Equality Impact Assessment - Policies
Title of policy being assessed:
Child Protection, Risk of Harm and
Re-offending Policy and Practice Guidance
Department and Section:
Youth Offending Service
Names and roles of officers completing
this assessment:
Chris Bolas Policy and Performance Manager
Contact Telephone Numbers:
0116 305 0030
Date assessment completed:
8th September 2011
Defining the policy
1. Why is the policy necessary? What are its aims and objectives? What outcomes is the policy
designed to achieve and for whom?
The Policy is necessary to ensure that young people under the supervision of the YOS are
effectively managed. The aim of the policy is to ensure that young people are not significantly
harmed by others or themselves or cause significant harm others and that their risk of offending
or re-offending is reduced.
The objectives of the policy is to ensure that young people
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Are protected from significant Harm and have there needs for safeguarding met
Are effectively managed so that they do not cause significant harm to others
Are effectively managed so that there risk of future offending or re-offending is reduced
Who have triggered the serious incident criteria have there cases reviewed in accordance
with national guidance.
The outcome from the policy are that young people
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Do not experience significant harm whilst supervised by the YOS
Receive a service from the YOS which help then to achieve
Do not cause harm to others whilst supervised by the YOS
Do not become the victim or the perpetrators of harm which trigger the serious incident
whilst supervised by the YOS
2. How have these aims, objectives and outcomes been determined? What research and
engagement/involvement/consultation has been undertaken/used to inform the design and
delivery of the policy? How have needs based on race, gender, disability, age, religion/belief
or sexual orientation been taken account of?
This policy is made up of 4 strands and each area will dealt with separately in this section.
Risk of Offending and Re-offending – National Policy requires the YOS to undertake the
process of assessments and intervention planning in the way described in the policy. The
national guidance is based on “what works research” and the assessment tools used are
supported by research under taken by the YJB. The national guidance has be used in order
to produce operational procedural guidance for the staff in the YOS
Risk of Harm – National policy requires the YOS to manage young people who are a risk of
causing significant harm to others. National policy and guidance is split into two strands that
related to young people who qualify to be managed under the MAPPA and YJB guidance on
how young people risk of causing significant harm to others.
Safeguarding, child protection and Vulnerability – National and Local policy guidance have
been used to produce the practice guidance in this area of work.
Serious Incidents and Case notification – The triggers for this policy area are those
prescribed by locally and Nationally guidance. The procedural guidance is aimed at enabling
practitioners to activate the prescribed process appropriately.
The policy and procedural guidance produced is aimed at ensuring that staff can implement
practice in an effective and consistent way. It is believed that this is likely to ensure consistent
treatment of all equality strands by giving clear expectations as to how cases will be managed,
enabling all practice to be measured against the requirements. The YOS also undertakes regular
reviews of practice to ensure that the requirements are being met.
The practice guidance contained in the guidance requires practitioners to take account of all
equality strands when under taking work with young people.
3. (a) Who is responsible for implementing the policy? What processes, procedures and/or
criterion will be critical to deliver the policy? Review these against the access needs that
various equality groups of people have and consider if they result in barriers which
prevent these groups of people from either finding out about the policy or benefiting from
it? (See Section 6 for examples)
(b) Consider what barriers you can remove, whether reasonable adjustments may be
necessary and how any unmet needs that you have identified can be addressed. For
disabled people, as defined under the Disability Discrimination Act, this could mean
treating them more favourably to ensure that there is equality of outcome.
(c) When you are deciding priorities for action you will need to consider whether the
barriers result in an adverse impact or discrimination that is illegal. These will
constitute your top priority. The other priorities will be dependent on such issues as
whether a group is particularly excluded or connected to the core business of the
service, whether there are adjustments that would mean several groups benefit.
Ensure that the actions you identify are put into the attached equality improvement plan.
A) The implementation of the Policy and procedural guidance is the responsibility of Youth Offending
Service Management Board, together with the management and staff of the YOS. The process of
monitoring and the outcomes of the monitoring are covered in the next section.
B) The Policy requires practitioners to take account of all the equality strands including disability in
order to ensure that they can maximise the engagement of the young person with the work of the
YOS. This requires practitioners to change the ways in which they work to take account of
disability issues. E.G. shortening session length or giving them a break for young people with
ADHD, take account of young people different learning style when working with them.
C) The priorities for action are outlined at the end of this document. The YOS is not able to fully
identify if any group is being excluded or disadvantaged as a result of its activity. It needs to
ensure that it evaluates it assessment process for risk to ensure that the quality of the
assessments meets good practice requirements and continues to report on results from it’s
participation survey if it is to satisfactorily do this.
4. What measures and methods have been designed to monitor the application of the policy,
achievement of intended outcomes and identification of any unintended or adverse impact?
How frequently will the monitoring be conducted and who will be made aware of the analysis
and outcomes? List your answers below.
The Policy out lines the following areas of work that will be undertaken to monitor the impact.
1. The YOS carries out regular quality control exercise which monitor the effectiveness of this policy
2. The YOS monitors those who receive a service from it via its participation survey and reports the
results of this survey to the Management Board and with in the EIA for the Youth Justice Strategic
Plan.
3. Reports related to serious incidents/case notification which identify issues related to equality
strands will require the YOS to carry out action to ensure that similar events do not occur again.
4. Complaints to the YOS are monitored and reported on via the annual EIA which accompanies the
Youth Justice Strategic Plan.
Currently the following information is aviable to support this
All young people who work with the youth offending service are assessed as to the level of risk posed
in relation to Re-offending, Risk of harm, and Vulnerability (risk of harm by others or to themselves).
The YOS focus’s particular attention on young people who pose highest risk in each of the
categories. The numbers of young people in each group are as follows
Total Numbers
BME groups
Gender
High risk of risk of reoffending
30
1 (Dual heritage)
24 Male 6 Female
High risk of harm
High vulnerability
7
0
6 Male 1 Female
14
0
11 male 2 females
Dispropotionality cannot be established due to the small numbers involved, and due to the factors which
may be out side YOS control. As a result the YOS will focus it’s effort on managing the quality of
assessments to ensure the equality outcomes. There is no specific data aviable currently and action will
need to be taken to make this data aviable.
The YOS case management system Careworks is not able to record disability, and Careworks currently
has no plans to enable the recording of numbers of young people with a disability, the participation
survey does enable the YOS to be able to identify all of the equality strands and report on the experience
of young people.
The YOS participation survey, survey’s young people at the end of there orders, it found that;
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97.7% of young people believed they had been treated fairly or quite fairly
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3.9% of the respondents were from Black Minority Groups, which compares to 2.1% of
young people from Black Minority Ethnic groups in the offending population. This would
suggest that there is no inequality of reporting in the survey
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100% of Black Minority groups believed they had been treated very fairly.
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67.8% of young people reported no religious faith, with 23.8% reporting a Christian faith.
No other faith group had significant numbers. This may be in part due to the small
numbers of respondents from the Black Minority Ethnic communities.
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87.8% of young people professing a faith considered they had been treated very fairly.
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88.1% of young people who had no religious faith indicated that they had been treated
very fairly.
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5.3% of respondents (15 young people) reported a disability
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87% of young people with a disability believed they were treated very fairly
This data does not identify the risk levels of the young people providing the response
There have been no serious incident reports which identified equality issues.
The YOS has not received any formal complaints
Additionally it is important to ensure that there are arrangement in place to ensure that staff are
support to work with young people in ways that meets the diversity needs of young people. The
Diversity Action Group with in the YOS reviews practice and look to identify areas requiring further
practice development in relation to diversity issues, making training requests to the Management
Team and the YOS training lead. All young people receive an assessment to identify any needs they
might have and further referral on, were needs are not able to be meet from within the YOS. The YOS
also reviews staff training needs on an annual basis
YOS staff have received significant amounts of training in relation to issues which could affect there
ability to deliver an appropriate service to young people. During the last 12 months this has included
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Learning Styles Assessment – whole YOS
Attention Deficit Hyperactively Disorder (ADHD) – Whole YOS
Traveller Culture – Whole YOS
Speech and Language Difficulties– Whole YOS
Acquired Brain Injury – Whole YOS
Intervention planning – which takes account of diversity issues – Whole YOS
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Training to on communication skills Assessments – Education practitioners
All staff have access to Multi Agency Mental Health Training.
5. Consider the answers given in questions 1, 2, 3 and 4 and assess whether the policy and
its implementation results, or could result in adverse impact on or discrimination against
different groups of people. If you consider that there is adverse impact or discrimination, or
the potential for either, please outline below and state whether is it justifiable or legitimate
and give your reasons for this.
The policy and procedural guidance is linked to local and national guidance and represents the YOS
approach to the guidance, and as a result there is very limited flexibility in how it is delivered. The
YOS continually looks to improve practitioner awareness knowledge and skills in order to minimise
the risk of adverse impact or discrimination.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the practice guidance promotes practice which prevents
any adverse equality outcomes. It is not possible to identify at the present time that there is any
adverse impact or discrimination due to link to this policy from the information currently available. The
Policies and Procedures will be monitored as described earlier in this document and actions have
been outlined in the Action Plan in order to ensure that the YOS is able to demonstrate its activity.
6. (a) If you have identified adverse impact or discrimination that is illegal, you are required to
take action to remedy this immediately.
(b) If you have identified adverse impact or discrimination that is justifiable or legitimate, you
will need to consider what actions can be taken to mitigate its effect on those groups of
people. This arises out of the duty to promote good relations between people of
different groups and is in keeping with the Council’s approach to social cohesion. Also,
the new PSA15 explicitly requires councils to address disadvantage across all six
equality strands.
Ensure that these actions are listed in the attached equality improvement plan.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL COHESION OR PROMOTING GOOD RELATIONS
BETWEEN DIFFERENT GROUPS OF PEOPLE
7. Social cohesion is a priority for councils. Progress made towards building more cohesive,
empowered and active communities is now being measured through national Performance
Indicators. Essentially social cohesion is about promoting a sense of connection, trust and
belonging both within and across communities and groups. Review all the actions and
targets that you have identified as a result of this equality impact assessment to identify
what social cohesion issues could arise, for example:
(a) Are there ways in which the policy development process could bring different groups of
people together, for example to monitor its impact or develop its future shape?
(b) Could the implementation of the policy result in different groups of people being
brought together? Has the capacity of the policy to bring different groups together been
fully utilised?
(c) Does the implementation of the policy have the potential to lead to resentment between
different groups of people? How can you compensate for perceptions of preferential or
differential treatment? Are these implications or decisions being explained to those
affected?
(d) If the EIA improvement plan identifies addressing a gap in the service for a particular
group of people, has this also addressed the potential for perceptions of preferential
treatment for the group? (For example, if you give priority treatment to disabled people,
how will you manage the negative attitudes that non-disabled people may develop as a
result?)
(e) How can the policy explicitly demonstrate the council’s commitment to promote equality
across race, gender, disability, age, religion/belief and the LGBT communities?
List your answers below. Ensure that the actions you identify are put into the attached
equality improvement plan.
8. EQUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN
Please list all the equality objectives, actions and targets that result from the Equality Impact Assessment (continue on separate sheets
as necessary). These now need to be included in the relevant service plan for mainstreaming and performance management purposes.
Equality Objective
Action
Target
Officer
responsible
By when
Monitor the Impact of
implementation for adverse
impact or discrimination
On reviewing the EIA provide
evidence of impact or not
No adverse impact
Jane Moore
August 2012
Evaluate the quality of Risk of
harm Vulnerability assessments
and ASSET annually
Identify the relevant data in
relations to this EIA from
Quality Evaluations
No adverse impact
Chris Bolas and
Lindsey Kirby.
June 2012
Evaluate Participation data
annually
Identify relevant information
establish the effectiveness of
this policy.
No adverse impact
Chris Bolas
May 2012
1st Authorised signature (EIA Lead)
Chris Bolas
2nd Authorised signature (Member of DMT)
Date: 12th December 2011
Date: 13th December 2011
GLOSSARY
Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder
(ADHD)
Black Minority Ethnic (BME) Groups
Intervention Plan
Learning Styles
Multi-Agency Public Protection
Arrangements (MAPPA)
Risk of Harm
Vulnerability
Youth Justice Board (YJB)
Youth Offending Service (YOS)
ADHD is a disorder that affects your
child's ability to concentrate and stay
focused. Although symptoms of ADHD
can differ with each child, many children
who suffer from ADHD have difficulty
following directions and finishing tasks.
They are also very impulsive and have
excessive energy.
This includes all ethnic groups which are
considered to be non white as prescribed
by the census categories
This is a plan of work agreed by the
YOS and the Young Person aimed at
addressing their risk of offending and
where appropriate issues of Risk of Harm
and Vulnerability
Assessment of Learning Styles helps
workers to use approaches to learning
with young people which are most likely
to produce the best results
The arrangement under which those who
pose a significant risk of harm to others
as a result of their Violent or Sexual
offending
The likelihood of significant harm being
caused to others
The behaviour of young people which
might cause themselves harm or the
action/s of others which also might harm
young people
The Non Governmental Departmental
body that over sees Youth Justice in
England and Wales.
The organisation who provides services
to Children and Young People who are at
risk of offending, or at risk of offending or
Anti Social Behaviour
Once completed and authorised, please send a copy of this form to the Equality and Diversity Team in the Chief
Executives Department.