• Checklist for YOT managers and staff

The guidance below is summarised in a checklist for Youth Offending Team (YOT) managers and education staff to enhance their effectiveness.

Access to mainstream services

YOT education workers come from a variety of backgrounds, bringing diverse skills to the role. This section provides advice and information that reflects the diversity of workers’ expertise and experience, and recognises that the education system can be complex.

Education welfare officers, teachers from schools and colleges, special educational needs (SEN) coordinators and youth workers all contribute to making a difference to the education and training opportunities available to young people who offend.

A holistic approach is essential, as is ensuring sustainability. Accessing support mechanisms can be difficult and all too often provision is inappropriate. However there are already many examples of developing practice in education, training and employment to build on.

There is a legal obligation for local authorities to ensure that young people of statutory school age are placed in schools or in other fulltime provision. That said, it is vital to work together to achieve this. All partners share very similar targets and the best strategy is to work in partnership to help young people who offend.

With such a large and important agenda it is vital that education specialists are used effectively. It is crucial that education specialists should not act as generic case workers. It is better for education specialists to work alongside case-holders in YOTs, ensuring that a referral mechanism is established to prioritise those young people most in need. This allows education specialists to focus on forming the vital, long-term strategic links that will enable young people who have offended to access mainstream provision.

It is not effective for YOTs to employ a teacher to teach young people under YOT supervision, and it is not appropriate, since local authorities have a statutory duty to provide education and have the resources to do so. Any YOT employing teachers to deliver programmes of education will need to consider that their service could be subject to an Ofsted inspection.

Furthermore, a YOT would be unlikely to receive a favourable report, since it would be unable to offer a suitable curriculum and would not have appropriate and specialist resources. This type of provision is not sustainable in the longer term. This is why YOTs should be promoting mainstream provision for all young people. Local authorities have signed up to this inclusive strategy. ‘Mainstream’ in this context includes any form of SEN provision and separately designed individual provision organised for any young person, whether in a school setting or not.

Multi-agency protocols

Click to download an example of a multi-agency protocol [434Kb PDF, opens in a new window] which clearly sets out the objectives, roles, responsibilities and information-sharing requirements necessary to pursue better education, training and employment participation for young people who offend. This Coventry and Warwickshire Protocol was launched in May 2006.

Education of children in care

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has published guidance for those young people in the care system. All children in care should have a Personal Education Plan. This plan should highlight the issues and set targets for the child. Additionally, children in care should take priority in local authority and school admissions policies. The YJB recommends that an additional protocol be sought for this group, as they are usually an over-represented group in the criminal justice system.

Social care, welfare, protection - Every Child Matters [opens in a new window]
DCSF: Education Protects [opens in a new window]

Each local authority has a named officer responsible for the education of children in care. Often there is also a named teacher in each school. Some local authorites have a dedicated team of specialists to support the education of children in care. It is good practice for the education staff in YOTs to obtain a copy of Education of children and young people in public care [opens in a new window]. All children in care have particular rights and benefits for the continuance of educational provision after statutory school age, with which YOT practitioners should be familiar.

Click to view the document Education of children and young people in public care [opens in a new window].

Social workers should be acting as parents for attendance at parents’ evenings and meetings associated with exclusions.

It is recommended that YOT education practitioners forge strong links with local authority representatives dealing with children in care, and form a protocol regarding the sharing of information and working arrangements for multi-agency meetings for young people.

There are specific government targets related to this group because of educational under-performance. Every Child Matters [opens in new window] specifically highlights this group.

Education other than at school

Education other than at school, sometimes called ‘education otherwise’, covers any kind of educational provision for young people not on a school roll, including home tuition. YOT education staff should ensure they know what facilities the local authority offers and develop links with the delivery team and the head of service. Again, this is extremely useful when trying to negotiate appropriate provision for young people, especially those with behavioural difficulties who may have specific educational needs currently not catered for.

The sharing of information is important to ensure the placement is suitable and parents/carers should be involved in this process. A protocol arrangement should be developed to ensure effective working arrangements and that monitoring can take place.

Mentoring schemes

Some YOTs have learning mentor schemes, such as Keeping Young People Engaged (KYPE), in place as a result of YJB funding. These involve literacy and numeracy, work with young people who are hard to reach/engage, and work with black and minority ethnic groups. The evaluation of KYPE illustrates the value of such approaches and provides useful pointers to what works effectively.

Information-sharing protocol with schools

YOT practitioners need access to detailed educational information for court reports and to pass on to custodial staff. Some YOTs have developed pro formas to pass to schools to complete and return within a specified time frame. This enables schools and YOTs to work together to secure what is best for young people. Having a named senior management contact within a school, who deals with requests and can then share information with colleagues as appropriate, will help to deliver this. It is also strongly recommended that a consent form is signed by the parents and young people for information to be shared on a need-to-know basis.

Sometimes school holidays can pose problems when trying to obtain information, although a member of the senior management team should be able to provide information. Alternatively the local Connexions partnership may be able to supply information from their database. If so an agreement with Connexions should be sought.

Links with the secure estate

Since the improvement of education facilities and resources in the secure estate, and the implementation of the Offender learning journey - juveniles [577Kb Word document, opens in a new window], practitioners in both secure and community settings need to work together to gain positive outcomes for young people. As a matter of course, all education information should follow the young person into secure provision. This should include the SEN statement, if applicable, together with the last annual review.

Similarly, if a young person is attending school before entering custody, the school should be encouraged to work with the secure establishment so that they suffer as little disruption as possible. For example, young people should be able to continue working towards their GCSEs if that was what they were doing before custody. When they return to the community they should be permitted to continue with their studies as far as possible, with information being released to their education and training provider as appropriate.

Although it is permissible for schools to take young people off roll after eight weeks, if they receive a custodial sentence, some YOTs have made agreements with schools not to do this in order to minimise the disruption to their education. For more information read new guidance on pupil registrations regulations (2008) [322Kb PDF, opens in a new window].

It is good practice for education staff from both secure facilities and YOTs to have regular meetings, perhaps on a regional basis, so that they can work together to improve their services to young people.

Click for a checklist for YOT managers and education staff.