Report of Advisory Group on Youth Crime

ANNEX B

THEMATIC ISSUES

1. The following themes draw on responses to the consultation on the work of the Review and the Advisory Group's own thinking. The material is intended to be in support of good practice which can inform the plans and strategies developed at local level.

Early Intervention

2. 'Early intervention' ideally means providing help and support at the stage before a set of circumstances has turned into a difficulty. In the case of children and young people who persistently offend, many are found to have experienced significant deficits of emotional and physical care and educational attainment at earlier stages in their childhood. Effective measures of early intervention which seek to prevent or ameliorate such experiences within the child population as a whole are expected to impact on the later incidence of offending behaviour.

3. In the life of a child, points for early intervention may include:

• giving potential parents access to information and training to equip them for parenthood
• provision of antenatal services, including health, material and social needs
• provision of advice points where parents and carers can access and exchange information on the myriad issues which cause worry and which may need further support and intervention - "He'll not sleep at night", "She won't eat solids", "I think I'm going to leave my partner", "The house is damp", "Is it meningitis?", "I can't cope any more", "We've no money for the electric", "He's biting other children", "I don't like the people she's playing with", "What time will I let him stay out till?", "Is it drugs?"
• community based befriending and mentoring programmes for parents and children to provide positive adult relationships for children, role models for parents and ordinary social interaction. Building upon the strengths of the local community and using the skills within it will promote its own well-being. Creating opportunities for families to use their own strengths - for instance, supporting grandparents to support their grandchildren - promotes the ability of the members of the family to support each other and the child
• increased access to and information about help lines for children and young people like Childline, Who Cares? and the Scottish Child Law Centre, and drop-in Centres/Outreach projects where information, advice and companionship can be offered on the child's or young person's own terms. Information technology used in inventive ways can help children and young people access information and keep in touch with key workers as well as helping them to develop essential skills for the future
• increased access to, information about and involvement by young people in the development of youth and leisure resources which are local, affordable and interesting
• increased educational opportunities for a range of needs and abilities in schools, ensuring that all young people have positive full-time educational experiences, preferably in main stream schools; if a child is excluded from mainstream education, it may be appropriate to consider whether proportionate funding should accompany the child from the education budget to finance alternative education during the period of exclusion
• increased consultation with children, young people, families and communities about needs, resources and opportunities.

Risk factors

4. Several risk factors have been shown to have a high correlation with later offending behaviour; the greater the number of risk factors present, the greater the probability of offending: (Asquith et al, Children, Young People and Offending, Farrington Understanding and Preventing Youth Crime).

• pre- and perinatal factors: teenage child bearing, absent fathers, substance abuse during pregnancy which leads to low birth weight, perinatal complications
• parenting: poor supervision and child-management techniques; erratic or harsh discipline; parental conflict; cruel, passive or neglectful attitude; anti-social or criminal parents
• hyperactivity and impulsivity: these conditions may cause lower attainment at school, poorer ability to foresee consequences of action, difficulty with abstract thinking
• home environment: separation of parents through conflict, separation from parents, offending by siblings
• poverty/socio-economic deprivation: poor health, low educational attainment, behavioural problems and delinquency, low family income and poor housing
• low intelligence: poor ability to manipulate abstract concepts, foresee consequences or appreciate feelings of victims
• low school attainment: with resultant disaffection and/or exclusion from school
• association with delinquent peers
• school, community and situational influences

We do not know, however, how many children exposed to these factors do not offend later or do not experience difficulties in their transition to adulthood.

Effective Intervention

5. Identification of the children who are most vulnerable to the interplay of these factors should be undertaken by Health services, by local authorities and partner agencies with a view to promoting and safeguarding their welfare in terms of Section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

6. Support should be given at the point of identification of need, not when the difficulties have become more entrenched. Targeted home and child care support may be necessary and carers may benefit from specific behavioural programmes to increase their capabilities. Community support may be needed in order to increase opportunities for social inclusion and peer support. Creative educational support should be provided in order to obviate the risk of diminished attainment, disaffection and exclusion. Assessment of health and the individual's stage of development must help inform the delivery of services.

7. Participation of parents and other members of the family should be integral to the planning process. Separated carers need to be involved where appropriate. Carers and siblings involved in offending should have access to programmes to help them to help the child.

8. Children exposed to the factors listed above are among the most vulnerable in our community. Targeted intervention will not only have an effect in reducing the probability of later offending, it will help to keep this group of children safer.

9. Delivery of support and services should be on a partnership basis with children and families to the greatest extent possible. Where children and/or carers are unwilling or unable to co-operate with measures designed to help the child and it is believed that compulsory measures of supervision may be necessary in order to achieve beneficial change, practitioners should consider whether or not to refer the child's case to the Children's Reporter in terms of Section 53 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. Where the child is already subject to compulsory measures of supervision, consideration should be given to the need to review the requirement.