CACI awarded Ministry of Justice contract
CACI awarded Ministry of Justice contract to support the introduction of the AssetPlus framework to improve outcomes for young people in the youth justice system
The Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Youth Justice Board has awarded CACI a £1.5 million contract to integrate AssetPlus into its current case management software. AssestPlus is the new assessment and planning interventions framework for all youth justice services (Youth Offending Teams and Secure Establishments) which will replace Asset. Developed by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, the AssetPlus framework will assist practitioners to complete more holistic, detailed assessments to form improved intervention plans. One assessment and plan will follow a young person throughout their time in the youth justice system, at all stages and in any location leading to improved outcomes for young people.
The Youth Justice Board is working with the two existing suppliers of YOT case management systems on the implementation of AssetPlus. CACI will deliver AssetPlus in a compliant upgraded version of CACI’s ChildView Youth Justice software in quarter 2 2014/15.
CACI is a leading UK provider of IT recording and reporting solutions to the public and private sector and has been supplying innovative systems to youth justice teams for over 20 years. Today it supplies software to over 70% of YOTs in England and Wales, supporting their efforts to prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people under the age of 18. In 2011/12 (the last period for which figures are available) there were 36,677 first time entrants into the youth justice system and 137,335 proven offences by young people overall.
By placing a renewed focus on the professional judgement of YOT staff, and capitalising on a young person’s more positive influences, AssetPlus aims to reduce the incidences of reoffending and improve outcomes - both for those currently in the system and for those at risk of entering. Structured to enable better focussed intervention plans, the new framework aims to improve outcomes for young people and reduce reoffending and remands to custody. Information sharing between YOTs and secure establishments will improve allowing further focus on the young person, and the framework will also promote an increase in the use of restorative justice, where appropriate.
By identifying a multitude of factors or circumstances which may have contributed to offending behaviour - ranging from lack of educational attainment to mental health problems - the information gathered from the system can be used to inform court reports so that appropriate intervention programmes can be drawn up. It will also highlight any particular needs or difficulties the young person has, such as communication problems, so that these can be addressed too.
Another key benefit of the framework involves standardisation of the transfer of information between YOTs in different parts of the country – for example when a young person who first enters the youth justice system from a home town in, say, Gloucester, then moves to London – and during times when the young person is remanded or sentenced to custody in secure estate establishments such as young offender institutions. The previous system, Asset, had limited application with secure establishments which impacted on the quality of sentence planning for young people in custody.
“In the current climate of reduced resources for youth justice services, the Ministry of Justice has identified an acute need for a consistent specialised assessment and planning interventions framework to act as the foundation for all youth justice services,” said Paul Richards, Director of Children & Young Peoples Services at CACI. “We are working closely with the Youth Justice Board to ensure that our new system upgrade fully encompasses and supports the new holistic approach that AssetPlus introduces. Every member of our dedicated team has worked closely with, or has first-hand experience of working in the youth justice system or with youth offending teams, so they completely understand the demands and the benefits that this new framework will provide.
“Our ChildView Youth Justice software, made fully compliant with the AssetPlus framework, will play a critical role in helping to identify risk and needs and contribute to better outcomes for children and young people in contact with youth offending teams throughout England and Wales.”
ChildView Youth Justice is a powerful software solution and is the latest upgrade to CACI’s long established Youth Offending Information System (YOIS), the primary product in the youth justice sector. When combined with other ChildView modules it allows an unprecedented ‘single view’ of a young person’s record, including an interactive chronology and timeline to capture key youth events and also those of partner agencies. The newly compliant version of the software will allow AssetPlus to implement its aim of building up a broader, more contextual picture of each young person in the system and better addressing and analysing key new policy areas, such as where the young person is involved in, or at risk of, group offending and speech, language and communication needs.
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