There is a high incidence of young people with special educational needs in the youth justice system. For all those who enter the system with EHC Plans/Statements of SEN or additional needs, there are more than double this number who enter the system with unidentified needs. They have gone through the education system, without their needs being ‘picked up’. There is a moral imperative on society, and particularly on youth offending teams across the country to do something about it, to secure better outcomes for these young people. In this article Marius Frank looks at a Department for Education funded project, which aims to do just that and is having promising results.
The project- the Youth Justice SEND Project brings together Achievement for All, the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers and Manchester Metropolitan University to support professionals to bring about a culture and behaviour change around effective SEND joint working. Funded by the Department for Education (co-managed with Youth Justice Board and Ministry of Justice) it builds on the pioneering work of both the Council for Disabled Children and Sheffield Futures.
The project which endeavours to continue driving and embedding a culture-change around effective SEND joint working, transforming outcomes for young people with SEND who offend (or who are at risk of dong so)is focused around the following strands:
a) Building local networks and sharing good practice: Creating effective, active and sustainable local networks of professionals and sector champions (including representatives of local authorities, Youth Offending Teams, health, social care, education providers and the secure estate) that are able to develop and implement practice that improves outcomes for these young people.
b) Continuing to build knowledge and understanding of the SEND reforms (building on last year’s work led by CDC and Sheffield Futures)- particularly around how the reforms impact on current practice within the Youth Justice System through research and through the networks established through this project (sharing evidence based effective practice and innovation). Engage busy professionals with ideas that help meet their needs, including new cross-cutting training.
c) Monitoring outcomes and improving the system - Helping the sector monitor and analyse local authority SEN and disability support and outcomes of children and young people pre-, during and post-custody and address identified weaknesses and gaps (using evidence and data to best effect).