MPS Youth Scrutiny Success Measures

Report: 5
Date: 12 March 2009
By: T/ Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

In November 2008 the MPS presented a response to the MPA Youth Scrutiny recommendations, and is due to update progress again on 21 May 2009. It was agreed that in the interim period the MPS should report only on the numerical performance indicators contained within the MPS Youth Strategy. This report provides an update on how the MPS is performing against the Youth Strategy Success Measures.

A. Recommendation

1. That the MPA notes this report.
2. That the MPA note the context of the current review of the Youth Strategy.

B. Supporting information

1. The Success Measures for the MPS Youth Strategy were agreed in October 2007 as :

1. To reduce the number of young people becoming victims of crime
2. To reduce the number of young people becoming offenders
3. To reduce the number of youth victims of violent crime
4. To reduce the number of youths committing violent crime
5. To reduce repeat victimisation of young people by families, carers or parents
6. To reduce the number of youth victims of serious violent crime
7. To reduce the number of youth committing serious violent crime

2. Performance against the measures is shown as per thousand population. This is the standard method of representation, and is based on population data from the National Office of Statistics Census data that is adjusted annually. The data is verified and supplied by PIB with a confirmation date of 01.03.2009.

3. Success Measures 1 and 2 above relate to ‘young people’, and these are defined as being under 18 years of age.

4. Success Measures 3 and 4 above relate to ‘youths’, and these are defined as being under 20 years of age. The term ‘violence’ is defined as including murder, grievous bodily harm (GBH), actual bodily harm (ABH), common assault, harassment and other violence.

5. Success Measure 5: is clearly a high level aim of the strategy and considerable work is going into developing this performance element. However, it has proved difficult to achieve the necessary interrogation of the Crime Recording Information System (CRIS) at this time. This is because of the number of variables identifying families, parents or carers, and also the timescales over which repeat victimisation may have occurred. It should be emphasised that individual repeat cases are identified and are subject to rigorous risk management scrutiny on a daily basis, both at borough and at central Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD) levels. Work continues to develop this and it is anticipated that data should be available early in the next planning year, 2009/10.

6. Success Measures 6 and 7 above refer to ‘serious violent crime’. The Home Office recently made changes to the ‘most serious violence’ definition with the result that 2008 – 2009 performance will be the baseline against which reductions will be measured. This means the first data is due to become available with the release of performance data in May 2009.

7. Current performance against the success measures is as follows:

1. To reduce the number of young people becoming victims of crime:
   2005 – 2006 performance was at the level of 42.31 young people per thousand, and has consistently reduced year on year following the rollout of the MPS Youth Strategy, to 33.36 in 2007 – 2008. The current financial year to date figure for 2008 - 2009 indicates that this fall will continue; for April to January there have been 25.14 victims per 1,000 youth population.

   Year	Per 1,000 youth population
   2005 – 2006	42.31
   2006 – 2007	39.82
   2007 – 2008	33.36
   2008-2009 (January FYTD)	25.14

2. To reduce the number of young people becoming offenders:
   A continuous reducing trend since 2005 is shown.

   Year	Per 1,000 youth population
   2005 – 2006	28.16
   2006 – 2007	22.08
   2007 – 2008	21.16
   2008-2009 (January FYTD)	15.66

3. To reduce the number of youth victims of violent crime:
   Performance has consistently reduced year on year to 30.08 in 2007 – 2008. The current financial year to date figure for 2008 -2009 indicates that this will continue to fall. For April to January there have been 23.02 victims per 1,000 population.

   Year	Per 1,000 youth population
   2005 – 2006	36.32
   2006 – 2007	34.66
   2007 – 2008	30.08
   2008-2009 (January FYTD)	23.02

4. To reduce the number of youths committing violent crime
   The rate of youths per thousand population committing violent crime has shown a continuous decrease.

   Year	Per 1,000 youth population
   2005 – 2006	14.00
   2006 – 2007	10.41
   2007 – 2008	10.41
   2008-2009 (January FYTD)	8.23

8. It should be noted that at the time of writing a high level review of the MPS Youth Strategy is being undertaken. A report against the outcomes of this is being prepared for submission to the MPS Youth Strategy Board at their next meeting scheduled in March 2009. The report will contain detail of how the MPS Youth Strategy relates to those strategies of strategic partners, and further information on the outcomes of this review will be provided in due course to the Communities, Equalities and People Committee.

C. Race and equality impact

Whilst this report does not in itself have any implications, one of the outcomes of the MPS Youth Strategy review will be an updating of the Equality Impact Assessment.

D. Financial implications

Delivery of the MPS Youth Strategy is financed through existing MPS budgets. There are no additional financial implications resulting from this report.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Alastair Reid, Youth Strategy Programme Manager, MPS

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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