Worcestershire approves proposals for West Mercia Youth Offending Service (From Droitwich Advertiser)

Worcestershire approves proposals for West Mercia Youth Offending Service

6:20pm Friday 29th June 2012 in News

PROPOSALS to establish a West Mercia Youth Offending Service (YOS) have been agreed by Worcestershire County Council's cabinet.

Worcestershire was the first of four local authorities, the others being Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin, to consider these proposals.

West Mercia currently has two joint Youth Offending Services, one for Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin and the other covering Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

The proposals that came to cabinet, presented by the West Mercia Project Board, detailed consideration of how the service could best be delivered. This comes in response to a number of pressures, namely changes within Local Authorities and other statutory partners including police, health and probation including the increasing financial pressures to manage decreasing budgets across all public bodies.

The West Mercia Project Board comprises the four local authorities plus NHS, West Mercia Police and West Mercia Probation Trust.

The recommendations agreed are for the creation of a Core Youth Offending Service across the whole of West Mercia with non-core services commissioned by each local authority and delivered locally and reflecting local needs.

The proposed model aims to focus on 'preventing youth crime rather than simply responding to it' and should lead to improved outcomes which will see a reduction in re-offending and a reduction in the use of custody as well as the main driver, better life outcomes.

Financial savings of at least 20 per cent over two years are also expected.