Agenda item

[Scrutiny Review to be introduced by Councillor Kirsten Hearn, Chair of the Children and  Young People’s  Scrutiny Panel. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families  and  Cabinet Member for Communities to provide the  responses to the review recommendations.

Following completion of all other Cabinet agenda items and in the absence of Cllr Blake, Councillor Hearn introduced the Scrutiny review. The review had demonstrated that if you were young and black, you were more likely to get into trouble and be a victim of crime, including serious violence. Long standing and complex issues with over 40 years of actions had not changed this position; apart from there now being an open recognition of this. Actions completed so far, had not worked and young black people still felt that how they were treated was on the basis of ethnicity, social class and background. The evidence in the review supports this view.

The review noted that this negative stereotyping drives agencies actions and that preventative intervention practices need to start earlier in the young person’s life to stop them entering the youth justice system. It was concerning that diversionary activities were likely to reduce with government cuts to services and this would have a negative impact on youth offending.

Cllr Hearn outlined that education still provides a means of escape and clear career pathways are needed to support young people to deter engagement in criminal activities. Also having strong role models has a powerful effect. There was a need to take account of the views of young black people in Tottenham, that feel the current regeneration is not for them and use regeneration funding for taking forward initiatives to support young black people, like training to increase young black teachers.

Councillor Hearn was pleased that most of the Scrutiny recommendations were agreed and understood the reasoning on the partially agreed items.

The Cabinet Member for Communities thanked the Scrutiny Panel for their work on this important review. This was a national issue, which the borough was not exempt from. The review recognised the need for partners working together to deter young people entering the youth justice system. This meant particularly working together on mental health and education issues which the Council was already taking forward.

The Cabinet Member suggested reviewing the progress with the Cabinet responses to the recommendations in a few months time.

The Cabinet Member highlighted some of the headlines released from the Charlie Taylor review of the youth justice system, received yesterday. The main message was devolving responsibility of youth justice to local areas. The Youth Justice Board in Haringey was well equipped to take forward devolved powers. The Cabinet Member felt that the Haringey Youth Justice Board was also well placed to deal with the recommendations in the report, including development of campus locally in terms of alternatives for custody.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the Scrutiny Review Report in Appendix 1 and approve the responses to the Scrutiny recommendations as outlined in Appendix 2 of this report.

2.    To agree proposals for an additional recommendation in the report: that the role of the wider voluntary sector is also considered and consulted with for its contribution in addressing the needs identified of this vulnerable group of young people.

Reasons for decision

The evidence supporting the Panels’ recommendations is outlined in the main body of the report (Appendix 1).

Alternative options considered

The evidence supporting the Panels’ recommendations is outlined in the main body of the report (Appendix 1). The Cabinet could choose not to accept the recommended response by officers to them, as outlined in Appendix 2. The potential implications of alternative courses of action are referred to within this, as appropriate.