The following are the questions about the Scaled Approach we have been asked most often. Click on a question in the list to jump to the answer below.
If you have a query not listed here, email scaled.approach@yjb.gov.uk.
Evidence tells us that interventions are more effective when the level and intensity of them is matched to an assessment of the likelihood of the person reoffending, and they are focused on the risk factors most closely associated with that person’s offending. This is the focus of the Scaled Approach, which aims to ensure that interventions are tailored to the individual, based on an assessment of their risks and needs.
The key benefits of this are that assessment is improved so that interventions can be better targeted and, ultimately, offending and risk of serious harm can be reduced. It will also support the introduction of the new Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO), which is designed to be tailored to each young person from a menu of options.
Does the Scaled Approach apply equally in England and in Wales?
Yes. Criminal justice has not been devolved in Wales and it applies to both countries.
We have decided to co-ordinate the Scaled Approach implementation with the commencement of the YRO, in order to minimise the degree of change felt on the ground, and manage it as one process. It was originally thought that both would go live from April 2009 but delays in the legislative timetable have meant it is now expected to be October 2009. The timing is dependent on the completion of sentencing guidelines and training for magistrates being carried out prior to the YRO coming into effect.
Yes in theory. But we feel that to align it with the introduction of the YRO minimises the degree of change experienced by YOTs. Because the YRO will also necessitate tailoring of sentence proposals to the young person’s assessment, we think they complement each other.
My YOT is ready for the Scaled Approach. Can we go ahead and adopt it now?
We have, through the recent
Youth Justice Planning Framework guidance, encouraged all YOTs to be putting the foundations of the Scaled Approach in place, e.g. ensuring assessment quality is high, risk management policies are in place and up to date, and ensuring interventions are tailored to likelihood of reoffending and risk of serious harm, and we would continue to encourage this. Self-assessments of YOT practice against the new
Key Elements of Effective Practice, especially the Assessment, Planning Interventions guidance note will give YOTs an indication of their readiness to implement the Scaled Approach and enable planning to ensure their interventions are of good quality.
However, the final element relating to the statutory contact levels for young people subject to court orders are written into National Standards – as such YOTs must stick to the existing National Standards contact levels until the new National Standards have received Ministerial approval and have been published in 2009.
The post-consultation Scaled Approach document cannot be considered final yet, as we are awaiting final guidance from Government and the Sentencing Guidelines Council in relation to the YRO, so we need to allow for the potential for final amendments once these are available. However, we are not anticipating any significant changes, so we decided to make it available now to enable YOTs to start preparing for implementation.
When will new National Standards for Youth Justice Services be published?
We anticipate that they will be published during summer 2009, in advance of commencement of the YRO (expected to be October 2009) when they will be ‘live’. We cannot publish sooner than this because they incorporate the legislative changes arising from the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, and are dependent on the Secretaries of State for Justice and Children Schools and Families approving them.
When will the YOT case management guidance be published?
The case management guidance will provide the detail of the ‘how to’ manage cases, based on the ‘must do’ requirements set out in National Standards, including the new sentencing provisions such as the YRO. We think it makes sense to publish them together, so this will also be available from summer 2009. Ten new Key Elements of Effective Practice were published in July 2008 and outline the ‘what’ of supervision. (Insert link)
What types of orders and interventions does the Scaled Approach affect?
The Scaled Approach relates to court-ordered interventions under YOT supervision, so Referral Orders, community penalties (which will be wrapped up into the YRO) and the licence period of custodial sentences. It does not apply to pre-court interventions or prevention work, as these already have ‘scaling’ built in through their approach to targeting which young people need support through an intervention.
Will two young people committing the same offence receive different disposals under the Scaled Approach?
As is the case now, the court will have to consider the seriousness of the offence before anything else, so two young people committing the same offence are likely to receive the same sentence, depending on aggravating and mitigating factors. The Scaled Approach is being introduced to coincide with the Youth Rehabilitation Order, which will replace most existing community orders. Therefore, any young person eligible for and receiving a community sentence will receive a YRO, and the Scaled Approach will not affect that.
However, the details of the intervention may differ, as they would now, as no two young people are the same and what would benefit one young person may not benefit another. So both might receive a six- month YRO with supervision, for example, but the content and level of that supervision will vary depending on their assessment.
Not necessarily. Young people assessed as needing a high level of intervention will in most cases receive more supervision than if they were currently subject to a supervision order, and if they do not comply with their order, they could potentially be breached more quickly than currently. However, we will be encouraging practitioners to be actively trying to engage those young people in order to support them and enable compliance in the first place. See the Key Elements of Effective Practice – Engaging Young Peple who Offend for more guidance in this area.
Where non-compliance does become an issue, one of the crucial elements of the Scaled Approach is professional judgment, and so when dealing with a young person who has failed to comply with their order, the case manager must use their professional judgment to consider whether the failure to attend was unreasonable, and whether there are factors that are affecting their ability to comply with an order, e.g. having a chaotic home life. The experience of the pilot YOT did not suggest that high risk young people were any more likely to be breached.
How should we manage young people with high welfare/vulnerability needs but low risk to the public or a low likelihood of reoffending?
If a young person is assessed as requiring a ‘low’ level of intervention through the Scaled Approach model but is assessed to have significant issues of vulnerability and welfare, these should be addressed in line with local safeguarding, Common Assessment Framework and Lead Professional procedures England, or in line with Children and Young People’s Partnership arrangements in Wales. A referral should also be made to children’s services in England or social services in Wales for an assessment under ssection 17 of the Children’s Act 1989.
Mainstream services should provide for any assessed welfare needs and any shortfalls in available services to address these needs should be brought to the attention of the YOTs management board.
Is there an expectation that the YOT will have to provide and be present for all contacts with a young person?
No. YOT staff should act as the case managers for young people within the youth justice system and should have an overview of the case. This includes responsibility for co-ordinating assessments, planning interventions and supervision, risk management, and ensuring that all aspects are consistent with effective practice, and is likely to include some supervision of the young person. However, where a young person has multiple risk factors and issue in their lives that they need support with, they are likely to need input from specialist staff within the YOT or from external agencies. The role of the YOT management board is crucial here in ensuring there is appropriate access to services provided by partner agencies to meet the range of needs of the young people in their service.
Does the Scaled Approach apply to the secure estate? If so how?
The Scaled Approach is relevant to young people in custody in that interventions should be tailored to the individual and based on an assessment of their risks and needs. However, it will not be used to determine the intensity of supervision while they are in custody; this applies once they are released.
Asset should be reviewed and updated prior to the resettlement planning meeting one month before the young person is due to be released from custody and also again when a young person is transferred to the community. This will determine the required intervention levels according to the Scaled Approach model.
The Scaled Approach offers an opportunity for alignment with the ‘Prevent and Deter’ strand of the PPO strategy. Within the Scaled Approach framework, those who are assessed as requiring a high intervention level will automatically be eligible for the ‘Deter’ cohort. This will enable targeting of services from key partners to one priority group through a single process. There may be local variations, for example if the numbers in the high intervention category are small, the deter cohort may need to be expanded. Such variations should be worked out and agreed at a local level.
See Prolific and Other Priority Offender Strategy: An update on Prevent and Deter for youth offending teams [58Kb PDF; opens in new window] for more information.
Is the Scaled Approach compulsory? What are the consequences of not adopting the YJB model?
The YJB expects all YOTs to adopt the Scaled Approach model from October 2009 when it will go live.
Can I adapt the Scaled Approach to fit my resource?
The Scaled Approach supervision requirements will be included within National Standards and are therefore minimum requirements. However, YOTs may increase contact above these minimum standards where appropriate, and depending on their local circumstances.
What is the likely impact upon YOT resources?
We have undertaken extensive modelling of relevant YOT case data and believe the Scaled Approach to be, for the vast majority of YOTs, resource neutral. This will of course vary from YOT to YOT; however, on the whole the Scaled Approach represents better targeting of resources and in many cases represents a reduction in burden.
Crucial to the appropriate targeting of resources is the need for good quality assessments so the resulting intervention level is correctly determined.
For the small number of YOTs who find that demand on resources may increase, this may be an opportunity to discuss with their management board their responsibility for ensuring that the YOT has sufficient resources and infrastructure to deliver youth justice services in line with the National Standards requirements.
What support is available from the YJB to help prepare for implementation of the Scaled Approach?
We are committed to ensuring that the national roll out of the Scaled Approach is successful and undertaken in a way that ensures YOTs are well prepared and supported in advance.
We have therefore put the following in place:
More detailed information will be provided in due course.
What training will the YJB be providing?
We are rolling out national Open University training for practitioners and managers from January 2009, which will cover the Scaled Approach and YRO.
This will be led by the Judicial Studies Board who will be providing training to all magistrates once the Sentencing Guidelines have been completed. There will be training in every area during summer 2009 (exact timing to be confirmed). The YJB is keen to ensure that YOTs have an opportunity for some joint briefing with magistrates, so we are working to make sure that YOTs can also attend.
Are there plans for guidance on the implementation of the Youth Rehabilitation Order for YOTs? When will this be available?
We will be providing more detail in relation to the YRO in various forms:
- through the National Standards/case management guidance, to be published in summer 2009, just before the Scaled Approach and YRO go live
- through training which will be available from January 2009, provided by the Open University and sponsored by the YJB
- through briefings to be given next year, prior to the commencement of the YRO
Click for further information about the YRO and other provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.
The YJB will be providing guidance on the transitional arrangements to help YOTs understand and manage the practice implications of transferring from the old sentencing structure to the new YRO, and specifically what the implications of the Scaled Approach model will be on this transition. We are clarifying whether there are legal restrictions to consider, and we will issue guidance in the summer of 2009, prior to the introduction of the new sentencing framework.
Additionally, we are clarifying arrangements with NOMS to enable effective transitions from the youth justice system to the adult system in the light of sentencing changes and the Scaled Approach arrangements. Guidance on these arrangements will be provided as soon as they have been confirmed.
What is the YJB doing to engage key stakeholders?
The YJB is in regular meetings with Government representatives, the Sentencing Guidelines Council, and the Judicial Studies Board to ensure that there is consistency between sentencing provisions and the Scaled Approach, and that this is reflected in the guidelines and training that will arise out of them.
The YJB is working with both software providers to ensure that systems allow for the changes in time for the commencement date.