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

1.18 Case supervisors relied on YOT case managers or social workers, where applicable, to make
arrangements and were frustrated that plans were often not finalised until close to the young
person’s release and could affect whether they were released early. However, establishments
reported that it was rare for a young person to be released without an address. They reported
a range of barriers to ensuring suitable accommodation, including insufficient local authority
accommodation and problems placing those who had committed arson or sex offences.
Involvement of outside agencies was limited and only a fifth of young men interviewed said
they had received financial advice.
Education, training and employment (ETE)
1.19 Information arriving with a young person often did not provide a full picture of a young person’s
educational level or qualifications and some establishments routinely reassessed young
people. In our case sample, over half (54%) of the young people had clear ETE resettlement
needs, often due to previous poor attendance or a lack of formal qualifications. Nine had
special educational needs identified. In our survey 86% said they had been excluded from
school and three-quarters said they had truanted from school.
1.20 Establishments generally provided satisfactory education and vocational skills training. In our
case sample, most young men were involved in education or training and their preferences for
courses had been taken into account where possible. However, education staff often did not
feed in to the training planning process. Where young people felt that the education or training
was useful or they had received support from teachers, they valued this, and it had often
influenced their plans for release. However there were problems reported, including long
waiting lists for popular courses, classes being disrupted by noise or other young people’s
behaviour, and young people not feeling challenged. Three-quarters (77%) said they had
achieved or were working towards a certificate, qualification, or accreditation; although only
62% of these young men felt that it would be useful on release.
1.21 Young people felt that having something to do, such as a job or education place, was key to
stopping them reoffending on release. In our sample 79% (n=48) said they wanted to return to
education but only two-fifths felt they had studied something in custody that was connected to
what they wanted to do on release. Most of these young men said they wanted to attend a
course that would help them into their preferred career choice. Only 14 of the 48 young men
who reported wanting to continue with education on release had something arranged at the
time of interview. Arrangements were viewed as the YOT case managers’ responsibility and in
many cases work was in progress. However, case supervisors reported several barriers,
including the young person not having a confirmed address, insufficient availability, or start
dates of courses being prior to or a long time after the young person’s release.
1.22 Many young men (69%) said they wanted to work on release, including part-time work
alongside education. However, little was done to support young people with this. For seven of
the nine young men who said they had a job on release this was arranged by family. All
fieldwork sites offered careers advice services but at some establishments not all young
people were seen. Some establishments held employer events but only two said they offered
pre-release courses.
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