Asset tool youth offending

This perception was also confirmed by high profile criminal offences committed by young people and children, a case in point in this regard is the murder of two years old boy by two boys who were themselves were just ten years old.

The public debates that ensued from this high profile case clearly pointed out the urgent need to reform the criminal justice that had been in place to deal with the young people and children.

According to Downes and Morgan , the new phenomenon was the agreement of both New Labour and Conservative on the position of law and order as far as young people and children are concerned ibid. Before the turn of the century, the administration of youth justice service, in England and Wales, has witnessed the implementation of welfare and justice approaches at the same time Stephenson, Giller and Brown.

The welfare approach upheld the view that young people and children should be treated differently from adults as far as criminal justice administration is concerned ibid.

This approach gives much more importance to the need of the young person and child. On the contrary, the justice approaches emphasis on harmonizing the level of formal intervention to the seriousness of the offence rather than the punitive need ibid.

One the one hand, Welfarism has an inclination of increasing formal intervention and unnecessary control; while justice disregards individual need and sometime human rights ibid. Primarily this legislation is designed to reduce the rate of reoffending among young people and children. At the same time, it has the objective of addressing their needs and enabling them to achieve their potentials.

It also aims to protect victims and communities. In order to achieve these objectives, the now defunct Youth Justice Board, which was established by the above mentioned legislation commissioned a separate assessment tool that would be mainly used by all youth offending team in each local authority in England and Wales.

As a result, an assessment tool known as Asset was produced for use in multi agency youth offending team. Then it is quite important to ask ourselves what are the impacts, consequence and repercussion of this assessment tool not only on the young person and child caught up in offending behaviour but also the victim of the offence as well as the community that would be mostly affect by any criminal activity.

Moreover, it has impact on the organisations that have been entrusted with the responsibility of reducing offending, promoting rehabilitation and protecting the public and the ultimate individuals, the victims that directly and personally experience the impact of such types of crimes.

Impact has multifaceted dimensions. It could be positive, negative or neutral. It is also quite important to note at this juncture that prediction and prevention of risk associated with youth criminal behaviour depends on the assessment. Assessment is important because the impact it would have not only on the young people and children who offend but also the ramification on the victims as well as the public in general baker, Kelly and Wilkinson 1.

It impinges on decision about bail, remand and sentencing, intervention, custodial placements, release, resettlement, integration into community. This research its primary focus would attempt to explore the extent the assessment tool so far has achieved to meet its primary objectives. What is asset? It was commissioned The term assessment has a number of definitions. According to Lisman, the term 'assessment' has different meanings for a range of professionals that work with children and families The most comprehensive definition is the one provided by Coulshed and Orme which states that assessment is; An going process, in which the [service user] participates, the purpose of which is to understand people in relation to their environment; it is the basis for planning what need to be done to bring about change in the person, the environment or both 16 Asset, created by the Youth Justice Board YJB in , is a structured risk assessment tool used by all YJS teams in England and Wales with young people in the criminal justice system ibid.

It examines a young person's offending and identifies associated risk factors, criminogenic needs and protective areas in their life. In addition to the offence, the Core Asset Profile includes 13 sections which research identifies as being linked to criminality for example, Chapman and Hough, The Risk of Serious Harm form is a more in-depth assessment undertaken with young people who have committed serious violent or sexual offences as defined by s Criminal Justice Act Asset assessment is a standardised assessment tool used in youth offending team currently known as youth justice service to help practitioners identify the risk young people expose themselves and others.

It also considers the needs of young person involved in offences. As stated by Nikola , childhood is the most intensively governed personal existence cited in Goldson and Hughes Aims and objectives 3.

What it actually involves? At the practitioners level 5. Policy and legislative background Chapter two Summarise and critically analyse research evidence Chapter three 3. What is the impact of Asset in youth Justice Services? Positive and negative aspects. Are there other alternatives approaches to be explored? Conclusion and recommendation References Merrington, S.

Statham, D. Almond, T. What works to reduce re-offending: A summary of the evidence By Maria Sapouna. Chaos, containment and change: responding to persistent offending by young people By Susan Batchelor.

A Review of the International Evidence. London: Ministry of Justice. By Anna Gekoski and Mia Scally. Raynor , B. Heath , J. Evans , and Helen Miles. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You can change your cookie settings at any time. This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. AssetPlus has been designed to provide a holistic end-to-end assessment and intervention plan, allowing one record to follow a child or young person throughout their time in the youth justice system. Introduction to AssetPlus. AssetPlus focuses on professional judgement of practitioners and will enable better-focused intervention plans to improve outcomes for children and young people.

Read the AssetPlus rationale for more information on the research behind AssetPlus. This list will be updated regularly. View the AssetPlus framework diagram. Summarises information from the rest of the framework and the wider case management system, including:.

Practitioners will pull together and analyse elements of the Information Gathering section to make judgements about the young person in four main areas:. Supports practitioners to identify outcomes and plans that link to risks and positive factors identified in the Explanations and Conclusions section:. Read the AssetPlus model document for more information on what is included in each section of the framework. AssetPlus will be delivered in a phased approach to YOTs in England and Wales in three tranches, followed by secure establishments.

Each organisation has been asked to nominate a local change lead in YOTs or point of contact in secure establishments who will take ownership for the local implementation of AssetPlus alongside the AssetPlus project team.

Direct engagement is the period of business change activity which YOTs will undertake in the 6 — 7 months before technical deployment of AssetPlus in YOT case management systems. YOTs will be directly supported by the AssetPlus team throughout this period, and will be provided with a number of tools and documents to help plan and track their progress at a local level. Business change advisers from the project will be in touch with change leads prior to direct engagement to introduce themselves and the required materials.

The local implementation plan outlines the business change activities and when they will take place. Organisations can identify at a local level where assessment and planning skills gaps occur and begin to address these using existing local materials.

The Foundation Training is a general resource which should be used by youth justice practitioners to consolidate their knowledge of assessment and planning interventions in line with the relevant theory and research base.