Children in Care and Young People in Contact with Youth Justice Services

Youth Justice Service have a statutory responsibility to ensure that an Appropriate Adult service is provided for children and young people.

For more information on Appropriate Adults, including their role in supporting children and young people, please contact the Youth Justice Service.

Custody staff, Youth Justice workers and Appropriate Adults should be alert to the needs of children and young people whose alleged criminal activity may be related to their having being trafficked into the UK for exploitation. Where the child or young person’s history suggests they may have been trafficked into the UK, the Committee must establish whether a referral has been made under the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and make such a referral where this has not been done.

Whenever a child or young person or young person is arrested, consideration should be given to reviewing his or her Care Plan to ensure that it contains measures to reduce the risk of (re)offending.

Children and young people aged 12-17 who have been refused bail may be remanded to the Committee’s accommodation with or without conditions. Children and young people aged 14-17 who are refused bail can also be remanded to Youth Detention Accommodation (subject to certain conditions being met). Even if the child or young person was not previously a Child in Care, they will become a Child or Young Person in Care when remanded.

Local authority support to the child or young person and their family during this time is important, and efforts should be made to ensure that time on remand does not disrupt existing ties between the child or young person and their community. Care planning should consider the young person’s needs both during the period of remand and following the court hearing. The Care Plan will also need to consider arrangements for the young person’s support should they be convicted and receive a custodial sentence.

4.1.1 Safeguarding Children and Young People in Custody

When a child or young person or young person is remanded, the child or young person’s social worker should request a copy of the complaints procedure for the establishment. Social workers should then familiarise themselves with the complaints process and check that the child or young person has been provided with information about, and understands, the complaints process and also about their entitlement to advocacy.

Young people who are remanded should also be provided with information which is routinely provided for all children and young people who become looked after. This could include for example:

• Contact details for their Social Worker, Independent Reviewing Officer and other sources of support (including out of hours);
• Information on the local Children’s Rights / Advocacy Service / Independent Visitors for Children in Care.

If a remanded child or young person complains to their social worker about any aspect of their care while remanded, this should be recorded on the child or young person’s electronic record and reported to a manager and the child or young person’s IRO. The most appropriate response will vary depending on the nature of the complaint, and the type of accommodation the young person is remanded to, but could include a referral to Children’s Social Care and possible Child Protection Investigation if the complaint concerns actual or likely Significant Harm.

If the complaint concerns an allegation against staff, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Children Procedures, Allegations Against Staff or Volunteers Procedure should be followed via a referral to MASH. Complaints in relation to services provided by Children and Family Community Services should be dealt with through Customer Care Team.

If a social worker has serious concerns about the care being provided to a child or young person who is remanded, they should report this to their manager.

See also Section 7.6, Action to be Taken if there are Concerns about the Child or young person's Safety or Welfare.

4.1.2 Support to Families

Within forty eight hours of detention, Managers or Governors of Youth Detention establishments must make arrangements to provide each young person’s next of kin (or other appropriate person) with information about visiting, personal property, pastoral care and the sentence planning, review and resettlement arrangements.

Managers or Governers must also make arrangements to ensure that parents and professionals know how to contact the establishment if they have any concerns or complaints about a child or young person’s care.

Where a child or young person is remanded to the Committee’s accommodation, Children and Family Community Services is responsible for identifying a suitable placement. For as long as they remain Children or Young People in Care , these children and young people are entitled to the same care planning and review processes as other Children in Care and young people. Following a remand episode consideration should be given to what longer term support or accommodation is needed and if the child or young person or young person needs to remain looked after once the period of remand has ceased, the Committee must comply with all the Care Planning Regulations.  

When a child or young person or young person under 18 is remanded or sentenced to custody, decisions are made in consultation with the Court, the Committee, Youth Justice Service and Law officers where the child or young person should be placed.

This comprises the following kinds of accommodation:

• The Haven Secure Unit;
• Compass Wing at Les Nicolles Prison.

A court can only order a Remand to Youth Detention where certain specified criteria are met:

• The child or young person has reached the age of 14; and
• Either the child or young person is legally represented before the court or legal representation has been withdrawn/refused; and
• Either the offence is a violent or sexual offence or an offence punishable in the case of an adult with imprisonment of 10 years or more; or
• The child or young person has a recent history of absconding from remand/committing offences whilst on remand; and
• It is necessary to protect the public/prevent further offences.

Where a child or young person is not already a Child or Young Person in Care but becomes a Child in Care as a result of being remanded to Youth Detention, the Committee responsible for the child or young person’s care must be satisfied that the day to day arrangements for the child or young person are of sufficient quality and offer an appropriate response to the child or young person’s individual needs.

Children and Family Community Services is not required to prepare a Care Plan or a Placement Plan; instead, following an initial assessment of the child or young person’s needs, a Detention Sentence Plan should be prepared.

Les Nicolles staff must undertake a reception interview within one hour of the child or young person’s arrival that assesses the child or young person’s needs and level of vulnerability. Staff undertaking the interview must see written information about the child or young person that will already been sent by the supervising officer or Youth Justice staff involved in Court proceedings.

Following an initial assessment of the child or young person’s needs a Sentence Planning Meeting must be convened within 10 working days of admission. The child or young person’s parent/carer should attend the meeting, including the LAC social worker if the child or young person if looked after. The planning meeting needs to ensure the views of the child or young person are represented; relevant education staff should also contribute to the plan. Les Nicolles staff must deliver the plan with support from the supervising officer from Youth Justice and other key agencies.

Within one month of the initial Sentence Planning Meeting, the supervising officer must hold a case discussion with the child or young person’s keyworker or personal officer. The purpose of this discussion is to ensure that the plan, including the individual education plan is being implemented as agreed.

Thereafter a review meeting must be held at least every three months. A review after two months is required if the Order is of eight months or less. This process should also include the consideration of suitability for early release.

Children or young people serving a Youth Detention Supervision Order of 12 months or less must be visited at least monthly by a Youth justice Service staff member. For children or young people subject to longer Orders, the frequency of visits will be agreed as part of the plan, but must not be less than every two months. The supervising officers must make regular contact with the secure establishment staff to discuss progress and must maintain regular contact with the parents or carers.

The child or young person must report to the Youth Justice supervising officer on the same day as transfer to the community from the secure establishment.

A Detention Sentence Plan must also be drawn up for children and young people who are already Children in Care and who are remanded to YDA. This will be based on the current Care or Pathway Plan. Where the young person is subject to a Care Order, or is a Relevant Child or young person, the Care / Pathway Plan will continue once the remand ceases whether or not the child or young person is sentenced to custody.

When a Looked After child or young person is remanded, the IRO should be notified as soon as possible.

See Remands to States of Guernsey Accommodation (including Secure Accommodation)

The Looked After Review must focus on whether there are appropriate arrangements in place for responding to the child or young person’s needs whilst they are detained. The review of the Sentence Plan for a Child or Young Person in Care, including a child or young person remanded to YDA, must be a child or young person-centred process. Whilst there may be limitations in view of the secure environment, the IRO should consult the child or young person about how they want their meeting to be managed.

The considerations that are likely to be most relevant will be:

• Whether there is a Sentence Plan in place describing how the child or young person will be supported whilst they remain looked after as a result of being remanded;
• The quality of contact with the local authority;
• Arrangements for contact between the child or young person and their family;
• Whether plans for the child or young person have taken their wishes and feelings into account;
• That arrangements are in place to respond to the child or young person’s health and education and training needs;
• That the secure establishment takes into account any specific identity and cultural needs of the child or young person; and
• Whether the child or young person will continue to need support from child or young person's services when the remand ceases and they may no longer be Looked After.

If the review uncovers concerns about where the child or young person will be living or support available to them in the community, consideration may have to be given to whether the child or young person should remain a Child in Care once they are no longer on remand.

Child in Care Reviews of children or young people who are on remand should always consider the child or young person’s support needs when they cease to be looked after as a result of the remand ending.

Where children and young people are remanded in YDA, staff in the secure establishment should enable the child or young person to speak with their IRO in privacy, unless the child or young person refuses, and arrange a suitable venue for the review to take place.

Within 5 working days of the young person's sentence to custody, the social worker should provide the following information to the young person's Youth Justice case manager and the designated case supervisor within the establishment:

• The child or young person’s care status, including his/her entitlement to support as a care leaver;
• Persons with Parental Responsibility;
• Name and contact details of the allocated social worker, his/her team manager and the IRO;
• Any immediate information necessary to ensure the child or young person’s safety or that of others;
• Information about the child or young person’s family/carers and contact arrangements;
• Information about the young person's needs that will enhance the establishment's ability to care for the young person;
• The date when the social worker or service’s representative will be visiting the child or young person; and
• The date of any forthcoming review of the child or young person’s case.

For children or young people who remain a Child in Care while in custody the care planning and review process continues.

Placement in YDA is a significant change. If a review of the child or young person’s care plan is not already due to take place, then it is a requirement that one should be scheduled during the period the young person is in custody. The usual statutory timescales for review apply thereafter. Depending on the length of the child or young person’s detention, consideration should be given to undertaking a review within the last month before release to ensure the child or young person’s care/pathway plan can be updated to meet his/her needs on release, particularly his/her placement needs.

A person within the custodial establishment should be nominated to act as the link with the care planning process. This may be the child or young person’s case supervisor but it is good practice to give the child or young person an element of choice wherever possible. This link person will be informed of the key elements of the child or young person’s care plan and, in turn, keep the child or young person’s social worker informed of the child or young person’s progress and events within the establishment.

The child or young person’s Youth Justice case manager should also be kept informed of changes to the child or young person’s care plan and other relevant information. Subject to the child or young person’s agreement, the Youth Justice case manager and the nominated link person within the establishment should be involved in review meetings.

The Reviews must:

• Be a child-centred process and, within the limitations that will be apparent, take into account how the young person wants their review meeting to be managed;
• Ensure that the establishment is taking into account the young person’s identity and cultural needs;
• Take the young person’s wishes and feelings into account;
• Focus on whether the arrangements in place are appropriate for the young person’s needs whilst they are detained;
• Look at the quality of contact with the local authority;
• Ensure that contact arrangements for the young person are appropriate;
• Ensure that there are arrangements responding to the young person’s health, education and training needs;
• Consider whether Accommodation will be required when the Remand / Sentence period ceases.

The young person's allocated social worker must visit the young person within one week of being sentenced and detained.

Subsequent visits must take place at intervals of not more than 6 weeks for the first year; thereafter at intervals of not more than 3 months. Additional visits should take place if reasonably requested by the young person, the establishment or the Youth Justice Service, or there are particular circumstances that require a visit (e.g. notification of under performance of placement provider/concerns about the safety or welfare of the young person).

The purpose of the visits is to keep in touch with the child or young person, assess his/her needs and maintain an up to date care plan. The youth detention establishment should facilitate the visit and allow the child or young person to be seen in privacy (out of hearing of an officer), unless the child or young person refuses. Representatives of the Committee will be afforded the status of professional visitor rather than the more limited access to the child or young person that applies to social visitor.

Each child or young person detained in a secure setting must have a sentence plan, supervised by the Youth Justice case manager. Sentence planning is different from care or pathway planning, and is designed to plan the activities the child or young person will engage in during his/her time in custody and, for sentenced children or young people, on release into the community. It is aimed primarily at reducing the risk of (re)offending.

The child or young person’s social worker should always be invited to sentence planning meetings and their professional input will be integral to effective resettlement planning. It is good practice for the child or young person’s social worker to attend as many meetings as possible but, as a minimum, s/he should attend the first meeting and the release preparation meeting where the release plan is discussed. For longer sentences, or where there are particular difficulties, it will be appropriate to attend more often. If the social worker is not able to attend, the Committee responsible for the child or young person’s care must provide relevant information about the child or young person’s care or pathway plan to the Youth Justice Service case manager prior to the meeting.

See also Section 7.7, Planning for Release.

Children and Young People in Care in custody remain entitled to advice, assistance and support between visits.

The social worker should keep under review whether the child or young person is safe and whether, in view of the Committee’s assessment of the child or young person’s needs, the safeguarding arrangements in the YDA are adequate; and whether the establishment has arrangements in place to respond appropriately to the child or young person’s needs and to promote their welfare.

Specific factors to take into consideration will be:

• Is the young person safe?
• Is there a risk of self-harm?
• Does the young person need money, clothes, books or other practical support?
• Are education staff aware of and able to meet the young person's educational needs, including any special needs?
• Are the health unit and wing staff aware of, and able to meet, the young person's health needs?
• Are staff aware of, and able to meet, the young person's religious and cultural needs?
• Is the young person worried about anything? If so, what?
• What impact has the sentence had on family relationships? Does there need to be help with contact arrangements?
• What action is needed to provide for the child or young person’s placement on release?
• Are changes needed to the child or young person’s care plan/pathway plan?

This assessment should be informed by the views of the Youth justice Service case manager, staff in the YDA, including pastoral care, education and health staff, the child or young person and his/her family.

It will also form the basis for an up to date care plan describing how the child or young person’s needs will be met in custody and who is responsible for each aspect of the plan.

This plan will rely on those responsible for the child or young person’s overall welfare – i.e. the child or young person’s social worker, their IRO and the service manager for Children in Care’s services - being able to satisfy themselves that the arrangements in place within the secure establishment are appropriate in view of the child or young person’s individual needs.

Children and young people in custody can be particularly vulnerable. Where there are concerns that the young person is not being safeguarded or their welfare promoted (for example, relating to the quality of care the young person is receiving, the suitability of the type of placement or concerns around bullying, self harm, violence or intimidation), in the first instance it may be possible to resolve the concerns by agreement with the establishment itself.

All custodial establishments have a 'Complaints Procedure' and social workers should ask about this at the point of the young person's admission.

Children and Young People are vulnerable in the early days after release and need considerable help, both emotionally and practically, to:

• Readjust to living in open conditions;
• Meet the requirements for reporting and surveillance;
• Sort out finances;
• Settle into appropriate accommodation;
• Negotiate work or college;
• Re-establish relationships with family and friends; and
• Avoid situations where offending may occur.

The child or young person’s social worker and Youth Justice Service case manager must work together to co-ordinate arrangements for the child or young person’s release and subsequent support in the community. The child or young person will continue to have two separate plans: the Committee’s care plan, which may include a pathway plan (or for a child or young person who became looked after solely as a result of remand, the Sentence Plan) and the Youth Justice Service plan. These must be coordinated so the child or young person is clear what will be happening and professionals from both children’s and Youth Justice Services understand their respective roles and responsibilities for supporting the child or young person in future and for minimising the possibility of reoffending.

If the child or young person is to continue beinga Child or Young Person in Care, the responsible authority must provide an appropriate placement and financial support. The child or young person’s care/pathway plan should be updated.

The Youth Justice Service is responsible for providing ongoing supervision and interventions targeted at preventing further offending. There will be potential areas of overlap, where arrangements may be made by either the Youth Justice case manager or child or young person’s social worker, such as education provision or health treatment. Negotiation should take place about which service is best placed to make these arrangements in each case. The Committee responsible for the child or young person’s care will ultimately have responsibility for ensuring all measures are in place to enable the child or young person to be provided with appropriate services.

Where a review of the young person's case chaired by the IRO has not already occurred, the social worker in conjunction with the IRO must arrange for a review prior to the young person's release from custody. The timing might be scheduled so that it is co-ordinated with the release preparation meeting.

As soon as possible, and at least by the time of the final sentence planning meeting 10 working days before release, the young person must be told the content of both the Care Plan and the Notice of Supervision or Licence so that s/he is aware of:

• Who is collecting him/her;
• Where s/he will be living;
• The reporting arrangements;
• Sources of support - including out of hours;
• The arrangements for education or employment;
• Arrangements for meeting continuing health needs;
• How and when s/he will receive financial support;
• When s/he will be seeing his/her social worker; and
• The roles and responsibilities of the respective practitioners.

Children or Young People in Care, under sentence, returning to the community will continue to be supervised by the Youth Justice Service case manager. Children or young people sentenced to Youth Detention in excess of 5 days in length are subject to a reduction by one third for remission (in effect this means that a young person is released from custody after serving two thirds of the sentence, however, the young person is subject to prison discipline and can lose the whole or part of that remission if they break the prison rules). Young people serve this one third remission off their term in the community. Young offenders (those under 21 years) are subject, by Law, to supervision from the Probation Service after their release for a period of between 3 and 12 months.  Those on other types of sentence will also be subject to supervision. The responsible authority must maintain contact with the child or young person in care during the crucial period following their discharge from custody.

The child or young person’s social worker and Youth Justice case manager should keep each other informed of significant events, including any changes in service delivery or plans. It is good practice to have some joint meetings involving the child or young person, Youth Justice Service case manager and social worker, so information is shared and the child or young person receives an integrated service.

The Youth Justice Service should consult Children and Family Community Services over enforcement issues, particularly if there is a possibility of the child or young person being breached for failing to comply with his/her supervision requirements. Where the child or young person is having difficulty in complying with his/her Notice of Supervision or Licence conditions, Children and Family Community Services should work with the Youth Justice Service to put additional support in place. For example, it might be arranged for a residential care worker to take the child or young person to appointments or for a foster carer to text the child or young person as a reminder.