Preventing Youth Offending through Social Work

Preventing raw person Offending through Social WorkIntroduction to Social Work. David Gower and Jackie Plenty. S134487The ambit I have chosen to discuss is young person Offending and intend to look at options that will help prevent re- offending and how we, as Social Workers, subject bea as part of a team within spring chicken Offending. I intend to look at what areas of society are more likely to offend or re-offend.A young offender is defined as someone under 18 historic period of age who has committed an offence. The legal age of flagitious responsibility in England and Wales, is ten years old, therefore whateverone under the age of 10 cannot be held responsible for their actions.Anyone aged between 10 and 14 years old is presumed to understand the difference between right and wrong, so they can be convicted of a criminal offence if free-base guilty.Teenagers between 14 and 17 years old are fully responsible for any crimes they commit, but they are sentenced differentl y in relation to adults. novel offenders are assessed by the (1) younker judge System (YJS). There are a number of assay factors which may make a young person more likely to capture conglomerate in committing crime or anti- friendly behaviour. Whilst not exhaustive these include a lack of education, poor family relationships, having family members or peers who have offended, and misuse of substances. The YJS aim to rule these problems (www.yjb.gov.uk)According to the Children Act 1989, the childs welfare shall be the courts paramount consideration. Therefore why do we lock so many children up, but allow terrorist to walk bountiful under a tell order? (Part 1 Welfare of the child)In the United Kingdom we lock up more children than any another(prenominal) republic in Europe. 90% of young offenders put in prison house will reoffend within two years of release. The UKs (2) Youth Justice Board spends 70% of its compute on custody, 5% on preventive methods leaving just 25% for restorative and other methods. The age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 10 years old. In Scotland its eight.Interviews with young offenders revealed litanies of jailed mothers, abuse at home, street living, and failed foster care. Almost all such children are excluded from school, and other attempts to divert them are laughable youth clubs with a pool table, one TV and one PlayStation to fight over. (radio-youth justice)The Crime and Disorder Act was legislated in 1998 for the first clock time. Working unitedly as part of the new Multi-agency (3) Youth Offending Team under section 39(5) a Youth Offending Team (YOT) would now consist of a Social worker, a police officer, a probation officer, a nominated person from the education department a nominated person from the health authority. Working as part of a YOT involves being a member of possibly the most diverse and wide ranging multi-agency team within Social Care.Under the (4)GSCC code of fig ure Social workers have 6 standards (5)that need to be maintained within Social Care settings ensuring that you can build up a relationship with your client and their carers, whilst using this we also need to take into account the National Occupational Standards and use these to provide a benchmark within our practice. Within Youth Justice the National Standards are set by the Home Secretary and issued by the YJB. The Standards provide a benchmark to measure good practice whilst working with children and young people who offend, as well as their families and victims.Social work has little to contribute and little wish to contribute to the effectiveness of prisons if one takes the view that their immemorial purpose is to punish and humiliate their inmates. If, on the other hand, prisoners are there as a punishment, not for additional punishment, Social Work has an important role, prison based Social Workers can play a vital part in helping prisoners maintain contact with communitie s, preparing them for constructive activities after their release, and providing opportunities for reflection on their offending and planning for a better life. Social Work is based upon a belief in dignity and worth of all human beings, and in individuals ability to change. (Williams cited in)The role of social work may be more effective if partnered with a armed service user using a Care train system, thus avoiding more custodial sentences. The service user would be well aware they had narrowly avoided a custodial sentence and would be guided by the Social Worker if they do not conform to the agreement that they could end up back in court and eventually back to Prison. Having a introductory understanding of the Human Development as well as a good knowledge of Social Work Codes of Practice will help us to understand the service users role within society. We need to help empower the service user into making the right decision for them, by giving them the message and help to d o it. By treating them with dignity and respect at a level they can understand without them feeling inferior or pressurised to make a decision by the Social Worker. Within this we can offer help with past problems they have suffered using (6)S.W.O.T. analysis, counselling, curfews, boundaries, mentoring, restorative work, talking to parents and working with multiple agencies to experience the service user gets the service and support they need. Helping the service user to drive positive change and help reduce risk.A service user is a term used to emphasis a professional relationship. Service user involvement is putting the people who use our services in control of the lives offering support they may need, to help them overcome their issues and empowering them to lead more fulfilling lives.The anti-social behaviour orders were introduced by Tony Blair in 1998 and by 2005 55 per cent were being breached (cited in article-1228445 Daily Mail) is this because the courts and the police are making the (7)ASBOs unrealistic , Setting out for the Young person to fail and break the order, so they can then go back to court to get the young person of the streets. Working as professionals within the Multiagency setting of YOT we should be looking for opportunities to empower the young person into merging realistic targets and not setting ASBOs which we know they will be unable to comply with for various reasons. Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) secernate Parties recognise the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognised as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the childs sense of dignity and self worth.(Youth Justice and Social Work )Piaget distinguished three stages in childrens awareness to rules by vie games, 1st ages up to 4-5, rules not really understood,2nd stage 4-5 up to 9-10, rules were seen to be coming for a higher authority (e.g. adults, god, town council) 3rd stage 9-10 in advance rules could be mutually changed by others. (cited Understanding childrens development)Many young people who become involved in military force and crime have experienced this event of behaviour from a parent or a peer, if they have learnt that this is the accepted way of dealing with a problem and have seen or experienced this winsome of abuse they may have little self esteem and perceive this to be the correct way of dealing with an issue.As discussed by Paiget about children learnedness and understanding rules, if a child is taught the wrong moral standings by an adult in stage 2, it could lead to them following the wrong path in life. development this theory we can benchmark where a child should be.There was a drop in the number of children entering the justice system for the first time in 2007/08. Numbers of first time entrants aged 10 to 17 entering the Youth Justice System in England and Wales were around 87,400, a release of about 7 per cent o n the previous year. Slightly more than 2,700 of children in this age group were in custody in England and Wales in celestial latitude 2008, including around 500 children aged 15 and under. The majority of young offenders in custody were boys (94 per cent). More than four-fifths (86 per cent) of young offenders were held in Young Offenders Institutions, 8 per cent were in Secure Training Centres and 6 per cent were in Secure Childrens Homes. Around 51,000 children aged 10 to 17 were found guilty of indictable offences in 2007 and a further 75,000 were cautioned. Of those found guilty of an indictable offence, more than a third (36 per cent) were found guilty of theft and handling stolen goods and around 14 per cent were found guilty of violence against the person. Boys aged 15 to 17 accounted for 69 per cent of all children found guilty of indictable offences in 2007 including theft and handling stolen goods (11,200 offenders), violence against the person (5,500 offenders), drug off ences (4,600 offenders) and burglary (4,500 offenders).(Source Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Youth Justice Board )In Order to help prevent this from happening the establishment launched a program called Youth inclusion body program (8)(YIP) which was established in 2000, and tailor-made political platforms for 8 to 17-year-olds, who are identified as being at high risk of involvement in offending or anti-social behaviour. Whilst the programs are run for the identified children, YIPs are also open to other young people in the local area. The programme operates in110 of the most deprived/high crime estates in England and Wales.YIPs aim to reduce youth crime and anti-social behaviour in neighbourhoods where they work. Young people on the YIP are identified through a number of different agencies including youth offending teams (YOTs), police, social services, local education authorities or schools, and other local agencies. YIP receives a grant each year from the Youth Justice Bo ard annually via its Youth Offending Team and is required to prevail the same amount of funding via Local Agencies.(Cited YJB/Prevention YIPS)Working in genuine partnership with other agencies and being able to access more information will enable the social worker to assess the service users needs quicker and have a detailed history of the client, which will help everyone involved within the multiagency partnership. Most referrals will come via a common assessment form (9) CAF which is used to highlight the areas each individual agency feels the service user is at risk and working within the comprehensive framework for assessment.An independent national evaluation of the first three years of YIPs found that apprehension rates for the 50 young people considered to be most at risk of crime in each YIP had been reduced by 65%of those who had offended before joining the programme, 73% were arrested for fewer offences after engaging with a YIPof those who had not offended previously but who were at risk, 74% did not go on to be arrested after engaging with a YIP.(Cited YJB/Prevention YIPS)Even though these results prove YIP to be an effective compute it struggles for the necessary funding. If YIP had more readily available funding there would be more opportunity to intervene early with the affected children. Earlier subterfuge would help to refocus the energies of children. This could stand for that eventually that we can have early intervention programmes running in all areas where children are more at risk and this could potentially prevent my children becoming involved in crime.The evidence shows that intervening early with the most challenging families in this country works. Ed Balls MP, Childrens Secretary (cited Children Young People Now)The conflict between Social work ethics and the legal systems is arguably more distinct in the practice of youth justice than any area within the Social work field. Positive, constructive achievement through social work intervention for a young person will set ahead the young person to take responsibility for their actions and empower them to reflect their options whilst making decisions. For a young person, age discrimination and labeling often occur, which could give the young person an attitude and make them feel quite defensive, paranoid sometimes.I think Society possibly needs to change its way of thinking, our New Labour government has passed over 900 new laws since coming to power. This has had an effect on how we view children and young people, 20 years ago we had 339 children in prison, today we have over 3000, does this mean that children have become 10 times more dangerous?. I dont believe that children and young people have really changed as much as statistics say, I believe it is because we have too many laws and because some people live in such a dysfunctional manner, that they prefer to be in prison as they are warm, safe, can get qualifications, they have friends and they get 3 me als day and it is a routine for them, whereas living within a family that is dysfunctional could mean living with violence, drug or alcohol abuse and not having their basic needs met on a regular basis. Everything that happens within a service users life is logical to them.A positivistic believes that crime is not chosen but caused largely by factors beyond the offenders control. In essence, the belief is that offenders simply chamfer help themselves, certain genetic, psychological or environmental factors have influenced their behavior and the existence of these factors means that offenders are almost pre-programmed to become criminals. This is one of the great contradictions of the positivist approach to crime is its focus on reformation and rehabilitation. (Taylor et. Al. (1973) cited in Youth Justice and Social WorkAppendixYJS- Youth Justice SystemYJB Youth Justice BoardYOT- Youth Offending TeamGSCC General Social Care CouncilGSCC- 6 StandardsS.W.O.T Strength, Weakness, Opp ortunities Threats.ASBO- Anti Social Behaviour OrderYIP- Youth Inclusion ProgramCAF- Common Assessment FormGeneral Social Care Council Standards Code of practice.As a social care worker, you essential protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers.As a social care worker, you must strive to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of service users and carers.As a social care worker, you must promote the independence of service users while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm.As a social care worker, you must respect the rights of service users while seeking to ensure that their behaviour does not harm themselves or other people.As a social care worker, you must uphold public trust and confidence in social care services.As a social care worker, you must be accountable for the quality of your work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving your knowledge and skills.Referencinghttp//www.yjb.gov.uk/en-gb/yjs/Prevention/http //www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/feb/15/radio-youthjusticeOxford Blackwell.Davies, M. (2000) The Blackwell Companion To Social Work,Oxford Blackwell.http//www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1228445/We-rein-ASBOs-Tories-plan-instant-penalties-control-yobs.htmDugmore, P. and Pickford, J. (2006) Youth Justice and Social Work,Exeter Learning Matters.Smith, P.K. and Cowie, H. (1996) Understanding Childrens Development (2nd ed.), Oxford Blackwell. Page 198Source Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Youth Justice Board http//www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=2200)http//www.yjb.gov.uk/en-gb/yjs/Prevention/YIP/Ed Balls inverted comma (Children Young People Now) 3-9.12.09Dugmore, P. and Pickford, J. (2006) Youth Justice and Social Work, Exeter Learning Matters. Page 49 Taylor