9.27 Joint Working Protocol between Wandsworth YOT and Statutory Social Work Services in Wandsworth

Introduction
Safeguarding
Information Sharing
Youth Crime Prevention Work
Parenting Order
All Remands to Local Authority Accommodation
Fostering and Residential Placements
Young People Serving Custodial Sentences
Appropriate Adults

Appendix 1: Youth Crime Prevention Work

Appendix 2: Glossary

1. Introduction

The purpose of this protocol is to define the framework and governing principles within which the Youth Offending Team (YOT) and statutory social work services in Wandsworth work together in partnership and share information. Together the services will provide a consistent approach that encourages effective practice to improve outcomes for young people, taking into account the respective statutory duties and responsibilities of both services.

This protocol seeks to ensure that there are shared objectives which relate to achieving the best possible outcomes for children and young people known to both services, or who should be known to both services.

By statutory social work services the protocol is referencing the:

Family and Community Service group;
Looked After Children Service group;
Youth Support Teams (YST); and
Leaving Care Services.

The Services will ensure that there is regular communication between the statutory social work service areas and the YOT and this will be augmented by an identified YOT officer who will regularly attend the Referral and Assessment Service (RAS) to ensure the links develop at an operational level.

2. Safeguarding

2.1 Referrals to the Referral and Assessment Service (RAS):

The Youth Offending Team should refer cases where they consider a child or young person is in need of assessment under section 17 (Children Act 1989) and are of sufficient priority require additional resources. Thresholds for a referral are set out in the London Continuum of Need. The following circumstances may trigger a referral when it is deemed that a child is in need:
- Safeguarding - if a child/ young person is at risk of harm through abuse or neglect;
- No or inadequate accommodation- if a child under 16 years does not have suitable accommodation or can no longer live with their family;
- Remand to Local Authority Accommodation (RILAA)-when a court decides that the child's:
  - Family or home circumstances are unsuitable for the period of remand;
  - Alleged offence(s) are so serious that bail cannot be granted;
  - Conduct during the remand period warrants the denial of bail;
The RAS also deals with referrals of children thought to be privately fostered, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors, Families with No Recourse to Public Funds and children/young people who are at risk of sexual exploitation;
Children at risk of significant harm are to be referred by phone to the duty service without delay, and followed up in writing;
The Youth Offending Team ensures that all referrals to the RAS are made using a Multi-Agency Referral Form (MARF) which is emailed to the duty service;
On receipt of the MARF the Assessment Team will notify the referrer of a decision within 24 hours.

2.2 Referrals to Youth Support Teams (YST):

Referrals to YST are made via the joint YST/ Referral and Assessment Duty Service. Duty Manager will decide whether the referral is appropriate for Youth Support Team intervention and referred to the appropriate YST manager for a decision on whether targeted or specialist support is required. Please see separate YST/RAS protocol.

2.3 Referrals to St Georges Hospital:

Children or young people who are inpatients at St Georges Hospital can be referred to the Children's team at the hospital following the above procedure.

2.4 Continuing statutory social work involvement:

Where a young person is allocated to a YOT case manager, the case manager is expected to attend team around the child meetings, strategy meetings, child protection case conferences, professional planning meetings, core group meetings, looked after reviews and other appropriate statutory reviews, where appropriate. In the event that attendance is not possible, the YOT allocated worker or his/her line manager will submit a written report;
When an assessment undertaken by RAS determines that a child requires long term or more intensive CSS input these children will be allocated within the Children in Need service (CiN) or Youth Support Teams. The CiN service consists of six area based teams of social workers (Battersea, Earlsfield, Fairfield, Putney & Southfields, Tooting and Roehampton). There are three Youth Support Teams located in Battersea, Roehampton and Tooting;
If a child subsequently becomes looked after by Wandsworth and is likely to remain so, s/he will be transferred to a social worker in one of three Children Looked After teams (CLA) or one of the Youth Support Teams, by negotiation.

2.5 Child Safety Orders:

Police Reports called 'Merlin's (police notifications of any incident involving, or taking place in the presence of a child/young person) are received routinely by CSS Duty and YOT from the Police Public Protection Desk (PPD). The Police Child Abuse Investigation Team (CAIT) receives notifications from the PPD of crimes committed against children or who may have been involved out of hours with such incidents;
Any recommendation for an application for a Child Safety Order should be made in the first instance by the Referral and Assessment Duty Manager (or relevant CSS Team Manager) in discussion with the YOT Manager to the relevant Service Manager. The decision as to whether to apply to the Family Court for a Child Safety Order and any application for an Order will be made by Family and Community Services after a Legal Planning Meeting. (Where a child is found to have breached the Order, the court may make a Care Order without the threshold criteria in s31 (2) Children Act 1989 having to be satisfied);
Statutory social work services will be responsible for the supervision of any child on a Child Safety Order. If a Parenting Order is made within the proceedings, the Parenting Coordinator in the YOT will be responsible for commissioning the parenting work, and for enforcement of the Order in the event of breach.

2.6 Services to Looked After Children:

The Youth Offending Team is committed to improving the outcomes of those Looked After Children who have engaged in offending behaviour. The Youth Offending Team and Children Looked After Services need to ensure robust and coordinated services which promote the best outcomes for this group;
All Looked After Children will receive priority treatment to the Youth Offending Team both in assessment and referral;
Children Looked After Services will ensure that all Care Plans are passed to the Youth Offending Team. These plans will be incorporated into the Youth Offending Team Supervision Plan for each young person;
The Youth Offending Team will ensure attendance at all Team around the Child and Review Meetings as and when invited and submit appropriate reports if unable to attend.

2.7 Training:

All YOT practitioners will be expected to attend Local Safeguarding Children Board's training, and have full access to training for social workers within the wider children's workforce development and training programme.

3. Information Sharing

Information will be exchanged between Statutory Social Care services and the YOT staff to fully enable both departments to fulfil their duties, both statutory and other and this will be consistent with relevant legislation and local policies and procedures;
The YOT is legally empowered to seek information from other agencies if the aim is to pursue a crime prevention strategy (S115 Crime and Disorder Act 1998). The YOT will share information with CSS/YST unless the young person had specifically objected on receipt of the 'Fair Processing Notice' and this objection is upheld. The young person's views may be overridden if the concerns are of a child protection nature, but the young person will need to be told that the YOT is making the referral to CSS;
The Children Act 1989 places a statutory duty on all agencies and services to help the local authority (CSS) in undertaking section 47 (child protection) enquiries.

3.1 Disclosure of Information on Children and Young People Known to both Children's Social Care and the Youth Offending Service:

The Youth Offending Team will check Framework(i) in all cases to find out if they are open to Children's social work services. The YOT will add any young person not already on the system to Framework(i) highlighting their involvement in the Youth Justice System. A record will also be noted on YOIS indicating that the young person is not known to CSS;
If the young person is already known to any social work team the YOT administration team will notify the CSS Team administrator immediately. Thereafter the relevant social worker, or in their absence, team manager will be informed of the young person's entry into the Youth Offending Service within 24 hours, by the case manager. This notification will be made by phone and followed up by email. YOT case managers will also inform CSS of all court appearances and results within 24 hours;
With a referral of a child or young person aged 10 years old and over, Referral and Assessment (RAS) will check the Youth Offending Team Database (YOIS), to find out if the child or young person is already known to the Youth Offending Team. If the young person is already known to the Youth Offending Team, the relevant team will be informed of the referral within 3 working days;
If the child or young person is Looked After and is placed out of borough by Wandsworth and new offences come to the notice of the allocated social worker, they must advise the Youth Offending Team of these new matters within 3 working days;
The Youth Offending Team will ensure that once notified by social work services the YOIS Case Record is immediately updated.

4. Youth Crime Prevention Work

There are specific projects which provide more intensive support. These resources are locality based, and overseen by the Youth Support Team targeted services.

Information regarding all targeted/preventative services can be found at Appendix 1: Youth Crime Prevention Work.

5. Parenting Order

The YOT has a dedicated Parenting Coordinator. S/he is responsible for coordinating parenting programmes for any parent/carer who has been made subject of a Parenting Order in a Criminal, Family Court or Magistrates Court. In addition referrals may be made to the Parenting Coordinator by CSS or YSS, where parents of children (aged 10 or over) are experiencing difficulties in parenting, and are seeking parenting support and advice on a voluntary basis and the young person is offending. If a young person is deemed to be at risk of offending, then a referral should be made to one of the Parenting co-ordinators based within the YST.

6. All Remands to Local Authority Accommodation

A child or young person remanded to local authority accommodation, with or without a security requirement attached to the remand, is a "looked after child" as defined by s22(1)(b) Children Act 1989. As such, any child or young person remanded to local authority accommodation falls within the Review of Children's Cases Regulations 1991, and is subject of the Independent Reviewing process, whether in an open or secure placement. CSS/YST and YOT will work together to provide the best service we can to a young person remanded to local authority accommodation.

6.1 Remands to Local Authority Accommodation without a Security Requirement:

In the case of a young person remanded to local authority accommodation without a security requirement, the YOT court duty officer will contact the RAS Duty Manager or relevant CSS/YST Team Manager about a young person possibly being remanded into accommodation;
Where the YOT can reasonably anticipate the strong likelihood of a remand the court duty officer will give early warning to the CSS Duty Manager via e-mail, with the duty manager confirming receipt of e-mail information. CSS/YST will act on this warning by alerting the Placement Team within 1 hour of receiving the information and forming a basic contingency plan. The YOT court duty officer will notify the relevant CSS Manager of the courts decision immediately after it is made;
The YOT court duty officer will routinely explore the possibility of placement with extended family as an alternative to a remand to accommodation and provide names/addresses and contact details where possible to CSS/YST in the event of a remand to accommodation;
The responsibility for finding a placement rests with CSS/YST. Once a placement has been identified, an e-mail must be sent to the court duty officer immediately notifying him/her of the full address where the child will be placed. The placement decision will take account of Par.6.37 Children Act Guidance and Regulations Volume 1 i.e. the reasons for the courts refusal of bail, and the local authority's responsibility to protect the public from further offending;
If there is a disagreement between the YOT and CSS/YST about the placement decision, the YOT/Deputy Manager/Pre Court Manager will liaise with the relevant Service Manager or if unavailable, Head of Service;
It is clearly the responsibility of CSS/YST to find a placement in local authority accommodation and pay all ancillary costs. In respect of conveying the young person to the placement, the guidelines below should be followed:
- If a young person is known to neither YOT nor CSS/YST, but a YOT worker is at court, it would be sensible for the YOT worker to convey the young person to placement if this placement is not a secure accommodation. If a young person is remanded into secure accommodation, the YOT will make arrangements with the appropriate secure services to collect the young person from court and escort them to the designated placement;
- If there is no allocated CSS/YST worker and if the young person is known to the YOT worker at court, the YOT worker will deal with the logistics of placement that day;
- Where the young person has an allocated social worker, that worker or allocated worker within the CSS team will be responsible for the placement logistics;
- Where the remand is made at a court other than Balham, the placement tasks, including escorting to placement, would normally rest with YOT, except where the young person was allocated in CSS/YST. However, in unplanned placements the YOT will be flexible in working with CSS/YST to devise an appropriate response in a timely manner, which is in the best interests of the young person concerned;
In general, while the YOT worker will manage the court process, CSS/YST has responsibility for placement tasks;
YOT and CSS/YST must liaise closely during the remand period. All ancillary costs (cabs, clothing, family visits etc) will be met from CSS Children Looked After budgets, subject to prior approval;
The Duty SW or allocated SW is responsible for the completion of LAC forms and the first LAC review for a young person where there is no current CSS/YST involvement or where the case has been closed for more than twelve weeks. The YOT will provide support as necessary and appropriate;
A looked after young person should be accompanied at each court appearance by an appropriate adult (SW, RSW, foster carer). If none is available, the YOT should be contacted in advance of the hearing.

6.2 Remands to local authority accommodation with a security requirement:

The YOT is responsible for contacting the YJB for a secure placement;
The YOT is responsible for arranging secure escorts;
At the time of the remand the Duty SW or allocated SW is responsible for completion of any LAC forms, and for subsequent updating of LAC details on Framework(i). If however the child or young person was already a "looked after" child at the time of remand, CSS/YST will provide completed LAC forms to the YOT so that they are available to the secure unit on the day or within 24 hours of admission. The YOT will provide support with this process as necessary and appropriate;
The costs of the placement and escorts are met by the YOT;
The cost of family visits will be met by CSS Children Looked After budgets, subject to prior approval;
The YOT will notify the relevant CSS/YST Team of the remand as soon as possible on the day or no later than the morning after the remand, and YOT will notify the Independent Review Unit (IRU) that same day;
In the event that no secure beds are available nationally, the YOT will contact the CSS CLA Commissioning Manager to discuss placement within an open setting (fostering/residential) pending the availability of a secure bed. The decision will have regard to Par.6.37 Children Act Guidance and Regulations Volume 1, in particular the protection of the public;
In the case of children/ young people remanded to local authority accommodation with security attached, National Standards for Youth Justice Services require that the YOT take part in a remand review within 5 working days of the initial remand. This review can take place on the phone. The YOT are required to attend a review planning meeting within 10 days of the initial remand, and attend reviews at monthly intervals thereafter. The Children Act Review of Children's Cases Regulations require that the initial review be held within 28 days of the date on which the child became looked after, and thereafter at 90 days (3 months) and 180 days (6 month) intervals;
The timescales for the YOT and the Independent Review processes are not the same, but wherever possible the YOT worker and IRU will attempt to combine their reviewing responsibilities within the same review meeting at the secure unit. In any combined review, the first part of the review will be chaired by the IRO.

6.3 Saturday Remands

The Saturday court is staffed in accordance with the Pan-London protocol for Youth Offending Teams. Wandsworth YOT forms part of the South West London Justice Area (LJA) along with Merton, Richmond and Kingston YOTs;
The court for this LJA is Wimbledon MC, however, this building is currently undergoing refurbishment and Lavender Hill court (formerly South Western MC) is being used for Saturday court until further notice;
The four YOTs use a rota system to manage staffing; in Wandsworth the Bail and Remand Co-ordinator is the dedicated worker whereas in the other YOTs it will be any member of staff;
The process for Saturday remands will be the same as outlined in section 6.1 and 6.2 above. Contact will be made with the EDT by telephone at the earliest opportunity;
The Bail and Remand Co-ordinator will take responsibility for the court processes and for arranging escorts. The EDT will take responsibility for the placement of the young person.

7. Fostering and Residential Placements

Young people referred by the YOT to CSS/YST, when in need of placement, are eligible for fostering/ residential resource and access to the Placement Support Team, the same as any other young person from the Borough requiring local authority care. Their placement needs are addressed in the same and individualised way, taking into account any risk issues.

8. Young People Serving Custodial Sentences

The YOT is responsible for through care and post release supervision. However, in circumstances where a young person was "looked after" by the local authority at the point of sentence, the CSS/YST social work service has a clear role in relation to through care and post-custodial support under leaving care provisions of the 1989 Act. With regard to young people who were voluntarily accommodated (under section 20 of the 1989 Act) before a custodial remand or sentence and whose period in custody ends before their 16th birthday or those aged 16 and 17 who are not entitled to leaving care support, the local authority has a duty to appoint a representative to visit and arrange for appropriate advice, support and assistance is available. This would normally be their allocated social worker. The purpose of the visit is to complete an assessment of the child's needs and plan for release. (Ref. The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations - Local authority responsibilities towards former looked after children in custody, DfE). If their remand or sentence is served in a Youth Offender Institution (YOI), or their sentence is served in a Secure Training Centre (STC) or Secure Children's Home (SCH) then these young people will no longer be looked after by a local authority. The YOT will support these young people during their sentence and until the end of their licence period;
Within 10 days of sentence the YOT must notify the relevant CSS/YST worker of the young person's expected date of release. CSS/YST must then begin planning at this early stage for placement on release, and the allocated CSS/YST worker should attend the Sentence Planning Meeting, reviews, and the Resettlement Review Meeting which is held one month before the date of release;
Where the YOT worker becomes aware in advance of the release date that a young person's family are refusing to have him/her home on release, the YOT worker will work with the family to encourage them to resume care. If unsuccessful the YOT worker will notify the CSS Duty Manager in RAS (in case of a young person not known to CSS) or the relevant Team Manager in advance of the release. An assessment will be undertaken to assess the level of need, the young person's wishes and feelings, and the most appropriate accommodation for the young person's current circumstances.

9. Appropriate Adults

The local authority is responsible for all young people in police stations in its locality, regardless of their place of origin. The YOT Manager has the general responsibility to ensure that the necessary arrangements are in place and to this end to recruit and train volunteers, whose details and availability are displayed in the custody suites at Wandsworth police stations. However there will be times when they are not available and the police will look to CSS/YST and the YOT to provide an appropriate adult and efforts should be made to assist. If the young person is "looked after" a CSS/YST social worker should attend;
Where a young person requires an appropriate adult out of hours this is dealt with by the Emergency Duty Team (EDT). There are separate arrangements with other London Boroughs that operate during these times.

Appendix 1: Youth Crime Prevention Work

There are specific projects which provide more intensive support. These resources are mainly locality based.

Wandsworth's Children and Young People's Support Service provides support to 8-13 year olds in the three planning localities in Wandsworth: Tooting, Battersea and Roehampton/Putney. The Children and Young People's Support Service is accessed in the main through the borough's primary schools, although there is some secondary involvement at transition. The service operates at Level 2 of the Pan London Continuum of need and the individual's need for the service is usually identified through the use of a common assessment;
Battersea Early Intervention Team (BEIT) is based within the Youth Work Service (3 locality based Youth Service Teams) and has pioneered a model of providing support and diversionary activities, specifically targeting young people who are on the edge of crime including those thought to be significantly involved in gangs. This model is now being rolled out across the borough so BEIT will become Wandsworth Early Intervention Team (WEIT). The Team meets regularly with the local Police, Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT), other departments within Children's Services (including Education) and Community Safety. A targeted approach is used to identify young people most likely to be on the cusp of crime or involved in gang behaviour. This includes referral systems for Merlins. Following identification, WEIT will then attempt to engage with those young people offering local initiatives and programmes that offer positive alternatives to criminal activity. BEIT, DDWs (see below) and the Youth Support Team are currently developing a new project alongside the Police to work with parents of young people at risk in relation to sexual exploitation and gangs. This provides support and advice about early intervention and other support agencies;
The triage programme, likewise focused on diverting young people from criminal activity and entering the youth justice system, is also delivered through the Youth Service Teams (3 locality based teams in Battersea, Tooting & Roehampton). This is primarily focused on young people who would have previously been subject to reprimand or final warning;
Each of the three localities also has a detached development worker who works with young people who do not access mainstream youth provision and respond to concerns - often raised by Housing or the Police - around antisocial behaviour. These workers often lead on triage cases;
In addition, the Integrated Youth Support Service helps fund and co-works with Chelsea Football Club on a number of diversionary inclusion projects run in areas of disadvantage and high crime. They provide football or other sporting activities from Chelsea Coaches with youth worker support alongside structured workshops on relevant issues such as shoplifting, knife crime etc;
A series of DVDs, called Every Choice Matters, and filmed with local young people have been developed by BEIT for use in schools and youth groups covering knife crime, gangs, shoplifting etc;
Three locality Youth Support Teams (for adolescents aged 13 to 19years) provide targeted support and early intervention for young people at risk. (see paragraph 2.2 for referral process). They are co-located with universal Youth Service Teams. The early intervention and preventative work also includes young people finishing community orders (or sentences) who are assessed as requiring continued more intensive support to reduce the likelihood of re-offending and risk of harm;
The Wandsworth Family Recovery Project (FRP) was launched in October 2011. The FRP is a multi-agency team who persistently intervene and support families who are at risk of losing their children, their home or their liberty. The FRP Team consists of professionals with the following expertise: Adult mental health, Anti-social behaviour, Employment support, Domestic Violence, Education, Health visiting, Police, Housing, Substance misuse, Children's social work, Probation. The FRP Team will work through the Team Around the Family (TAF) approach where all relevant agencies (including the FRP Team) will work together as a TAF to deliver better coordinated interventions and therefore outcomes for the entire family.

Appendix 2: Glossary

BAME	Black and Asian Minority Ethnic
CAF	Common Assessment Framework
CAMHS	Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
CDRP	Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership
CLA	Children Looked After
CLICK	Children Living In Care Kouncil
CSD	Children's Services Department
CSND	Children with Special Needs and Disabilities
CSS	Children's Specialist Services
CWD	Children With Disabilities
DV	Domestic Violence
FE	Further Education
LA	Local Authority
LP	Lead Professional
LSC	Learning and Skills Council
LSCB	London Safeguarding Children Board
MARAC	Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference
NEET	Not in Education, Employment or Training
PPRI	Policy, Planning, Review and Information
PRU	Pupil Referral Unit
PSHE	Personal, Social Health and Emotional Education
QA	Quality Assurance
SEN	Special Educational Needs
SENCo	Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator
SWLPCT	South West London Primary Care Trust
SWLStG MHT	South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust
TAC	Team Around the Child
WLSP	Wandsworth Local Strategic Partnership
WSCB	Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board
YOT	Youth Offending Team
YPDRG	Young Person's Drug Reference Group

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