Resettlement provision for children and young ... - Ministry of Justice

1. Summary and recommendations
1.1 This report examines how well young offender institutions (YOIs) holding young men (aged 15
to 18 years) work with youth offending services and other relevant agencies to ensure that the
accommodation and education, training and employment (ETE) resettlement needs of
sentenced young men are met in custody and on release, including the use of release on
temporary licence (ROTL).
1.2 The findings in this report come from two main sources: fieldwork at six male YOIs and
responses from 770 sentenced young men surveyed across all nine male YOIs. Fieldwork
included interviews with the head of resettlement and the head of learning and skills at each
establishment; interviews with 61 sentenced young men approaching release; and interviews
with the establishment case supervisor and/or analysis of the case files for each of the 61
young men in our case sample. Case supervisors were also asked to complete a questionnaire
on what accommodation and ETE the young people in our sample had on their day of release,
and a month after release.
Management of resettlement provision
Strategic management
1.3 Although most establishments had conducted an assessment to identify the resettlement
needs of their population, these varied in quality and were often out of date. Few had consulted
young people, and findings rarely fed into establishment resettlement policies or practice.
1.4 All establishments had a resettlement policy, but most had not been written in collaboration
with relevant external agencies and not all distinguished between the needs of different groups
of young men. Likewise, although most establishments had a resettlement committee to drive
forward work in this area, only two involved input from external agencies. At four
establishments, members of the education department attended multi-agency strategic
meetings that aimed to develop learning and skills provision.
1.5 Collection of resettlement data was often limited to what was required by the Youth Justice
Board (YJB) or Prison Service. However, it was unclear how much data was used to monitor
the effectiveness of establishments’ resettlement work. Qualitative data, such as the type of
accommodation to which young people were released, or follow-up information on the outcome
for the young person, was not collected.
Case management
Initial information
1.6 Although staff felt they received adequate information in most cases, there were still examples
where information did not arrive with the young person, was incomplete or out of date. ASSET
(YJB assessment documentation) was the main method of identifying a young person’s care
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