Background

Youth offending teams (YOTs) were established by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 as multi-agency partnerships hosted by local authorities. The Act imposes a duty to cooperate upon local authority children’s services, the police, probation, and health services, recognising that all these agencies need to work together and play their part in preventing offending. Senior leaders from these agencies are expected to serve on YOT boards, and are expected to allocate enough staff to operationalise the YOT. Other statutory and voluntary agencies, who can add value to the lives of the children being supervised, as part of a ‘whole-system approach’, may be invited to participate in the YOT at board and operational levels.

Summary of the evidence

Multi-agency working

A 2011 evidence summary defined partnership, or multi-agency, working as ‘a co-operative relationship between two or more organisations to achieve a common goal’. The research indicated that multi-agency working was an effective way to tackle crime and disorder problems and identified the critical success factors as:

• strong leadership demonstrating the shared vision, values and norms of all partners
• data sharing and problem focus with regular information exchange and an analytically-led approach (involving researchers)
• communication and co-location of agencies and staff, with regular contact
• flexible structures involving all relevant agencies, with clear monitoring and accountability mechanisms
• experienced staff from all agencies, trained and skilled in partnership working.

It should not be assumed that good multi-agency working can be easily achieved. The performance regimes and policy expectations of partner agencies can conflict, and there can be misunderstandings and differing conceptualisations of children’s issues. Organisational cultures can be highly divergent between those with an enforcement focus, and those with more of a welfare and support mission. Finally, multi-agency working can dilute individual agency responsibility for managing cases effectively; there can be a loss of drive and focus to achieve results. Key barriers and challenges have been helpfully summarised in a 2021 strategic briefing as follows:

• organisations having different visions, priorities and agendas
• problems being understood and framed through different language, terminology and definitions
• competition over owning or receiving the credit for positive outcomes
• competition for scarce resources, compounded by short-term and narrowly defined funding streams
• high levels of stress and anxiety amongst staff, driving cultures of distrust and defensiveness
• legal and ethical issues around sharing data, and an over-reliance on decontextualised, partial data.

A systems approach moves away from silo working to working across the whole system. It is imperative as part of this approach that there is leadership across the system and that there is a defined vision for what is trying to be achieved, which is well articulated and communicated to all stakeholders. The need for distributed leadership has also been highlighted so that everyone is working towards the common vision and so that that all can act and have influence.

Leadership models and traits

Research respondents have highlighted the importance of supportive, purposeful, value-led and knowledge-grounded leaders who help staff to feel valued and safe and who inspire confidence. There is evidence that compassionate leadership results in more engaged and motivated staff with high levels of wellbeing, which in turn results in high-quality delivery.

For leadership to be compassionate, it must also be inclusive with a focus on relationships. Inclusive leadership is about creating a culture that respects all staff at all levels of the organisation, so that trust thrives and everyone feels valued and respected. People are encouraged to bring their authentic experiences, values and history to work, and there is a focus on equitable treatment, seeking different perspectives and helping everyone to achieve their full potential. The organisational culture in place is one of involvement, transparency, ownership, empowerment and improvement, with staff fully engaged.

There are overlaps with the five commitments of Optimistic Leaders, developed by Leading for Children. Within these five commitments, there is a focus on the importance of healthy, trusting and productive relationships within and across all roles and settings, with regular two-way communication being seen as key to maintaining these positive relationships. The commitments also cover the need for self-awareness and a curious and open mind to invite learning.

Strengths-based leadership emphasises the need for leaders to know and develop their own strengths and to invest in others’ strengths, helping to produce well-rounded teams. Leaders should also be outward-facing, promoting the successful work of the YOT to other key agencies and the wider community, building relationships and creating a positive penal culture. In the same way that a whole systems approach promotes understanding of the individual child in the context of their life, leadership can be considered in terms of differing levels.

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Last updated: 10 March 2023