Congratulations to Tower Hamlets/City of London Area Partnership

Congratulations to the Tower Hamlets/City of London Area Partnership for attaining Youth Justice SEND Quality Lead Status with a Child First Commendation

In 2021, the Tower Hamlets and City of London Area Partnership attained the Youth Justice SEND Quality Mark. This in itself was a significant achievement, despite the challenges caused by the Covid pandemic and its aftermath. Robust relationships between service providers were established, protocols introduced, training plans actioned and the foundations laid for further development.

We are delighted to report that, during the intervening three years, the Area Partnership has demonstrated significant and sustained progress in every area of the Youth Justice SEND Quality Assurance Framework, resulting in Quality Lead status being attained, including a Child First Commendation for preventative multiagency work!

There is clear evidence of:

• Effective and timely collaboration between the SEND Team and the Youth Justice Team, involving information exchange, tracking and support in and out of custody, named points of contact, overseen by Service Leaders

• Co-locatedSaLT (Speech and Language Therapists), Ed Psych and Nursing provision playing a role not only in additional screening, diagnostic support and child-centred interventions, but also in upskilling frontline staff through training, joint problem-solving, case formulation processes and ad hoc support (the full benefits of co-location)

• 95% staff completing the UNITAS Child First training, with Child First briefings extending to the wider workforce including Frontline security teams, Asset Management staff and Enforcement Officers

• Commitment to support children beyond statutory age-related service “cliff-edges”or provision “silos” (as exemplified by children enabled to sit GCSEs whilst on remand, close relationships with probation, and close working with the Post-16 Division within the Area Partnership to secure the best possible ETE (Education Training and Employment) outcomes for the most vulnerable young people.

Special mention should also be given for the preventative offer within the Partnership, specifically the Break the Cycle Targeted Youth offer and the partnership work of the Joint Decision-Making Panel, of which both seek actively to divert children away from the stigma of the Criminal Justice System.

Equally, the excellent advocacy work of the Virtual School within and beyond the Local Area Partnership demonstrates the efforts of the Partnership on a local and national level.

It has been an absolute pleasure to bear witness to the outstanding progress made by the Tower Hamlets and City of London Area Partnership over the past six years. We look forward to the New Year when we will invite Tower Hamlets and City of London to share their initiatives through our CFEPP Webinar series.

Well done to all!