Youth offending teams make progress on health services

Health services provided by youth offending teams (YOTs) for children and young people are improving, a report has found.

Re:Actions, a joint report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, found that access to and management of health services for young offenders has improved since the last review in 2009.

One of the most notable changes is that YOT boards now include a health worker and nearly all YOTs have a service level agreement with their respective primary care trusts (PCTs).

Financial contribution to YOTs from PCTs has also increased from 3.4 per cent in 2008 to an average of 5.4 per cent of the overall YOT budget.

However, the report stated that further progress is still required. It found that YOTs are still not planning and integrating offending services with health services enough and the physical health needs of the children and young people they work with are still not always sufficiently assessed.

In addition, insufficient numbers of YOTs are monitoring how effective support from health services can be, meaning that they’re not always learning what works well for future planning.

There also remain problems with services such as alcohol or substance misuse programmes or mental health support being provided consistently when children and young people move between a secure setting and the community and from young people’s services to adults’ services.

The report also raised question marks over the impact of possible changes to the structure of health services as a result of government reforms.

CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower said: “Children and young people who offend are more likely to need community-level health support, such as assessment for mental health or learning disability services and alcohol or substance misuse services, but are often one of the hardest groups to reach.

“We’re delighted to find considerable improvements in this review but concerns remain that they’re not hampered by future cuts made in relation to the economic climate.”