Fewer children and young people commit crime
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Young people who commit offences should be held to account, but they also need the right support and interventions to address their offending behaviour and turn their lives around. We will help young offenders get back on track towards productive adult lives.
Programmes and services for young people
Fresh Start
In 2012/2013, the number of young offenders participating in Fresh Start programmes included:
- 252 low-level offenders in community youth development programmes to develop positive social attitudes, values and behaviours
- 600 in mentoring programmes that provided individualised and intensive support and guidance
- 326 in parenting education programmes to develop parenting skills
- 402 in community day programmes and 74 in residential programmes to help with alcohol or drug addictions
- 178 on Supported Bail with intensive community-based support and services to reduce the likelihood of offending on bail and a subsequent remand to a Youth Justice Residence.
The Fresh Start programme targets young offenders, holds them accountable for their offending and manages the risk of them reoffending in their communities.
Structure and routine for offenders
Military-Style Activity Camps
In 2012/2013, 28 young people successfully completed a Military-Style Activity Camp (MAC) programme as part of their Supervision with Residence Order.
The MAC programme involves:
- a residential phase, including a wilderness camp and interventions to address the young person’s individual needs
- a community phase, with ongoing support for the young person and their family.
This year we enhanced the MAC programme by:
- adding a post-release development programme to support the young person’s transition back into their home community
- ensuring all young people are offered mentoring support and are linked with a youth employment service on release
- tailoring the length of the Supervision with Residence period so MAC graduates can be released promptly when they complete the MAC phase of their Order
- introducing training in motivational interview techniques for MAC social workers. The process requires accreditation and we are working with the University of Canterbury to complete this.
MACs were introduced in 2010 to provide the Youth Court with an option for dealing with the most serious young offenders, who would otherwise be sent on to the adult justice system.
Underlying causes of offending
A Youth Justice Family Group Conference (YJFGC) is a meeting between a young offender, their family, victims and stakeholders such as the Police, a social worker or a youth advocate. The purpose is to discuss how to address the young person’s offending.
The YJFGC process allows us to step in early before offending escalates. Following a Family Group Conference, most young people do not come back to our attention within a year of their offending.
In 2012/2013, we held 6,088 YJFGCs. We prepared YJFGC plans for 3,384 children and young people, of whom 93.6 per cent met the objectives of their plans[1]. Victims were identified in 4,206 YJFGCs[2] and took part in 3,019 (72 per cent) of them.
We are currently reviewing our delivery of YJFGCs, looking at:
- new YJFGC standards
- more support and training for Youth Justice co-ordinators, in particular training on the new assessment framework (Tuituia) process
- more victims and other key attendees taking part in Family Group Conferences
- an earlier, more integrated care and protection response to reduce the number of children entering the youth justice system.
In 2011/2012, 90 per cent of young people and children met their YJFGC objectives, compared with 93.6 per cent in 2012/2013.
Social Services Committee Inquiry into Child Offenders
On 20 June 2012, the Social Services Committee presented the report on its Inquiry into the Identification, Rehabilitation, and Care and Protection of Child Offenders to Parliament.
In response, we developed a new approach to:
- improve the way the Police and Child, Youth and Family work together to identify and manage children at risk of further offending
- ensure children who offend are engaged at school
- make sure communities and families of children who offend have better access to resources to support them
- engage a Triple-One response for children who offend. Each child who offends has one Family Group Conference facilitated by one co-ordinator, and is managed by one social worker.
The results of this approach will become evident over time. We hope to see fewer court proceedings for child offenders and fewer children going on to offend as young people.
We will measure our progress by:
- the number of Family Group Conferences for child offenders
- the number of children who reoffend
- the proportion of child offenders who enter the youth justice system
- the number of child offenders diverted back to the Family Court from the Youth Court.
We led the Government’s response to the Inquiry, which was tabled in the House on 12 September 2012.
We have broadened the work of youth justice social workers to include the needs of families, and improved our services to the Family Court and Youth Court.2012–2015 Statement of Intent Performance Indicators
Fewer children and young people commit crime
Intermediate Outcome – More young offenders are in education, training or employment
| MEASURE | RESULT | TREND/COMMENT |
|
Proportion of young offenders who are in education, training or employment following our intervention |
56.3% (Increasing) |
Intent: Increasing 2011/2012 result: 52.3% A total of 1,634 young offenders received an intervention during the period 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013. Of these, 920 were in education, training or employment following our intervention. |
Intermediate Outcome – Fewer child offenders enter the youth justice system
| MEASURE | RESULT | TREND/COMMENT |
|
Proportion of child offenders who enter into the youth justice system |
61.0% |
New indicator for 2012/2013 Intent: Decreasing Of the 200 child offenders aged 12 or 13 years in 2009/2010, 122 subsequently had a youth justice referral as 14–16 year olds in 2012/2013. |
Intermediate Outcome – Fewer young people re-enter the youth justice system
| MEASURE | RESULT | TREND/COMMENT |
|
Proportion of young offenders who reoffended within one year of a previous offence |
37.9% |
Intent: Decreasing 2011/2012 result: 37.2% A total of 2,386 young people offended during the period 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013. Of these, 904 were young people who had reoffended within 12 months of their previous offence. This is a full- year result compared to nine months in 2011/2012. |
|
Proportion of young offenders whose reoffending within one year has reduced in severity |
16.2% |
Intent: Increasing 2011/2012 result: 19.6% Of the 904 young offenders who reoffended within one year: |
Intermediate Outcome – More young offenders are aware of the impact of their offending
| MEASURE | RESULT | TREND/COMMENT |
|
Proportion of victims participating and engaging in Family Group Conferences improves |
58.5% (No trend available) |
New indicator for 2012/2013 Intent: Increasing Of the 10,625 (92%) victims who were contacted before a Family Group Conference, 6,213 attended, provided a submission, or had a representative at the Family Group Conference. |
1. A YJFGC does not necessarily result in a Family Group Conference plan being agreed on.
2. Not all YJFGCs have an identified victim eg offences involving property damage.
Erratum
The Ministry of Social Development has identified data errors in Child, Youth and Family’s official data that require correcting in the Annual Report. Whilst the errors are not material, the Ministry considers it prudent to release corrected versions of the relevant sections and these are set out below.
Underlying causes of offending
In 2012/2013, we held 6,259 YJFGCs. We prepared YJFGC plans for 3,758 children and young people, of whom 94 per cent met the objectives of their plans.
In 2011/2012, 90.8 per cent of young people and children met their YJFGC objectives, compared with 94 per cent in 2012/2013.
