Luton commended for having no young people in youth custody

Luton’s current record of having no young people in youth custody is “really commendable”, a meeting heard.

The town’s youth justice service coordinates the safeguarding response to criminal exploitation, according to a report to the borough council’s scrutiny children’s services review group.

“It means there are large cohorts of children receiving targeted early intervention, children open to the targeted youth service, edge of care services and a supported transition pilot currently operating,” said the report.

“Services have been developed with community partners and are delivered to children in all of the local communities.”

Luton youth offending service manager Dave Collins told the review group: “We had an element of creativity before last year about this plan, which is clearly an overview of everything youth justice does within the area.

“We were stifled a year ago by the Youth Justice Board giving us a template to work to with mandatory headlines,” he explained.

“It made the 2022/23 plan huge and completely inaccessible with 16,000 words. But it gave us the opportunity to lay out the vision of the youth partnership and service.

“There’s an organisational restructure which took place to create the management framework, which has allowed us to extend our service to become so much more than statutory youth justice now.

“The 2023/24 plan is kept much shorter. Again we had to work to a mandatory template and headings. I’ve focused on the last 12 months.

“We’re in a very good position on statutory youth justice. We buck the trend in first time entrants and for youth custody.

“That’s something all of us in children’s services have worked really hard to achieve, certainly within the last six years, in reducing that cohort.

“We don’t currently have any young people in custody. Our first time entrants are very low against rising numbers nationally.”

Asked if this work is coordinated with the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) system, Mr Collins replied: “I’m on the MASH strategic delivery board, while MASH sits on several of our significant boards.

“The key issue for all of us regarding cooperation is about the young people drawn into criminal exploitation and drawn into serious violence.

“It’s very much a feature of this plan because we’ve reduced statutory youth justice, but we still have young people open to our multi-agency gangs panel.

“It’s not just about early interventions. There’s much more. So if there wasn’t any collaboration, there are many different outlets.”

LBC’s interim service director quality and improvement Teresa Gallagher said: “Throughout the country Luton is standing firm in having no children in custody, which is really commendable.

“That’s a huge success which reflects the partnership work with everyone involved in Luton to ensure the safety of those children.

“But particularly because children don’t have to be in custody, as there’s no need for them to be there.”

The critical issue to be understood is how children in Luton are drawn into criminal exploitation, with many through factors largely out of their control, added the report to the review group.

“These range from social economic issues to underlying health and education needs.”