Click to view a list of our performance monitors and contract managers, and the secure establishments for which they are responsible.
Secure estate performance indicators
The YJB has six performance indicators which it will use to monitor the performance of the secure estate in 2008/09. These are:
| Information from youth offending teams |
If young people arrive without an Asset or pre-sentence report, follow-up action must be taken within one hour and the young person managed as vulnerable until the information is obtained from the YOT. In the event of information not arriving, the secure establishment will alert the YJB by noon the day after reception. |
| Time out of room |
95% of young people will spend less than 14 hours a day locked in their room. |
| Hours of education |
In 2008/09, 90% of young people will receive 30 hours a week of education, training, and personal development activity compliant with the National Specification for Learning and Skills (STCs and secure children’s homes) and the Offender’s Learning Journey (YOIs). For young people in YOIs, the expected performance will be 25 hours. Additionally,YOIs will ensure that attendance rates for timetabled education and training sessions do not fall below 90%. |
| Literacy and numeracy |
All young people entering secure facilities will be tested for literacy and numeracy, with 80% of young people on DTOs of 12 months or more improving by one skill level or more in literacy and/or numeracy to the level of need set out in their individual learning plan. |
| Reception |
All young people will be assessed by a clinician on reception for vulnerability and substance misuse. |
| Substance misuse |
90% of sentenced young people will have completed all goals set within their substance misuse care plan on release from custody. |
Changes to performance indicators
The performance indicators were changed in 2007/08 for the first time since 2003/2004. The YJB will now focus on a smaller set of performance indicators for the secure estate. The following changes have been made:
- Training and Planning - The requirement to hold a training plan meeting within 10 working days is now included in all contracts and will be monitored through contract management arrangements instead of through performance indicators.
- Advocacy Measure - Provision of advocacy services to all young people in now a requirement of all contracts and will be measured through contract management arrangements instead of through performance indicators.
- Safety - We have met the performance indicator to achieve a 5% increase in the number of young people who feel safe in secure establishments. For young men, there was a 10% increase in the number whom felt safer in 2006 compared to 2004. For young women the increase was more dramatic, reflecting the YJB’s considerable investment over the last two years to provide accommodation for young women that is separate to adults. From 2004 to 2006, there was an increase of almost 90% in the number of young women who felt safe (37% in 2004 compared to 70% in 2006). We are now building on this by reviewing safeguarding across the entire secure estate, and will continue to use HMIP surveys to ensure that children and young people in custody continue to feel safe.
A new Substance Misuse performance indicator has been introduced. This focuses on the achievements of the young people’s substance misuse services and reflects the significant investment made by the YJB in substance misuse services in custody.
Asset performance indicator pilot
In 2007, the YJB will be running a pilot in young offender institutions, secure training centres and secure children’s homes in the North East to assess whether Asset data could be used to develop a performance indicator for the secure estate.
The existing set of performance indicators for the secure estate focus largely on assessing whether establishments adhere to key elements of the National Standards. With the introduction of the Effective Regimes Monitoring Framework, which monitors how well each establishment performs against a series of indicators based on National Standards, we are considering whether it is time to move away from solely monitoring what happens in secure establishment to also look at what is achieved.
It has been suggested that Asset could provide a means of assessing the impact of custody on a young person; if a young person’s Asset score upon entering custody is compared with the re-scored Asset at the end of the custodial phase, the difference between the two scores could provide a quantitative measure for how successful an establishment has been in addressing a young person’s needs.
We will be asking Castington YOI, Hassockfield STC and Aycliffe and Kyloe House secure children’s homes to score Asset at the beginning and end of custody jointly with youth offending teams, and provide this information to the YJB. We will then assess whether the data provides a reliable measure of performance and determine whether we should develop a performance indicator in the future based on changing Asset scores.
For more information about this pilot please contact Rachael Cole at the YJB on 020 7271 3108.