Conclusions
Leaving Care - Leaving Custody was originally published in 2007 as a discussion paper written in response to the Green Paper Care Matters. Suggesting that there are significant parallels between the needs of young people leaving care and those leaving custody, the report concludes by stating that:
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If looked after young people are so in danger of becoming socially excluded, then how much more are those who have experienced or are experiencing custody?
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If the cost in terms of damaged lives, wasted potential and wasted material resources is so great for care leavers, then how much more expensive is it for custody leavers?
Whilst it is clear that young people in care are disproportionately represented in all categories relating to disadvantage and social exclusion, what is not so well known is that up to 40% of the under-18 population in our YOIs have had experience of being looked after, and that there is a weight of evidence that suggests the vast majority have received some form of s.17 needs based intervention at some point in their lives.
Safeguarding & Promoting Welfare
The paper takes a close look at some of the policy development issues that impact young people in custody, particularly the challenges concerning the need for local statutory agencies to jointly address how best to safeguard and promote their welfare during, but more particularly post-custody - the community phase and beyond.
The paper highlights the
difficulties there have been in promoting cooperation between agencies, and argue that whilst safeguards legislation has been in place for many years designed to both guide local authorities and protect vulnerable children and young people in the community, its application by those in the community, to those in custody has been negligible at best, and all but none existent in the worst of cases. It suggests that as such, there is still much to do within local authorities if the 5 ECM Outcomes are ever to impact young people cared for by those working within Prison Service custodial establishments.
Final Thoughts
The paper also focuses on those young people in custody known to have either looked after or leaving care status under the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000. It suggests that through focusing primarily on this group, and the community based Quality Protects programme that generated some significant service improvements over recent years, we may already be in possession of an effective model through which to engage and secure the ongoing commitment to change of Children & Young Peoples Services in the 150 local authorities throughout the country. In this way we may succeed in improving the long-term resettlement outcomes of all our young custody leavers.
