Youth Court Solutions

 

YCS Project

 

The Crysalys Foundation leads the Youth Court Solutions project, having played a key role in the working group, developed the project plan in 2020, launched the project in February 2021 and started the service in Northamptonshire in October 2021. The project is the 1st of its type in the UK – an independent at-youth court generic and specialist support service delivering to the whole county youth cohort at one time and in one place every fortnight at Wellingborough Magistrate’s Court. Interventions are available for defendants, victims, witnesses, family and friends.

 

Critical aspects of the project model are that its independently-led, participation is voluntary, scope of services available and the immediacy of interventions provided. The interventions are delivered by East Midlands regional charity, Service Six, and Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service. The wider partnership includes HMCTS, Northamptonshire County Youth Bench and the UK Charity, Centre for Justice Innovation.

The project has been mainly funded by The Linder Foundation who provided grants in 2022 and 2023 and a private donor who provided a grant in 2022.

 

Impact Reports, Quarterly and Annual Infographic Reports are available here.

 

Year 2  (October 2022 to September 2023)

 

(October to December 2022)

Q1

(click to download)

(January to March 2023)

Q2

(click to download)

 

Year 1 (October 2021 to September 2022)

 

Pilot Project Impact Report

Annual Infographic (Q1-Q4)

Q4 (July to September 2022)

Q3 (April to June 2022)

Q2 (January to March 2022)

Q1 (October to December 2021)

 

 

 

 

In 2023-24 we will be creating a free toolkit resource to assist in the transfer and scaling of the project in the UK.

 

In March 2022, our Development Manager, Jane Deamer, won the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire’s Award for her contributions to the project. The Award was presented at YCS by The Honourable Mrs Amanda Lowther DL.

 

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Service Six offer

The team will engage and inform beneficiaries at court, provide information and brief solution-focused support services, refer them onto at court partners or into a wide range of cross sector community based services in the county.

 

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Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service offer

The team will provide specialist interventions including: information and support on accommodation finance and benefit enquiries; substance misuse services; education, employment and training information; and emotional and mental health support.

 

Both Service Six and NYOS will be using the credible mental health thresholds scoring framework, Children’s Global Assessment Scale or CGAS to ensure that they only provide an at court service within safe capabilities, with any other greater needs referred on appropriately including to their own wider range of community services.

 

Targets

Our Year 2 Project Targets are:

To reach at least 100 young beneficiaries

To reach at least 50 grown-up beneficiaries

To reach at least 50% of the youth defendants attending court

To achieve at least 20 YCS QR Code hits at court

Zero service complaints

4 Quarterly Infographic Reports, an Annual Infographic Report and an Annual Impact Report

 

Outcomes

Our projected Year 2 Outcomes are:

Increased access to at-court info and support services

Improved beneficiary health and wellbeing

Reduction in beneficiaries attending court for re-offending

Increased youth defendant / family access to YCS and Tackling Trauma resources

Increased awareness of YCS in UK

 

Background

Most of the recognised Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and other adversities, impact on the criminal justice system. Children and adults with experience of trauma and ACE’s may come into contact with the criminal justice system - both as victims or witnesses and perpetrators of crime. They may also interact with the civil justice ‘family law’ system. In fact, data clearly suggests disadvantaged and traumatised children and young people are disproportionately represented in the justice system. The justice system therefore has a key role in preventing and, in particular, mitigating the impact of childhood trauma.

 

In early 2020, we were approached by Northamptonshire County Youth Bench and invited to support their third iteration of the at court problem solving culture. We welcomed the opportunity and pledged pro bono resources to achieve early and collective impacts. The first Youth Court Solutions working group meeting took place in July 2020 and ratified a committee to develop and plan the new at youth court support service. By the end of the month: the committee was established; a Memorandum of Understanding had been drafted between the project management lead, The Crysalys Foundation, and Northamptonshire County Youth Bench; Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service (NYOS) and Service Six were confirmed as key delivery partners for the project; and we had consulted with Claire Ely and her team at the Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) and drawn from their toolkit, knowledge and expertise, without which the project would not be as advanced as it is today. Also, in July, Service Six and our Development Manager, Jane Deamer, visited Wellingborough Magistrates’ Court, to liaise with Adrian Palmer, Operations Manager from HMCTS and to help scope the potential delivery, marketing space and ascertain the specification and procedures for the project operations. Once we had the basics established, a third layer of meetings started as Service Six (Claudia Slabon), NYOS (Cath Hickman and Ross Watts) and Jane Deamer met to co-produce a detailed project plan. We explored and translated a 12 month pilot project’s scale, scope and ambitions then shared and reviewed the draft with the sub-committee. By the end of September, we had a final plan signed off. The plan outlined the key governance, policy and operational aspects of the project providing a framework for the robust management and delivery of the service. In November we presented the plan to the working group and set the date for the project launch on the 11th February 2021. The launch was hosted by the University of Northampton and due to restrictions took place digitally.

 

Looking ahead, The Crysalys Foundation and CJI hope to explore other opportunities for partnership including creating an at youth court toolkit similar to the current CJI adult toolkit. The new toolkit will help us to share our experience, model and approach across the UK and make it much easier for similar services to be implemented in other areas of the country.

 

We would like to extend our great appreciation for everyone’s inputs of time, expertise, influence, skills and cash to make this a reality. This experience shows what is possible when we work collaboratively towards a common goal.

 

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