AIM is an ESF funded innovation project that is based on action research principles to establish best practice in terms of moving ex-offenders into sustainable employment. YSS is working in partnership with West Mercia Probation Trust, Warwickshire Probation Trust and BES (Business enterprise Support) to deliver this project. Within the West Mercia area the particular innovation of this project is the focus on working with the family members of ex-offenders to provide a whole family approach rather than working with the individuals in isolation. In Worcestershire, YSS and West Mercia Probation Trust have been able to secure the services of the Family Interventions Project (FIP) to co-deliver support to identified ex-offenders and their families via Worcestershire Supporting People funding.

In Warwickshire the Probation Trust are developing tailor made intensive development programmes for ex-offenders who are women and also for those who have served in the military services. These programmes will also lead to accreditation in mentoring and IAG (Information, Advice and Guidance) with the aim of moving several people into employment in the welfare to work industry.

The Police and the Criminal Evidence Act (P.A.C.E.) 1984 and the Youth Justice Board National Standards require that any young person aged 10 and 16 years of age, whilst being interviewed under caution at the police station, must have an Appropriate Adult in attendance.

YSS developed a volunteer Appropriate Adult service for 10-16 year olds being detained in Police Custody in 1999.

AsYSSt is the vocational training arm of YSS that was originally developed as a pilot project based at our head office in 2008. However in 2009 YSS secured a 10,000 square foot dilapidated shell of a building based at 13-17 Carden Street in Worcester, within 2 minutes walk of the city centre. YSS then developed this site into a multi-purpose training centre for AsYSSt through a range of grants, fundraising activities and YSS financial reserves. The centre was officially opened by The Right Reverend John Inge, Bishop of Worcester in November 2009.

AsYSSt now offers a wide range of vocational training courses and alternative curriculum for 14-19 year olds who are not in employment, education or training. It also offers employability development programmes and short skills training courses for adults who are not in work. The centre has a construction workshop, an I.T. suite, café, a commercial kitchen, training rooms, counselling room, independent living suite, media & music centre and recreation room.

AsYSSt currently offers a range of accredited courses in Functional Skills (Numeracy, Literacy, I.T.C.), Construction (Brickwork, Plastering, Carpentry, Painting & Decorating), Catering, Personal & Social Development, Independent Living skills, Music & Media. AsYSSt is a nationally accredited NOCN (National Open College Network) Centre and is in the process of developing other vocational courses and skills courses through different awarding bodies.

The centre is also used as a venue by other agencies such as the Youth Offending Service, West Mercia Probation Trust, Worcester City Council, YSS Young Adult Carers project and the YSS T2A project. The centre is also the venue for the Junior Worcestershire and Herefordshire Attendance Centre. The Junior Attendance Centre is held every two weeks as a requirement of a court order imposed by magistrates. Young people at the attendance centre have access to the full range of AsYSSt facilities and undertake skills training and personal development programmes.

Since 1985 YSS have delivered Specified Activity Programmes for young people at risk of being sent to custody. Since 1998 YSS staff have delivered bail assessment and support services for the Worcestershire and Herefordshire Youth Offending Service, along with Specified Activities. The staff are presently seconded over to the Youth Offending Service and work from YOS offices delivering this work to National Standards. They also provide an out-of-hours on-call help-line for the young people and their families, co-ordinate the Appropriate Adult provision service on evenings and weekends, and provide emergency weekend court cover for young people appearing unexpectedly before courts.

This new project is funded by the Lloyds TSB Foundation and sits within the new YSS and West Mercia Probation Trust partnership arrangements. It is supported and endorsed by the West Mercia Criminal Justice Board and also the West Mercia Criminal Justice Board mental health sub-group.

Over the next 3 years YSS aims to influence the development of local practice, policy and commissioning of mental health services for offenders and their families at a strategic level in the criminal justice system, in local authorities and health services by:

• Improving and increasing the operational capacity of both voluntary sector and criminal justice agencies to deliver services for offenders and their families with mental health needs
• Identifying best practice and influencing local policy through awareness raising and training programmes about mental health issues for offenders and their families
• Lobbying and influencing the commissioning strategies of statutory agencies by using both service user feedback and operational staff feedback from within the criminal justice and health settings

YSS is employing 2 dedicated senior mental health development workers covering the 4 local authority areas (Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin) within West Mercia to undertake the majority of this work. The underpinning research that established this project is based on the Lord Bradley review published in 2009.

YSS had previously delivered the Shropshire YISP project (Youth Inclusion and Support Project) jointly commissioned by Shropshire Children’s Services and Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Youth Offending Service since 2006. The project aimed to prevent young people aged 8-17 years entering the criminal justice system. The project was delivered under a specification developed by the national Youth Justice Board.

At the end of this project Shropshire Children’s Services asked YSS to develop a ‘tailor-made’ preventative service for the same age group to provide a more flexible service to meet the needs of Shropshire. The result was the Divert project. Divert offers a mix of intensive one to one support, mentoring, parental support, schools awareness work and flexible outreach group work. Although managed by YSS Divert is strongly embedded in the local Shropshire structure to ensure true partnership working to achieve integrated services.

YSS is working in partnership with the national employment charity the Shaw Trust and the Department of Work and Pensions, with funding from the European Social Fund, to deliver a flexible Routeway provision into employment for ex-offenders. This involves YSS undertaking flexible one to one support based in the community, providing guidance and mentoring to assist ex-offenders back into employment and/or training provision.

YSS works in partnership with the Fold, a community interest company located at Bransford near Worcester to deliver care farm placements aimed at people who are trying to move back into employment. The Care Farm placements provide a mixture of physical activity, vocational and inter-personal skills development, pastoral support and wider knowledge about healthy eating and sustainable living. Placements are currently for 2 days per week and can last for between 6 weeks and 6 months. Each individual accessing the project also has a YSS key worker who is supporting them to overcome barriers to employment combined with motivational and employability support

ISSP is a key directive from the YJB, and provides Intensive Supervision and Surveillance for young people aged 10-17 at risk of a custodial sentence or remand in custody.

YSS works with West Mercia Probation Trust through the strategic partnership arrangements to deliver a Next Steps service to any offenders being supervised by Probation who would benefit from IAG (Information, Advice and Guidance) support to assist them with their employment, training and educational requirements. The Next Steps service is delivered by IAG qualified staff and is available to those who are currently in employment but want assistance with career progression and new opportunities.

On Trak is an employability support project funded by NOMS (National Offender Management Service) as ESF co-financers. On Trak is managed across the West Midlands region by the Manchester College and YSS works in partnership with West Mercia Probation Trust to deliver intensive one to one support to individuals referred by Probation. The project aims to offer tailor made support and actions plans to assist with accessing training courses, job search, job and volunteer placements and overcoming any barriers to employment that exist in their lives.

PAM stands for Pathways Accommodation Mentoring. YSS has been commissioned by Worcestershire Supporting People to deliver a county wide mentoring project for individuals who are in the criminal justice system and who are having difficulties in either sustaining or obtaining suitable accommodation. YSS takes a lead on this project in partnership with both the Worcester YMCA and the Redditch YMCA. By working in partnership the 3 organisations are able to offer a far more comprehensive service than working in isolation by building on their key knowledge base and skills. The project offers intensive one to one mentoring support through dedicated key workers and/or a team of volunteer mentors across the county. Again support is tailored to the individualand offered on a one to basis in the community at flexible times and locations.

The Pathways service is the ‘umbrella’ name for a series of related projects aimed at reducing re-offending and delivered across the West Mercia area. YSS developed the Pathways service from an identified need raised by West Mercia Probation Trust and as a direct result of the strategic partnership between the organisations.

The Pathways service aim to provide a flexible ‘menu’ of intensive supervision and support projects targeted at specific groups of people who have offended. Most of the work is delivered on a one to one basis in the community and is tailored around each person to ensure the best individual outcomes and an overall of reduction in reoffending. The projects focus around motivational support, ensuring compliance with any court requirements and dealing with issues around accommodation support, finance and debt issues, employment advice, mental health support, vocational training, support with children and family issues, physical health and substance misuse issues.

Some of the services and projects are delivered by YSS. Other projects and services under the Pathways umbrella have been developed by YSS and West Mercia Probation Trust and are delivered in partnership with a range of public, private and voluntary sector partners.

Projects can be offered prior to someone being released from prison to support re-integration to the community. Some projects can be stipulated as a requirement of a court order and other projects are to be participated in through voluntary engagement. Support from the projects can typically last for between 6 and 12 weeks but potentially could last up to 52 weeks dependent of the circumstances. Contact from the projects can be delivered three times per week, once a week or every two weeks according to needs. This is always backed up with regular telephone and text support.

YSS is a member of the Shropshire Integrated Offender Management team which is called Route 7. This is a multi-agency project with a co-located team of Police, Probation, Local Authority, YSS and several other organisations based under one roof. YSS provides a service via the Pathways project to Route 7 but also delivers intensive mentoring support for any one who has been identified by the team as being involved in offending but is not currently involved with the criminal justice system. In these circumstances YSS offers voluntary motivational support to each individual on a one to one basis in the community to assist them in achieving action plans based around employment, accommodation, family & relationships, health, substance misuse and finance & debt. Often this support is offered after someone has been released from custody and has no license conditions or supervision requirements and is having difficulty resettling into the community, alternatively it can be accessed by someone who is actively trying to change their behaviour and needs that extra level of support.

YSS receives referrals from the Police and Probation teams in Stoke for people who have been identified as prolific and prioity offenders (PPO) and those at risk of being sent to custody. We match volunteer mentors who work alongside offenders through identified action plans.

YSS has received £750k over a three year period from the Barrow Cadbury Trust to deliver a pilot project called T2A (Transition to Adulthood). YSS will initially deliver T2A across Worcestershire and is one of three pilots being developed nationally and sponsored by Barrow Cadbury. The pilots will aim to develop best practice of working with young people in transition between the youth and adult criminal justice systems. In Worcestershire the project will work closely with West Mercia Probation Trust, Worcestershire Youth Offending Service, Worcestershire Youth Support, Voluntary sector organisations and the Police in addition to a wider range of agencies involved with the support needs of young people. All three projects are based on the recommendations contained within the ‘Lost in Transition’ report published by Barrow Cadbury in 2005 and this is available on their website for download www.bctrust.org.uk The project will be evaluated by Oxford University.

YSS runs mentoring programmes for young people aged 8-17 years of age who are considered at risk of being involved with anti-social or criminal behaviour. The programmes are offered on a voluntary basis to the young people in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire. The mentoring forms part of a structured plan that they help develop with a key worker. Often the mentoring part of the plan aims to ensure young people have wider experiences of life and are tailored to meet their specific needs.

West Mercia Probation Trust (WMPT) and YSS signed a unique 7 years (5 years plus a potential 2 year extension) Strategic Partnership agreement in November 2010 following a national tendering process in April that year. This is a pioneering arrangement that has already received national recognition at a ministerial level. The partnership harnesses the skills and capacity of both organisations to maximum effect, plus a wide range of other agencies from the voluntary, private and public sectors to deliver better outcomes for offenders, their families and the wider community across West Mercia aimed at reducing reoffending.

In the new partnership YSS:

• can be directly commissioned by West Mercia Probation Trust at any stage to design and deliver bespoke services for offender based work to meet local needs, including the provision of being a ready made pathfinder for the Ministry of Justice if required.
• can commission voluntary and community sector organisations to deliver services on behalf of the Trust.
• undertakes joint business development activity with the Trust and other agencies from the public, private and voluntary sector to develop key services to offenders and their families aimed at reducing reoffending.
• represents the issues of offenders and their families in a wide range of forums in the statutory and voluntary sectors across the West Mercia area.
• takes a lead on developing the capacity of the voluntary and community sector to develop services aimed at offenders and their families.
• takes a lead on the ‘service user voice’ for offenders and their families to directly inform practice, policy and commissioning.

As an example of innovation the partnership has jointly created a new Pathways project led by YSS for the most chaotic, at risk and prolific offenders and their families in West Mercia. This involves a range of YSS staff and volunteers together with seconded staff from the Trust and the direct involvement of 5 other voluntary organisations. The staff are co-located in YSS and partner agency offices across West Mercia. The project is funded through multiple funding streams and delivers supervision, support, mentoring and a wide range of interventions.

This project aims to support children and young people aged between 8 and 18 years who are providing emotional or practical support for an adult member of their family. The project was transferred to YSS in 2003 from Worcestershire Association of Carers' and has grown and developed significantly since that time.

What do we do?

•  AIM Project

•  Appropriate Adult

•  AsYSSt Vocational Training

•  Bail and Specified Activities

•  Bradley Mental Health Project
   (West Mercia)

•  Divert (Shropshire)

•  Flexible Routeways

•  Holywell Care Farm

•  ISSP

•  Next Steps

•  On Trak

•  PAM Project (Worcestershire)

•  Pathways (West Mercia    Probation Trust)

•  Route 7 (Shropshire)

•  Stoke PPO Mentoring and    Alternative to Custody

•  T2A

•  Volunteer Mentoring (8-17 Years)

•  West Mercia Probation Trust    Strategic Partnership

•  Worcestershire Young Carers