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Achieving Effective Resettlement
Pippa Goodfellow, Nacro (Beyond Youth Custody)&
Brian Redding, East Midlands Resettlement Consortium
Thursday 26th November 2015
Beyond Youth Custody (BYC)
• BYC is a five year England-wide learning and awareness programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund as part of the Youth in Focus programme.
• BYC exists to challenge, advance, and promote better thinking in policy and practice for the effective resettlement of young people.
• BYC is a partnership led by Nacro along with three research and evaluation partners: ARCS (UK), University of Salford and the University of Bedfordshire.
Beyond Youth Custody (BYC)
We focus on four main areas of work:
• Producing robust evidence about what works
• Developing and promoting good practice
• Giving young people a voice
• Identifying & communicating what needs to change
East Midlands Resettlement Consortium
• The Consortium is one of four projects currently funded by the Youth Justice Board. It is a model bringing together – Secure Establishments, Youth Offending Teams and a range of other partners to build on existing resettlement initiatives that improve outcomes for young people leaving custody
• The East Midlands is a diverse region of urban and rural YOTs spread over a large geographical area
• The Project is developing at a time of significant change within both the Secure Estate and within community agencies. This offers both opportunities and challenges
East Midlands Resettlement Consortium
• Project Governance
• Delivery Priorities (Year 1)
• Accommodation• Link Youth Workers in YOIs• Bringing consistency to DTO Reviews Meetings• Resettlement Grants
• Sustainability beyond the life of the Project
• Data Collection and Evaluation
• There is a ‘window of opportunity’ following release when young people are enthusiastic to change (and also at most emotionally vulnerable)
• Quick disillusionment if support not sufficient, relevant and timely
• Therefore important we get it right straight away - plans for suitable support need to be in place by time of release
• ‘Resettlement’ has traditionally been focused on this period of transition
What we know: the importance of the transition
• For resettlement to be effective and sustainable, the aim has to go ‘beyond’ the usual thinking in criminal justice of short-term preventing reoffending.
• It must be about a shift in personal identity away from one that promotes crime to one that promotes desistence
• From a resettlement perspective, this shift must be facilitated both in terms of structure and agency.
• Structure: Services must provide structural support and delivery of services that are focused on focus on facilitating that shift, through the provision of individually tailored provision focused on achieving positive outcomes.
• Agency: Supporting and promoting belief within the young person that they have the capacity to change.
Resettlement as an engagement journey encompassing desistance
• Crucial to meeting complex needs is to offer an individually tailored, wrap around package of support delivered by partners across sectors.
• Engagement of partners across sectors involving high-level buy-in, joint planning and information sharing.
• There needs to be a strong ‘brokerage’ function to establish working partnerships to jointly plan and deliver the required range of support.
Principles for effective resettlement… Coordination of services
• Escalation of resettlement issues to Steering Group members
• Resettlement leads identified in YOTs and Secure Establishments
• Commissioning of Services
E.g. Accommodation
• Co-commissioning of services• Contractual conditions• Retainers to secure accommodation• Young people at the 18+ ‘cliff-edge’
Coordination of services
• Ensuring that a young person is engaged in the resettlement process will improve their motivation to comply
• Encouraging user participation and involving young people as agents in their own resettlement are both of central importance
• Positive relationships between young people and staff, based on mutual respect are key
Engaging the young person for positive change
• Link Youth Workers in Werrington YOI and Wetherby YOI:
• Building relationships with young people in custody• Support on release alongside the YOT and post-licence
support
• Ensuring Young People have a voice in DTO Review Meetings:
• Preparing Young People before meetings and supporting them afterwards
• Structure of DTO reviews
• Mentoring Support in the community
Engaging the young person for positive change
Continuous service:• Services between custody and community needs to be
joined up• Opportunities for continued support once statutory
involvement of the youth justice system has come to an end should be available
Preparation for release:• Should begin at point of entering custody• Securing stable and suitable accommodation is key• More opportunities for ROTL to ease the transition,
arranging for training and/or employment on release
Early preparation for release & sentence planning must focus on resettlement
• DTO Review Meetings
Workshops run with YOTs and Secure Establishments
Creation of resources to support best practice
• Use of ROTL and Mobility (Temporary Release)
Increasing opportunities to prepare young people for release
Early preparation for release & Sentence Planning must focus on Resettlement
• Research has consistently found that reoffending, or breach, are both more likely in the critical period immediately after release.
• Young people are adjusting to new environments, more pressurised regime and renegotiating relationships
• They should be prepared, their expectations managed with immediate implementation of support plans
• They should be met at the gate by someone they know and trust.
• Release times should allow the opportunity to access a wide range of services
Transition to the community needs enhanced support
• Supporting young people living independently
• Supporting young people into education and training
• Supporting young people adjusting to the return to the community
Transition to the community needs enhanced support
Thank you
If you would like any more information, please contact:
Pippa Goodfellow, Programme Manager [email protected]
07739 219 461 http://www.beyondyouthcustody.net/
Brian Redding, Project ManagerEast Midlands Resettlement [email protected]
