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Grants Committee
Service 80. Reduce youth offending
and anti-social behaviour among
young people (aged 11-24) through
diversionary activities
Report by:
Sasan Abtahi
Date:
10 February 2010
Contact
Officer:
Sasan Abtahi
Telephone:
0207 934 9841
Item no: xx
Job title:
Policy and Grants Manager
Email:
[email protected]
Summary
This report provides an update on progress made by organisations funded
under service 80 in the first year of funding and makes recommendations
for continued funding for the period 1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011.
Recommendations
Members are asked to:
1. Agree the renewal of grants within this sector as set out in Table 1
below for the period 1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011.
Background
1. Grants Committee agreed funding for 11 organisations, under service 80, at its meeting on
29 April 2008. One of the organisations – Connexions – was wound up in 2008 and the
grant offer was withdrawn and no payment made. The Grants Committee at its meeting
on 22 April 2009 agreed to redistribute the resources previously allocated to Connexions,
to five of the remaining ten organisations funded under service 80. The funding was
agreed in principle for four years starting in September 2008. In the first instance specific
approval was given for the first 18 months – 1 October 2008 – 31 March 2010.
2. This report provides Members with an update on progress in the first year of funding and
summarises groups’ performance against the standard outcomes for the service. The
period covered in the report is 1 October 2008 – 30 September 2009
Table 1: Groups funded under service 80
London
Councils
Reference
5957
7002
5964
5392
7001
5996
6003
7000
6038
7003
6086
6088
6109
6110
6999
Organisation
Active Planet
Active Planet (additional redistributed grant)
Artefacts Edutainment
Brandon Centre Counselling and Psychotherapy for Young
People
Brandon Centre Counselling and Psychotherapy for Young
People (additional redistributed grant)
East Potential
Fairbridge in London
Fairbridge in London (additional redistributed grant)
London Action Trust
London Action Trust (additional redistributed grant)
SOVA London
Springboard Bromley Trust
The Peace Alliance
The Princes Trust
The Princes Trust (additional redistributed grant)
Total
Annual Grant
(£)
15,249
5,301
10,421
24,240
3,312
26,334
23,825
6,442
58,273
11,667
36,435
14,790
28,108
31,354
4,229
299,980
Summary of performance in first year of funding
3. The ten organisations funded under service 80 have delivered the following outcomes in
the first year of funding:
Outcome 1:
a)
Reduced youth offending and anti-social behaviour through:
provision of diversionary activities for young people aged 11-16 who are
identified to be at risk of becoming involved in crime or anti-social
behaviour, and/or
b)
provision of diversionary activities for young people aged 16-24 years
who have offended or been involved in anti-social behaviour, and/or
c)
provision of second tier support (networking, support with service
information dissemination, e.g. electronic newsletters, a website, etc.)
to other community organisations which are working to reduce youth
offending and anti-social behaviour.
1,130 young people participated in diversionary activities
Outcome 2:
Improved referral arrangements and partnership working among
voluntary organisations and between the voluntary sector, registered
social landlords and the statutory agencies (the Metropolitan Police,
London Fire Brigade, Youth Justice Board, local authorities, etc.)
working with young offenders and young people at risk of becoming
involved in crime or anti-social behaviour.
All the commissioned organisations have worked to improve their referral
arrangements.
Outcome 3:
Increased effectiveness of the voluntary sector’s response to the
problems of youth offending and anti-social behaviour through the
promotion and championing of good practice models in this area of
work.
All the commissioned organisations share good practice with other
organisations and agencies.
Outcome 4:
The development of innovative approaches to tackling youth offending
and anti-social behaviour, in particular through initiatives which
encourage young people to take an interest in their local communities
and the environment.
Outcome 5:
Actively promote equality for disadvantaged groups through the service
delivery, marketing, evaluation and management of the proposed
service.
Key issues emerging from the delivery of the service and in the wider sector
4. The organisations commissioned under this service specification have delivered a range of
frontline (mainly diversionary activities) and second tier services for young people involved
in or at risk of becoming involved in crime and anti-social behaviour.
5. One of the commissioned organisations, has been undertaking second tier activities and
developed an online database of diversionary activities used by professionals across the
voluntary and statutory sectors.
6. London Councils funding under this specification complements services, for young
offenders and young people at risk of becoming involved in crime and anti-social
behaviour, directly supported by individual local authorities and other funders
Recommendations
Members are asked to:
Agree the renewal of grants within this sector as set out in Table 1 above for the period 1 April
2010 – 31 March 2011.
Financial Implications for London Councils
7. The resources required to finance the recommended renewals have been included in the
Grants Committee’s budget.
Legal Implications for London Councils
8. This report has no legal implications.
Equalities Implications for London Councils
9. As part of the annual monitoring process, officers have examined the equalities profiles of
each organisation’s beneficiaries, management committee and staff. Officers have also
examined the commissioned organisations’ commitment to access and promotion of
equalities, and are satisfied with their performance in these regards.
Background Papers
London Councils Grants Committee Report, 29 April 2008 – Service 80 Funding
Recommendations;
London Councils Grants Committee Report, 22 April 2009 – Service 80 Additional Funding
Recommendations;
Table for website
This table provides information on the progress of individual organisations
Organisation
Summary of Performance
Active Planet
Active Planet engages young people (aged 11-24) at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour,
or who have been involved in crime in positive activities. By using sport and health as a central
theme the project motivates young people to undertake training and progress onto voluntary
opportunities and employment. For the younger group it provides a range of sports and dance
activities at local venues encouraging them to volunteer and set positive goals. The aim is to
reduce their long term involvement in anti-social behaviour.
Artefacts
Edutainment
During the reporting period, 511 young people have benefitted from its sports and training
activities. The borough distribution pattern shows that they have exceeded their targets in 4
boroughs and under achieved in Westminster. For service 80, the output figures were amended to
reflect the additional grant awarded to them in May 2009, which has resulted in a slow start
towards the increased outputs in Westminster.
Artefacts Edutainment provides a range of services and resources that provide crime prevention
techniques, progression routes for young participants and community workers from Lewisham,
Greenwich and Southwark.
During the reporting period, the organisation ran 76 weekly workshops in different citizenship,
creative and media subjects linked to personal, social and health education to 106 11-16 year
olds, at risk of offending. It also ran 48 weekly workshops in personal, social and health education
for 44 16-24 year olds at risk of offending, and a Creative Communities professional development
programme for 2 voluntary organisations
During the reporting period, Artefact Edutainment's service provision in the boroughs of
Greenwich and Southwark, has been more than 20% below the level originally agreed by the
Grants Committee. It has robust links, including CVS contacts in the two boroughs and proposes
to publicise its services more widely there.
Officers’
Comments
The organisations
has made good
progress towards its
stated outcomes
and the officers are
satisfied with its
proposed
approaches to
address the under
provision in
Westminster.
Officers are satisfied
with the progress of
the organisation.
Although there has
been some underprovision during the
monitoring period
officers are satisfied
with the proposed
approaches to
address the underprovision in
Greenwich and
Southwark. Officers
Brandon
Centre for
Counselling &
Psychotherapy
for Young
People
The Brandon Centre offers an evidence-based, structured parenting programme designed to
equip parents to divert at-risk young people aged 11 to 16 from offending and antisocial
behaviour. A project manager, a project co-ordinator and two qualified practitioners provide the
programme, which is run from the Brandon Centre's premises. Referrals of parents will be taken
from all parts of London and will be sought from Youth Offending Teams, Social Services, Child
and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and schools.
The programme focuses on shortcomings in parenting that are known to heighten the risk of
offending and antisocial behaviour: for example inadequate rules, boundaries, and consequences
for antisocial behaviour, the absence of pro-social activities and relationships in the life of the
young person, the young person having delinquent peer group attachments. The programme is
run in a group format followed by individual sessions and telephone support for parents from up to
8 families whose child is at risk of offending and antisocial behaviour. The group programme
comprises six, two-hour sessions and is designed to equip parents with practical skills and
strategies which are then tailored in individual sessions and telephone support for their particular
circumstances.
will closely monitor
the group's progress
over the next
monitoring period.
Officers are satisfied
with the
organisations
progress and
proposed
approaches to
address the underprovision of services
in the boroughs of
Havering,
Kensington &
Chelsea, Tower
Hamlets and
Westminster.
During the reporting period, The Brandon Centre's activities included 35 diversionary activities
aimed at reducing youth offending and antisocial behaviour, 25 young people aged 11-16 who are
at risk participated in the diversionary activities, 35 parents from disadvantaged backgrounds
were beneficiaries of good practice models developed and were involved in group programmes,
and 5 organisations actively referred young people.
East Potential
During the reporting period, The Brandon Centre's service provision in the boroughs of Havering,
Kensington & Chelsea, Tower Hamlets and Westminster has been more than 20% below the level
originally agreed by the Grants Committee. The organisation proposes to increase its outreach
services and to publicise its services more widely in these boroughs to increase the take up of
services.
This project focuses on 6 estates across Newham, Tower Hamlets, Redbridge, Waltham Forest,
Havering and Barking & Dagenham.
Activities follow 4 main strands:
Officers are satisfied
both the level and
quality of service
delivered by the
1. Introductory Diversionary Activities for 11-16 year olds; which aim to attract and engage hardto-reach young people in relevant, creative activities, including dance, physical theatre, visual
arts, film media and music.
project across the
funded boroughs in
east London.
2. Community Contribution Projects for 11 to 16 year olds. These engage young people in more
extended creative work' and address key issues relevant to offending behaviour, working towards
an outcome that benefits the local community and encourages interest in their local environment.
3. One-to-one Mentoring Support for 16 - 24 offenders. Mentoring works to achieve a sustained
change to individuals' behaviour, providing support and alternatives for a successful move away
from crime. Mentored young people will be referred to and from the Projects outlined above.
4. Second Tier Support, providing a forum for information exchange and disseminating information
at Networking Meetings, sharing best practice, locally and evaluation findings from the
programme.
Fairbridge in
London
During the monitoring period the project provided diversionary activities for 49 young people at
risk aged 11-16, who are identified to be at risk of becoming involved in crime or anti-social
behaviour, and diversionary activities for 37 offenders / ASB perpetrators aged 16-24 who have
offended or been involved in anti-social behaviour, and second-tier support to 25 other community
organisations working in the service area in the defined boroughs.
Fairbridge engages NEET young people aged 13-24 at risk of/or with a history of offending in a
programme of personal development incorporating various diversionary activities.
Working alongside over 70 referral partners including Youth Offending Teams and Feltham Young
Offenders Institute Fairbridge will reach out to hard-to-engage young people across 10 London
boroughs.
Working from centres in Hackney and Lambeth the Project will first provide an accredited course
designed to remove barriers to engagement for NEET young people. Incorporating challenging
outdoor activities to enhance personal and social skills, the course includes a residential
experience and encourages the development of communication, team-work and problem-solving
skills to motivate participants to commit to a wider programme of diversionary developmental
Officers are satisfied
with the progress
made by the
organisation, they
are delivering
services in the
funded boroughs
within the
parameters agree in
the funding
agreement and
have enabled 13
activities on its completion.
During the monitoring period 32 young people aged 13-16 and 16-24 were identified to be at risk
of becoming involved in crime or anti-social behaviour and have participating in the diversionary
activities.
7 beneficiaries 13-16s at-risk of offending are retained in/returned to education
participants in the
project to either be
retained/returned
into education or
move into
employment,
training or voluntary
work.
6 ex-offenders/those with ASB history (16-24) move into education, employment, training,
voluntary work.
London Action
Trust
Fairbridge has utilised and strengthened existing partnerships with 50 agencies, including YJB,
hostels and the London Crime Prevention Panel. Forging 10 new partnerships/referral
arrangements.
This project reduces youth offending and anti social behaviour among young people by building
a database of diversionary activities that young people can be referred to by professionals in the
statutory and voluntary sectors; the database is accessed on line.
The website publicises examples of good practice and disseminates practical toolkits that will
help local people set up new initiatives appropriate to their neighbourhood.
The website places an emphasis on positive solutions to anti-social behaviour; and links to a
range of government, voluntary and statutory websites working with anti social behaviour.
The main website created, approved and material in the process of being uploaded. The online
database of projects is in the final testing stage.
The ASB website is due to go live in January 2010 at a launch event to be held at City Hall.
LAT has developed a number of factsheets and toolkits for the website and has engaged with 460
Voluntary and community groups and 1591 statutory groups/contacts who are receiving
information and support service through the CSAS service.
Officers are satisfied
with the progress
made by the
organisation and the
launch of the
London ASB
website in January
will enable for the
first time access
online to a range of
voluntary and
statutory provisions
for those
organisations
engaged in ASB
intervention and
prevention initiatives
in the Capital.
Furthermore it will
enable members of
the public to access
information about
SOVA London
SOVA provides a range of diversionary activities in the boroughs that it is commissioned to
deliver services,.
Among the activities which are being delivered are :
- drama, healthy living and sports projects aimed specifically at diverting young people from
criminal/anti-social behaviour;- peer education projects, empowering young people to work with
their peers in schools and youth groups on diversionary activities;
- information sharing activities, to contribute to the dissemination of good practice and support to
community organisations;
- cross-sector working to encourage increased cross-referral and joint working between agencies.
During the monitoring period SOVA worked 125 young people of which 40 were between the
ages of 11 to 16 and 85 between 16 and 24 years delivering accredited peer mentoring training
at OCN level 1. However on the grading of the material it was mentioned that the standard of the
responses and work submitted by the young people was at closer to level 2 .
Examples of some of the work being carried out by the participants on the project include: a health
handbook for their peers which is being used to disseminate information about the importance of a
healthy lifestyle as well as information about the project, the production of a short film in which the
young people highlighted the consequences of becoming involved in the criminal justice system.
There has been the creation of a website which was used advertise and promote the project to
young people as well as being used as a tool to disseminate information to our counterparts in the
voluntary sectors as well as other external organisations with an interest in the project.
A group of young people in Croydon wrote, produced and directed a song and music video called
'Where will you end up?' which highlights the ease of becoming involved in the recreational use of
alcohol and drugs and the devastating effect it can have on young people personally and on their
circle of friends.
The SOVA Young London Project is currently developing a project for young mothers and females
local ASB initiatives
and projects.
Officers are satisfied
with the progress
made by the
organisation.
Although there has
been some underprovision during the
month monitoring
period officers are
satisfied with the
proposed
approaches to
address the underprovision. Officers
will closely monitor
the group's progress
over the next
monitoring period.
Springboard
Bromley Trust
who have been referred by the YOT. With the increase of female involvement in crime through
'holding' knives or guns for their partners, we are responding with a service which will work around
issues of identity, belonging, positive relationships and working towards a pathway of personal
and community responsibility.
The project gives young people the chance to create film, radio, music and web content that is
relevant to them, and owned by them.
The project provides a radio studio, video studio, sound studio and IT facilities so that young
people can make their own media and present it to a wider audience through the internet and
through screenings and performance.
During the monitoring period, the project has worked with 69 young people who are identified to
be at risk of becoming involved in crime or anti-social behaviour.40 were from the age group of 11
to 16 and 29 were from the 16 to 24 age group. 40 came from disadvantaged communities. The
participants in the Project have the opportunity to gain recognised qualifications in media and IT,
including the Open College Network Film Production certificate, OCR IT User NVQ, and Key
Skills.
Sprinboard is building on the current network of contacts in the statutory and voluntary sector to
improve the referral and partnership arrangements available to support the young people in the
area. As leading members of the 14-19 partnership in Bromley and active participants in the
Greenwich and Lewisham 14-19 partnerships we will involve local colleges and training providers
in this process.
The Peace
Alliance
The project has not yet formally commenced because there was a delay in finalising the outputs
and outcomes and delays in recruiting to the post. Officers have met with the organisation on
several occasions and outcomes and outputs have now been agreed and the project has a
timetable to start, together with a clear job description for the Project Co-ordinator post, which will
be advertised. The organisation has considerable background experience, requisite contacts,
networks and knowledge of the user group related to the London Councils funded element of the
larger project. The organisation has also mapped service provision in the target boroughs. As
there has been no service provision, and no funding released to the organisation, there is no
borough spread data or assessment.
Officers are satisfied
with the progress
made by the
organisation, the
service is being
delivered across the
funded boroughs
within the
parameters agreed
in the funding
agreement.
Springboard is
developing
partnership links
with other
organisations in
Boroughs to enable
the participants to
move onto
employment, further
education and /or
volunteering
opportunities.
Officers have had
concerns regarding
the development of
the project. Officers
have also met with
the organisation and
are satisfied with its
proposals for
developing the
The Prince's
Trust
The Prince's Trust, in partnership with three further education providers, delivers Team, a 12
week personal development programme, to young people aged 16-24 who have offended or been
involved in anti-social behaviour.
This project provides young people with a positive alternative to offending and anti-social
behaviour and supports participants back into education, training and/or employment by
improving their employability through vocational skills and national qualifications.
During the monitoring period the project worked with 89 young people, from eligible boroughs,
aged 16-24, who were identified to be at risk of becoming involved in crime or anti-social
behaviour .
78% of young people on the programme moved onto positive outcomes (employment, education,
training, or volunteering).
project and in
delivering agreed
outputs and
outcomes. Officers
will work closely with
the organisation,
supporting it monitor
services and targets.
Close monitoring of
the situation will be
undertaken and
officers will review
the situation at the
next monitoring
period.
Officers are satisfied
with the progress
made by the
organisation.
Although there has
been some underprovision during the
monitoring period
officers are satisfied
with the proposed
approaches to
address the underprovision. Officers
will closely monitor
the group's progress
over the next
monitoring period.