offending / anti-social behaviour / serious youth violence / county lines / criminal exploitation concerns. This aspect of the service aims to prevent young people receiving any formal or informal disposal by addressing needs and risks at the very earliest opportunity. Under the Prevention offer, we have a Speech and Language Therapy project operating within primary and secondary schools, called PRRE (Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Exclusions). We offer Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) assessments to those students assessed by their settings as being at the greatest risk of school suspensions or managed moves to alternative provisions.
Local Referral and Access Pathways Prevention Referral Pathways Children s Social Care including the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) Children and Family Practices (CFP, Early Help) Children Missing, Exploited and Trafficked (CMET) Touchdown Weekly Meetings Missing and Exploitation Panel (MEP) Strategic Exploitation Panel (SEP) Contextual Safeguarding Group hosted by Thames Valley Police Educational provisions under our Speech and Language Therapy project in schools, known locally as PRRE Referrals from parents for siblings known / open to YOT or ESP The Secondary School Alternative Education Panel for those young people being considered for alternative education Channel Panel under the Prevent Strategy Diversion Referral Pathways Thames Valley Police - following a Community Resolution being delivered Joint Decision-Making Panel (JDP) - hosted by Thames Valley Police in partnership with Milton Keynes Youth Justice and Support Services (YJSS), Children s Social Care and CAMHS Drugs Diversion Scheme hosted by Thames Valley Police in partnership with YJSS and Young people s Drug and Alcohol Service (YPDAS) following a Community Resolution being issued for drugs possession Achieving Change Together NOW (ACT- NOW), our recently launched knife-enabled crime pilot with Thames Valley Police. Diversionary work is targeted to children and young people following an arrest for a knife- related offence.
Our Approach We offer an opt out service we make contact will all young people considered appropriate for the service. We use a consistent approach within the Early Support Project whereby we; screen, triage, assess, plan, review and signpost all young people. Keeping others safe, keeping the young person safe and supporting young people to build on the factors that will support them to avoid crime is key within our work, to ultimately enable young people to have successful and positive futures. We are child-led and trauma-aware, and utilise strengths-based and future-focused approaches throughout the service; starting with screening and assessment, and then integrated thereafter within planning, direct work and staff supervision.
Joint Working Substance Misuse - Additional funding from NHS England enabled us from November 2022, to offer every young person who accesses the Early Support Project at least one drug and alcohol education session provided by the Young Person s Drug and Alcohol Service (YPDAS). Within this targeted work, coordinating interventions will involve the Young People s Drug and Alcohol ESP Lead, to identify specific risks and targeted areas of intervention including, county lines exploitation concerns, criminal exploitation, hidden harm, familial drug and alcohol use and any supply concerns relating to the young person. Speech and Language - We are currently hosting a 4-year PhD Speech and Language Therapy student placement who is completing primary research and developing interventions for young people with moderate severe Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and / or a diagnosis of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Thames Valley Police We are in consultation with Thames Valley Police to pilot a project regarding Outcome 22 outcomes for children and young people arrested for possession of bladed articles (where assessed as appropriate). Voluntary Sector We are in consultation with the YMCA with regards to supporting their offer of early help to children and young people who may not meet the thresholds under ESP / those who decline ESP support. Turnaround We are supporting diversion and prevention work under Turnaround and all eligible children will receive the Early Support offer.
Achieving Change TogetherNow (ACT-NOW) In early 2022, Milton Keynes was highlighted as having the highest number of knife / bladed article offences across the Thames Valley. ACT-NOW is a proactive and responsive approach to reducing knife crime in Milton Keynes, funded by the OPCC. Op Deter launched on 1.7.2022 and was initially concentrating on charging and remanding adults for knife crime, adopting a Lock them up approach to making communities safer. The youth element of ACT-NOW launched on 3.1.2023, and is a 12-month pilot in conjunction with Thames Valley Police. A swift approach to Police investigation and timely outcomes underpins the project. The key elements of this approach include the service providing an immediate response (within 90 minutes) to young people arrested for knife offences whilst in Police custody, and offering a home visit within 48 hours to assess risks and needs and develop child-centred, effective intervention plans . Our aim is to effectively divert young people away from knife carrying and knife enabled offending alongside our partners within the Police . Intervening at the earliest opportunity allows for a timely assessment and intervention plan to be developed in partnership with young people and parents / carers and other key organisations, at a reachable and teachable moment. With regards to youths, Wrap them up [in support] is reinforced throughout the project, ensuring that young people receive support and intervention at the earliest possible opportunity to reduce harm to themselves, others, victims and communities . Since the project launched on 3.01.2023, we have responded to 9 young people under ACT-NOW and all young people have indicated their engagement with the project.
Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Exclusions (PRRE) The PRRE project sits under our Prevention offer. The PRRE project offers primary, secondary and further education settings in Milton Keynes, free Speech and Language Therapy provision in order to identify any additional needs for those young people identified by the school as being at the greatest risk of school exclusions and managed moves to alternative provisions. Our model involves offering assessments to settings and building on staff knowledge and confidence to address SLCN via free SLCN training which is delivered by our Speech and Language Therapists and Senior Educational Psychologist who is attached to Milton Keynes YOT. Following the completion of a referral form, we undertake a comprehensive Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) assessment using a range of formal and informal assessments. This includes using industry-approved frameworks, including CELF alongside observational and bespoke assessment tools. A full assessment report is provided to the education setting and further consultation takes place between school staff and a Speech and Language Therapist. The report details a summary of need and suggest recommendations and resources to school staff. Free Speech and Language training is offered to all participating provisions, in order to upskill education staff and enable the early identification of concerns and interventions to support children and young people at the earliest opportunity.
Secondary PRRE Service Evaluation - 2019 21.42% of the students that had a SLCN assessment had a reduction in the number of fixed term exclusions they received from their referral date to 31.03.2020. Our evaluation in 2019 also indicated that 64.28% of the students that had a SLCN assessment did not receive a further fixed school exclusion. Only 7.14% of the students assessed for SLCN went on to receive a further fixed term exclusion. A Primary and Secondary PRRE evaluation is currently in progress to review the service post-pandemic.
Performance The re-offending rate for children and young people accessing ESP is 3.77% (this is calculated over a 2-year rolling period). This means that we do not have further contact with over 96% of the young people who were supported by ESP for early help under our Diversion and Prevention offer. To add further narrative around this, we have engaged 482 children and young people since the project started in 2017, and only 36 have gone on to re-offend.
The Early Support Project, designed to prevent children from offending, offered a structured support package. Very few children went on to commit a further offence Outstanding was received for assessment and Good for Joint Working and Implementation and Delivery within Out of Court Disposals HMIP Inspection Milton Keynes, 2021
This project [ESP and PRRE] has contributed towards a 24% reduction in first time entrants to the youth justice system which is an impressive and a significant achievement (JTAI, 2019) Recognised as Being Best Practice Milton Keynes YOT were inspected in October 2019 as part of the wider Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) which had a specific focus on the emotional and mental wellbeing of young people. The Inspectorate commended the work of early intervention within the YOT. The ESP within the YOT has proven to be particularly effective and is an example of good practice (JTAI, 2019) NHS England have also recognised the Early Support Project as being a model of effective practice.
