Criminal past of thousands may be wiped out by Ken Clarke

Thousands of offenders could have their past convictions cleared from their record under plans by justice secretary Kenneth Clarke.

The length of time during which job applicants are required to disclose criminal convictions is set to be reduced.

Prison terms of up to six months would be deemed ‘spent’ two years  after the end of the sentence, compared with seven years after conviction now.

Only jail terms of four years or longer would never be considered spent, compared with all those of 30 months or longer now.

Justice minister Lord McNally said: ‘First and foremost, criminals must be suitably punished for their crimes.

‘But it is no good for anyone if they go to jail and come out and then can’t get an honest job and so turn back to crime again.’

He said the reforms will give ex-offenders ‘a fair chance of getting back on the straight and narrow’ while ensuring safeguards protect the public.

Paul McDowell, chief executive of the crime reduction charity Nacro, said the amendments to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act were ‘a big step in the right direction’ but called for the government to go further.

He added: ‘The act will still present barriers to people who have put their offending behind them, particularly those who have served four or more years in prison.’

Other changes include a fine being spent one year after conviction, instead of after five years as now.

Juliet Lyon, head of the Prison Reform Trust, said the government should consider ‘wiping the slate clean’ for young offenders who have committed petty crimes.

Further cuts to secure children’s home places announced

The number of custodial places in secure children’s homes (SCH) is to be cut again due to falling custody levels, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) has announced.

SCHs are generally used to accommodate young offenders aged 12 to 14, girls up to the age of 16, and 15- to 16-year-old boys who are deemed to be vulnerable.

Frances Done, YJB chair, told CYP Now that there are fewer younger children being sentenced to custody, part of a wider fall in custody levels

In total the move to reduce the number of beds, which cost around £200,000 per year each, will save in the region of £3.4m, although Done did not say how much of this will go towards budget savings.

“The YJB is committed to using secure children’s homes to accommodate the children and young people for whom it is appropriate provision,” she said. “The reduction in commissioned beds is the result of substantial reductions in the number of young people being sentenced to custody by the courts, particularly in the younger age group.

“Secure children’s homes play an important role in the young people’s secure estate to ensure time spent in custody is purposeful, all young people are engaged in education and training, and that they are set on the path to rehabilitation and a future life free from crime.”

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League, said the decision seemed “more in the interest of the YJB’s bank account than the needs of children and their safety”.

“Secure children’s homes are the only appropriate form of custody for the very few children who require a period in a secure environment,” he added.

Penelope Gibbs, deputy chair of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, said: “It is good that the YJB is continuing to support secure children’s homes but really disappointing that the places they are purchasing in them are being reduced.

“The child custody population is shrinking but if children are to be imprisoned, secure children’s homes are better than the alternatives – offering better-trained staff and a more welfare-oriented approach.”

Source CYP Now

£10m boost for youth volunteer training

Funding of £10m to train thousands of new volunteer leaders for youth groups like the Scouts, Guiding and Police Cadets has been announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

The money will go to Youth United – a coalition of the major youth volunteering organisations – to recruit and train up 2,700 new adult volunteers over the next two and a half years to run 400 new youth groups.

The government said it would mean more than 10,000 additional young people would be able to join a pack or troop.

Pickles said: “Scouts, Guides and the Cadets have a tremendously proud and successful history of giving young people the kind of fun, life skills and experiences they can’t get anywhere else.

“They rely on the goodwill and dedication of trained adult volunteers to provide this community service, which brings young people of all backgrounds and beliefs together.

“Over 1.5 million young people are regularly involved but many more want to join – with more volunteer leaders needed to bring waiting lists down – every young person in the country should have the chance to participate if they want to.

“The help we are giving today will mean Youth United groups can train a new generation of local volunteers to run a new cub pack or guiding patrol and make all the difference in fifteen communities that face some significant challenges”.

The areas identified where the money can have the biggest impact are: Birmingham, Bradford, Knowsley, Hackney, Haringey, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newham, Redbridge, Rochdale and Tower Hamlets.

Additionally, four areas that will be targeted as HRH The Prince of Wales’s priority areas for helping young people – the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham, Burnley, Burslem, in Stoke-on-Trent, and Redcar.

Rod Jarman, chair of the Youth United board, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to make a significant difference in youth provision in a number of areas across England.

“We now have a real chance to engage more adults and let them experience and gain from volunteering to help others and to identify new ways of working to provide good accommodation from which the units can work.”

Source CYP Now

Children’s literacy skills found lacking in Wales

Forty per cent of pupils in Wales are entering secondary school with a reading age that is more than six months below their actual age, the chief inspector of Welsh education inspectorate Estyn has warned.

Publishing her annual report for the education and training inspectorate for Wales, Ann Keane described the findings as “unacceptable” and urged teachers to plan lessons more effectively to develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills across all subjects.

Although performance in four out of five primary schools and two out of three secondary schools inspected was mainly found to be good, Keane said teachers must be able to adapt lessons for learners of all abilities.

Keane said: “We have concerns about standards in reading and writing in a significant minority of primary schools. Forty per cent of pupils enter secondary schools with a reading age that is more than six months below their actual age. This is unacceptable.

“Teachers and managers need to plan lessons more effectively to develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills in all subjects. We have seen a drop in the proportion of excellent or outstanding teaching by comparison with the last cycle of inspections.

“Schools need to do more to adapt their materials and teaching styles to meet the needs of learners of all abilities.”

Of the 238 primary schools inspected, five per cent were judged excellent, 74 per cent good, 19 per cent adequate and two per cent unsatisfactory.

Four schools had special measures imposed, eight needed significant improvement and 43 required an Estyn monitoring visit.

The Welsh government has been gradually expanding its early years scheme, the Foundation Stage, since 2008, which now covers children aged from three to seven years.

In around 30 per cent of schools standards of reading and writing remain a concern. The inspectorate found that in many schools pupils in the Foundation Stage made good progress in speaking, listening and reading. However, the report found that in nearly a quarter of schools inspected, pupils’ written work was full of simple spelling and grammatical errors.

In nearly all primary schools pupil wellbeing is good or better, with pupils feeling safe and behaving well.

Keane said: “The Foundation Phase is a strength in the majority of schools, with boys and girls responding positively to the stimulating activities. They are more independent, confident and creative.

“But despite this progress, there are still several areas that are still a concern: children and young peoples’ reading and writing skills and the uneven quality of teaching and leadership.”

Of the 31 secondary schools inspected, 13 per cent were judged excellent, 52 per cent good, 32 per cent adequate and three per cent unsatisfactory.

In most schools, inspectors found that pupils made good progress in developing their knowledge and understanding, but in schools where standards are adequate or unsatisfactory, performance in external examinations was weak with shortcomings in pupils’ literacy.

Pupils in most schools were found to listen well in lessons and many pupils were also able to write well for a wide variety of purposes and audiences. However, in about a quarter of schools, standards in writing are not as good as in other aspects of literacy.

During 2010/11, Estyn inspected seven local authorities and found performance is good overall in only two. Five of the seven authorities inspected required follow-up visits, with three judged adequate, one in need of significant improvement and one in special measures

Source: CYP Now

Two-week child protection inspections to start in May

Ofsted has finalised plans to begin two-week long spot checks of local authority child protection services from May.

The inspectorate’s revised inspection framework of child protection, published today (31 January), will double the number of local authority case files that inspectors scrutinise and will attempt to impose greater focus on children’s experiences.

Inspectors will shadow social workers during the two-week inspections and talk directly to children and families.

Ofsted deputy chief inspector John Goldup said: “For the first time in our child protection inspections, we’ll be talking to children and their families directly and shadowing social workers in their day-to-day work. This will be a very important part of the evidence that inspectors will use.

“We won’t just look at what happens to children when they become subject to formal child protection processes – it’s just as important to evaluate the help that children and their families do or don’t get early on, when problems first emerge, because that can make a critical difference to whether the problems get worse and the risks to the child escalate.”

Social workers and managers will be expected to go through each selected case file with inspectors to examine the support being offered to each child.

The current nine areas local authorities are judged upon will be replaced with three:

• The effectiveness of protection provided to children, young people, families and carers
• The quality of practice
• Leadership and governance

Children’s minister Tim Loughton said: “In her independent review of child protection last year Professor Munro advised that inspections should give greater weight to feedback from children and families, and that Ofsted should move to unannounced inspections because professionals and local authorities were spending too much time preparing for inspections.

“Ofsted’s changes will help put the focus back on the child and assess whether they and their families are really getting the help they need – rather than being a tick box exercise.”

Nushra Mansuri, professional officer for the British Association of Social Workers, said: “We wholeheartedly support unannounced inspections; there is less opportunity to mask poor practice.

“We have anecdotal evidence from members of how poorly performing local authorities can still get through inspection processes through unscrupulous means such as altering information. We also hear that the current Ofsted process is not effective or trusted by social workers.”

Source: CYP NOW