Social exclusion
Positive steps continue to be taken to tackle social exclusion at varying levels
Social exclusion can affect many vulnerable families and their children and requires a multi-faceted approach. Partnership working and a commitment to strategic planning is needed to support members of different communities who are excluded. Hertfordshire works in a positive manner to support individuals and groups who find themselves excluded from access to everyday amenities and have to overcome barriers to achieve their full potential.
Indicator SE1 - Crime Re-offending (Recidivism Rates Hertfordshire Youth 10-17)
First time entrants into the Criminal Justice System have continued to fall in 2008/09 with a 14% drop on 2008 and 20% over the baseline year of 2005/06. This makes the challenge for the Youth Justice Service greater, in relation to re-offending targets, reducing percentages going to custody and improving percentages in Education, Training and Employment. By reducing first time entrants the proportion of those with more serious offending histories increases, calling for more intensive and intrusive methods of intervention. The numbers of young people going to custody during 2008/09 was only 45 (2.9% of young offenders).
The number of Children Looked After getting into trouble has also dropped over previous years. The percentage of young offenders in Education, Training and Employment has also improved to almost 80% which compares well with national rates and has a strong bearing on likelihood of re-offending.
Crime re-offending (Recidivism Rates Hertfordshire Youth 10-17 years)
| Type of Penalty | County Offending | County Re-offending | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Court | 380 | 86 | 23% |
| First Tier | 143 | 49 | 34% |
| Community | 76 | 45 | 59% |
| Custodial | 4 | 2 | 50% |
| Overall | 603 | 182 | 30% |
Source: Hertfordshire County Council Youth Justice Service 2010 - disclaimer
The Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities Parenting Programme has been attended by 200 parents, all of whom have difficult relationships with adolescent children who are at high risk of becoming Looked After or offending. We are monitoring the effects of this to establish the numbers of young people (whose parents have participated) who offend within 2 years of the course.
An increase in girls finding themselves on Youth Justice penalties has resulted in specific group work programmes being designed to engage with their offending patterns.
Indicator SE2 - Educational Attainment of Children in Care and Care Leavers
The 'virtual school model'1 is a coordinated system of support for Children Looked After designed to improve their educational achievements. It brings together information about these children and young people as if they were in a single school so that their progress can be closely tracked and supported and intervention can be targeted in a more strategic way. This system allows for the swift and effective transfer of data to and from schools. This is important given that children often come into the care system at short notice and can tend to move more frequently than is desirable.
The Virtual School targets additional resources more effectively and works in a more informed way with schools, designated teachers, social workers and carers, and children.
The Virtual School used one-to-one tuition with Year 11 students to help them prepare for their GCSE examinations with outstanding results.
Due to the low predicted levels of attainment for 5 A*-C grades in the 2009/10 cohort, it was decided to implement one-to-one tuition strategically to support students in Year 11 who were in danger of underperformance by achieving only 4 A*- C grades.
Analysis shows that many individual students showed significant improvement in subjects where they received tuition.
The table below shows results for year 11 students in 2009/10.
Attainment for 5 A*- C grades in the 2009/10 Year 11 Children Looked After
| 2009/10 | 2009/10 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cohort | 90 | 100% |
| 5 GCSE A*-C | 15 | 16.7% |
| 5 GCSE A*-C inc Maths & English | 12 | 13.3% |
Source: Statistical First Release (SFR) 38 2010 (DoE)
The plan to develop this work will ensure earlier specific intervention at Year 10 and 11 to identify possible NEETs (not in education, employment or training) and to work more with the wider Youth Connexions Service.
Virtual School Post 16 Team
Virtual School Post 16 Team is responsible for providing advice and support to professionals and young people who are care leavers in Hertfordshire. The service works closely with local employers, colleges of further education, training providers and universities. The service tracks young people, aged 16 -19, providing direct support to those who are not in education, employment or training to help them access some form of structured activity.
The Post 16 Team also work on the specialised Teenager 2 Work Project that prepares young people for employment. This service provides a wide range of work experience placements. There is a Personal Advisor dedicated to supporting care leavers who are at university. Young people are helped with managing the complexities of applying for a place at university and student finances.
The Aim Higher Residential Course is aimed at raising aspiration and motivation amongst young people in their final year of school. It provides masterclass revision lessons and peer support to ensure young people have essential help and guidance to prepare them for their GCSE examinations. The students meet three times over the academic year providing helpful support during the stressful examination period.
Indicator SE3 - Access to Transport
In 2009/10 continued efforts have been made to facilitate access to key services for people who find it difficult to travel by conventional modes of transport. Disadvantaged groups identified in the accessibility strategy include young people living in rural areas, and older and disabled people without access to a car or passenger transport.
SCooTs2 - This scheme set up in 2004, provides a moped for loan to rural youngsters aged between 16 and 25 to enable them to travel to college or employment. To date, SCooTs has had a total of 470 enquiries from the start of the project, and helped 109 clients. As of the end of April 2010, the scheme had 28 clients on the project with 13 approved applicants on the waiting list. In 2009, 2 electric scooters were added to the scheme.
Older and disabled people, including those with learning disabilities have been helped through the Hertfordshire Integrated Transport Partnership (HITP), a partnership between the county council and the health services. Services delivered through HITP include the Broxbourne and Lister Shuttles, and the Travellink call centre which arranges transport to health care for residents.
Gladys Martin and Yvette Summerton celebrate being the 100,000th patients to use Travellink in Spring 2010
The Hertfordshire Partnership to Support Independent Travel3 (HPSIT) continues to develop solutions for people who need extra help with travel arrangements. Thousands of booklets were widely distributed in 2009/10. Other HPSIT initiatives continue to be distributed - these are an orange travel wallet used to alert bus drivers that the passenger has a disability, and a disability awareness bus drivers training DVD. The progress and success of these initiatives are both monitored by HPSIT.
The Transport Issues for Disabled People's group continues to meet every quarter, a number of issues have been discussed within the group. These include the county's Local Transport Plan 3 and the draft Roads in Hertfordshire Guidance Document.
Source: HCC Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Unit 2010
download and view this data in excel - disclaimer
Data received in 2009 from the Office of National Statistics, show that Hertfordshire's under 18 conception rate was 26.3 per 1,000. This compares favourably with the equivalent rates for East of England and England which are 33.1 and 41.9 per 1,000, respectively.
The Ten Year Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, which commenced in 1998, gave Hertfordshire a target of a reduction in rates of 45% by 2010. This target would have taken our rates down to 17.6. Hertfordshire will not meet its planned trajectory.
However, the Hertfordshire Teenage Pregnancy Strategy and its partner agencies are working very closely together to improve services and facilities for young people and young parents.
Indicator SE5 - Child Well-being Index
The Child Well-being Index (CWI) is designed to cover the major areas of a child's life that have an impact on a child's well-being. It is not an index of deprivation. The CWI is produced at Lower Super Output Area level (LSOAs) and is made up of seven areas: material well-being, health, education, crime, housing, environment and children (at risk of being) in need.
Indicator SE5 - Child Well-being Index
Table - Local Authority districts ranked by average score on the Child Well-being Index4
| District | CWI rank of average scores |
|---|---|
| East Hertfordshire | 4 |
| St Albans | 16 |
| North Hertfordshire | 40 |
| Three Rivers | 51 |
| Dacorum | 61 |
| Hertsmere | 86 |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 106 |
| Stevenage | 147 |
| Watford | 154 |
| Broxbourne | 164 |
Source: Local Index of Child Well-being 2009 Communities and Local Government January 2009
East Herts is ranked the fourth highest area within the CWI out of 354 districts in England. 80% of the district's Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are within the best 20% in the country. By contrast Broxbourne is ranked 164th although it is still within the top 50%. It has, however, five LSOAs within the lowest 20% in the country. There are four other districts that also have one or two LSOAs in the worst 20%; these are Dacorum, Hertsmere, Three Rivers and Watford.
It is of note that, although Stevenage is ranked 147th in the country with only 6 LSOAs in the best 20%, it does not have any within the worst 20%.
Footnote
1 For more information on the 'Virtual School' in Hertfordshire see: www.thegrid.org.uk/info/welfare/virtualschool/index.shtml
2 For more information on 'SCooTs' contact the Transport Policy Team at Hertfordshire County Council on 01992 588 704
3 For more information on 'HPSIT' contact the Transport Policy Team at Hertfordshire County Council on 01992 588 704
4 Note that with the Child Well-being Index 1 is the highest well-being and 354 the lowest well-being