Diversion approaches and good practice

The police are required to record an ‘outcome’ for every detected crime. Outcomes 21 and 22 have been introduced to enable the police to record that a crime has been committed but it is not in the public interest to take further action within the criminal justice system. They can be used for both children and adults. The intention of both outcomes was to reduce the criminalisation of children and provide a means of recording an ‘informal’ police action.

Outcome 21 has been used by many forces to deal with low-level incidents in children’s homes.

Outcome 22 can be used when the police have decided to defer prosecution until the child or adult has been given the opportunity to engage with an intervention activity.

Once Outcome 21 or 22 have been identified as a potential possible disposal for a child, police officers should ensure there is an opportunity for the child or their representative to make representations before the Outcome is imposed. At this stage, the child and their carers should be clearly advised as to what the Outcome entails and the potential long-term consequences. Advice should always be taken from a youth justice specialist lawyer before accepting one of these Outcomes.

There are some excellent examples of the Outcomes being used to keep care-experienced children out of the criminal justice system. However, children and their carers should be aware that these Outcomes will be stored on the Police National Database and could potentially be disclosed on an enhanced criminal record check.

See the section on Criminal Records for more details on enhanced criminal record checks.

Neath Port Talbot Youth Justice Service provides a range of approaches and support to divert care experienced children and young people at different stages of contact with the criminal justice system.

A local Decriminalisation Policy for care experienced children was initially rolled out within the secure children’s home and then more broadly to non-secure children’s homes in the area. The policy advocates for a 24-hour cooling off period and contact with the Youth Justice Service (YJS) police officer whereby if all parties agree, the matter is dealt with via the lowest appropriate response. This policy does not negate the need to contact the police in matters that require an urgent police response.

The YJS will always advocate for the lowest appropriate outcome for young people, where possible looking for matters to be dealt with via an out-of-court-disposal, or, if the matter has been referred to Court, advocating where appropriate for the matter to be referred back to bureau or for no further action. With regards to the latter, the YJS have advocated for no further action on the basis that there has been a significant change to the care plan, for example, a move to a more specialist provision.

The YJS offer voluntary bail support at the earliest opportunity following arrest to remove further barriers, start interventions and to be able to advocate with and on behalf of young people. Support is now available in police custody via a third sector provider.

The National Referral Mechanism referrals process is utilised where there are exploitation concerns. The YJS makes sure young people’s status is known by other professionals so that it can inform decision making i.e. within the Court arena to advocate for young people not to be prosecuted for an offence linked to exploitation. It will argue for psychological and psychiatric assessments to support decision making in various forums i.e. Court.

With regards to Harmful Sexual Behaviour, the police will link in with YJS and social services to gather views regarding previous engagement and interventions available locally before making a decision to charge. Within this, there is the opportunity for the YJS to advocate on behalf of the young person for the least restrictive response and for this to be considered in line with the victim’s wishes.

Long term preventive work is provided alongside Children’s Services – the Principal Officer for the YJS is also the Principal Officer for leaving care services. Work with young people is relationship based and trauma informed.

Young people have a range of activities they can access. For example, the K9 Youth Engagement Project is a 3 day course that addresses a range of issues with young people including county lines, knife crime, substance misuse, victim awareness, basic first aid training and life skills. On the final day, young people visit to the Police Headquarters for a formal presentation. The course is accredited with a stage one Agored Cymru Communication qualification. Neath Port Talbot also commission Equine Assisted Learning to support emotional, social and cognitive interventions with young people. The YJS has found that equine therapy can support young people’s well-being and help them develop life skills to improve confidence and mental health.

The YJS work in partnership with other agencies to plan for care experienced children turning 18 who are in contact with the criminal justice system to ensure that appropriate planning and support is in place to support their transition over to adult services including Probation, Mental Health and Adult Services. The YJS will work alongside partners for up to six months after the young person’s 18^th birthday. For example, a young person was sentenced to custody and became looked after due to time spent remand. The YJS transitioned the young person across to adult services including an adult secure hospital, working alongside adult services workers for 6 months post the young person’s 18^th birthday to ensure that good relationships had been established, something that was facilitated via joint visits. The YJS challenged policies within the secure hospital provision when told the young person could not have professional visits as they were in segregation.