Service case study
- Service Decription
- Impact/Effectiveness
- Cost, Numbers of Children and Young People using the Service
- Cultural/attitudinal Change
- Embedding Good Practice
- Relevance and Contribution to local Preventive Strategy, Children's Trust, IRT
- Multi-agency/co-ordinated Provision
- Likely consequences of not doing this work
- Views of users
1. Service description
STEPP is the local model of Youth Inclusion and Support Panels (YISP), a borough-wide youth crime prevention initiative, funded by the Children's Fund, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Youth Justice Board.
The staff team consists of 4 Keyworkers, a Co-ordinator and a part time administrator and is based upstairs in the Central Library.
STEPP offers voluntary support to young people aged 8-16, who are behaving in ways that put them at risk of offending - be it truancy, school exclusion, friends or family members involved in offending or anti-social behaviour, problems within the family, mental health issues, drug misuse, anti-social behaviour and other risk factors.
The programme works closely with its partner agencies – Social Care and Health, Education Welfare Service, Connexions PAYP, Housing, Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, Matrix, Youth Offending Service (YOS), the Police and others to identify young people at risk.
Referrals are welcomed from families and anyone working with children, young people and families in South Tyneside. Essential referral criteria for STEPP are that several risk factors are present in a young person's life and that more than one agency is concerned about the young person. Following successful verification of the referral a Keyworker is allocated, who makes contact with the young people and their families, to assess risks and needs, identify solutions and to agree a plan for positive action.
The plan is developed working closely with the family, to find appropriate interventions/services. This plan then goes to a multi-agency panel with representatives from a range of services. The panels meet every month to consider each case, agree a programme of support and review progress.
Plans can include help with accessing mainstream and/or specialist services, advocacy, one-to-one support, anger management and relationship work, mentoring, family group conferencing, constructive activities, work on parenting skills and parent support along with other interventions. Where young people are involved in anti-social behaviour the use of Acceptable Behaviour Agreements can be included in the plan, to balance support and sanctions.
2. Impact/effectiveness
STEPP's primary aim is to prevent the young people from becoming involved in offending and anti-social behaviour and exclusion.
Where young people have already committed a criminal offence (and received a Police Reprimand) or have reportedly displayed anti-social behaviour in the community, the prevention of further involvement with the Police and/or the Anti-social Behaviour Unit is of central importance for STEPP's work.
STEPP is taking a holistic approach to working with young people and their families, and all interventions are based on comprehensive needs assessments. The main links with the outcomes referred to in "Every Child Matters", are as follows:
- Being Healthy: STEPP Keyworkers signpost/refer young people to and liaise with relevant health services (e.g. Grapevine, school nurses) or the Matrix Drug and Alcohol Service.
- Staying Safe: A great deal of our work with young people aims to enable them to recognise and avoid unsafe/risky situations. All our staff received child protection training and work closely with Children's Services to protect young people from harm and neglect.
- Enjoying and Achieving: Young people and families are assisted with accessing a range of activities, e.g. by means of ‘Max Cards' or referrals to PAYP and other services.
- Making a Positive Contribution: The STEPP Keyworkers work with young people to prevent offending and anti-social behaviour, by helping them understand unlawful/anti-social activities and their consequences, so they can make informed choices. STEPP has also established links and refers to citizenship-based programmes, i.e. Mayor's Award, Duke of Edinburgh, Youth Action Volunteers, uniformed services, etc
- Economic Well-being: STEPP aims to contribute to young people reaching their full potential by supporting their school attendance, raising aspirations and giving access to advice and information (e.g. ConneXions, Welfare Rights).
Similarly, STEPP's work links in with the Children's Fund Objectives:
Sub-objective 3: STEPP aims to reduce the number of children and young people committing crime and becoming victims of crime, by providing or facilitating access to appropriate voluntary support.
Sub-objective 5: STEPP is providing accessible services, the programme has clear referral criteria and also accepts self-referrals in a ‘non-bureaucratic' way. Information materials have been produced and distributed; the service was given a unique name/logo/identity.
Sub-objective 6: STEPP is a targeted service for young people 'at risk'. It aims to address lifestyle issues and other factors, working closely with education and other services. Young people are consulted and their views are included in action plans.
3. Cost, Numbers of Children and Young People using the Service
In comparison with other young people's programmes STEPP in many ways work differently, i.e. there is no regular group work provision with set session times. The Keyworkers work flexibly around their service users' requirements, meeting with young people and their families at times and places convenient for them. This involves a great deal of travelling and after-hours work.
The duration of interventions obviously depends on the level of need/complexity of individual cases and therefore varies. It is expected the average length of involvement will be 3 months. However, if a family need support for a longer period of time then STEPP will work with the family until their needs are met or the correct support is in place.
STEPP deal with between 50 and 60 open cases at a time, which equals an average caseload of 20 young people per fulltime Keyworker (plus family members!).
4. Cultural/attitudanal change
STEPP's success is highly dependent on its links with other agencies, specifically those dealing with youth offending and anti-social behaviour. The regular panel meetings, bringing together representatives from a range of agencies, have resulted in a broader understanding of each other's work, effective information sharing and the agreement of integrated action plans.
A very good network has been created, including the police and local authority housing, particularly the Anti-social Behaviour Unit.
One of the greatest achievements can be seen in the agreement of a co-ordinated interagency approach to anti-social behaviour across South Tyneside, giving youth crime prevention work a pivotal position in this field and ensuring a balance between sanctions and support.
Whilst other authorities in the UK tend to overemphasise sanctions like ASBOs, the key agencies in South Tyneside have agreed that these should be the 'last resort', to be put in place only when other interventions like STEPP fail to bring about successful change.
5. Embedding good practice
Good practice is embedded in our work in various ways. Firstly, STEPP work in accordance with the National Standards for Youth Justice Work and the Quality Standards for Youth Inclusion and Support Panels. In addition detailed service guidelines/policies have been drawn up for STEPP.
Young people have been involved in the recruitment of staff, and their opinions are regularly sought to evaluate our service. STEPP use self-assessments to form an integral part of action plans and the feedback received is used to enhance our services, i.e. by designing or acquiring age appropriate materials/resources, meeting the young people's specific needs.
Another example for good practice is the use of empowering methods like Family Group Conferencing and Solution Focused Practice, to ensure a positive involvement of our service users in all aspects of the programme process.
6. Relevance and Contribution to local Preventive Strategy, Children's Trust, IRT
STEPP is located within the prevention section of South Tyneside Youth Offending Service, which together with other services has an essential part to play, not only in the delivery of preventative services to reduce youth crime, but also when it comes to the response to and the prevention of anti-social behaviour. Furthermore, our holistic work approach and access to other services enable us to address a wide spectrum of issues and prevent a range of other negative outcomes for children, including young people not achieving/dropping out of education, experiencing family breakdown, episodes of local authority care, physical and mental health problems and problematic substance use.
The work of STEPP is included in the relevant strategies and plans for South Tyneside, such as:
- Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy
- Children's Services plans Children's Trust plans
- Local Authority “100 SMALL TASKS” Plan (Task 29)
- Local Public Service Agreement (Target 11).
7. Multi-agency / co-ordinated Provision
STEPP is a Youth Inclusion and Support Panel, which by definition is a multi-agency planning group seeking to prevent offending and anti-social behaviour.
At the heart of the service is the multi-agency panel, including representatives from Youth Offending Service, the Police, Housing/ABU, Education, ConneXions and Children's Services. The panel agrees action plans, which have been prepared by the Keyworkers together with the young people and family members or in a Family Group Conference.
The purpose of the panel is not just to share information about 'at risk' children across agencies, but also to co-ordinate interventions, to avoid duplication and to identify the most appropriate support services.
Within the planning process and the delivery of interventions STEPP Keyworkers have frequent contact with staff in other agencies, attending planning meetings, sharing information, ensuring the best possible outcomes for service users.
8. Likely consequences of not doing this work
It can be rightfully assumed that the loss of STEPP as an effective multi-disciplinary prevention/early intervention programme would have a range of consequences, such as:
- An increase in youth offending and anti-social behaviour in South Tyneside
- An increase of ‘costs' for local communities, e.g. quality of life
- An increase of demands on ASBU, Community Safety, YOS, police and courts
- An increase in school exclusions and truancy
- A decrease in families in need accessing appropriate services
- An increase of young people ‘at risk' slipping through the net
- An increase of young people with mental health difficulties or problematic substance use.
9. Views of users
"Thanks for what you have done, [name of Keyworker], you are the only one who has actually done something for me and my family."
C.W., parent
"[Name of Keyworker], if it wasn't for you, I don't know where I would be. I can't really talk to anyone else, they don't understand and they don't listen."
M.H., parent
"I think that [name of Keyworker] has helped me a lot with school and all my other problems."
A.M., age 13
"I enjoy going to school now."
R.K., age 10
"[Name of Keyworker] has been excellent, helping me through my problems!"
V.A., age 15
"Things are clearer now and not in a mess any more. Now I know that it's not always me who's to blame."
J.M., age 14
"I know what to do now, if someone picks on me."
J.T., age 11
