Reoffending rates for children and young people aged 10 to 17
The current Ministry of Justice (MoJ) methodology for measuring reoffending is based on a 3 month cohort who are then tracked for a further 12 month period. Reoffending data is based on the number of children and young people, aged 10 to 17, who receive a substantive outcome, e.g. a Youth Caution, Youth Conditional Caution, Court Order, or who were released on a custodial licence during the relevant quarter.
The data produced indicates the percentage of children and young people who reoffend, as well as a reoffending rate. The reoffending rate is the average number of new offences committed per child or young person that reoffends.
March 2021 performance
Ministry of Justice has cancelled data publication due to Covid-19, therefore monitoring of this measure has been temporarily suspended.
Although the latest quarterly
data is not available, the finalised annual local tracker data for 2018/19
continues to indicate there is a small cohort of children (16) who commit the
majority of reoffending, 64.8%. Consequently, the Youth Justice Service is
conducting a deep dive audit focused on these children to identify if there
are any key characteristics, themes and trends.
The analysis of this data will be reviewed to identify how internal service delivery, or that of partner agencies, can be shaped or modified to improve responsiveness, reduce reoffending and improve outcomes for children.
The diverse needs of children that reoffend repeatedly require a multi-agency response and our ability to improve reoffending rates will be dependent on the effectiveness of our partnership.
Actions
Good performance in relation to reducing the harmful use of custody and preventing first time entrants to the youth justice system have had dramatic impact on this indicator, significantly reducing the size of the cohort of repeat offenders. This makes it considerably more challenging to be successful in all three areas of performance. To improve performance, a range of tasks are currently being implemented which will be reported to the Youth Offending Management Board.
The
factors which contribute to offending by children are complex; often typified
by both intra and extra familial risks which require a comprehensive
multi-agency response. This is particularly the case for the small cohort of
children who commit the majority of reoffending. Effectively engaging and
intervening in the lives of these children and their families is challenging
and requires time in order to build trusting and supportive relationships,
which are the bedrock to facilitating change. Consequently, reducing reoffending by children in West Sussex requires a long term
response from a wide range of agencies.