Prospects Youth Support Team Joint working in the Youth Support Team

Introduction to the YST Gloucestershire has an estimated 138,000 under 18 year olds. In 2011 we integrated statutory and non-statutory provision to support vulnerable young people within this population. The service currently supports approximately 6,000 young people and their families across Gloucestershire in all 6 districts. Working with young people aged 10-18, and up to 25 with Care Leavers and young people with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities. In 2013, the contract for the service was outsourced and awarded through a tender process to Prospects Services, a staff-owned mutual that is a national provider of services in the domains of Education, Employment, Children’s Services and Criminal Justice.

Introduction to the YST The service offers support in the following areas: – Youth Justice & Youth Crime Prevention (including Liaison and Diversion) – Social Care support for children aged 11+, and for Care Leavers – Specialist Substance Misuse – Support for LDD/SEND – Children Running away from, or Missing from Home/Care – Child Sexual Exploitation – Children Not in Education, Employment & Training (NEET) – Accommodation/Homelessness support – Specialist health support for vulnerable young people – Families First (Troubled Families initiative) – ‘Early Help’ – Targeted Youth & Community building

Introduction Joint working is a hallmark of the service through an integrated delivery model. Within this environment we have been able to effectively draw together different disciplines to provide holistic solutions to complex individual, family and social challenges. This includes social workers, mental health nurses, youth justice staff, speech and language therapy, physical health nursing, specialist substance misuse workers and the like.

Support with LD and Communication Needs We provide mental health and SALT assessments, reporting, intervention, consultation and training. This has allowed us to invest in improved delivery for all YP including through the following initiatives: – Liaison and Diversion – Youth Justice (including sentence reports, community orders, work to and from the secure estate) – Specialist substance misuse – LDD/SEND (those previously with statements and LDA’s, and those now with EHCP’s)

Support with LD and Communication Needs Recent analysis and research undertaken by Research in Practice and Dialogue of cases open to Social Care, CAMHS (CYPS), and Youth Support have evidenced the over-representation of LDD and communication difficulties amongst the vulnerable groups supported by these 3 agencies. We will therefore be attending closely to this finding in a significant service review under an ‘Innovations’ grant from the DfE to fundamentally transform and improve these services for children, young people and their families.