Evaluation of the Placement Outcomes - Essay Example

Organization background and policy

Youth offending service is a multi-agency service consisting of probation officers, social workers, police officers and staff with health education background. The primary aim shared by all youth offending teams nationally is to prevent offending and reoffending by children and young people aged 10-18 years. As defined by legislation, the role of the Youth offending service include; working with young people and children at risk of entering the criminal justice system for the first time, thereby delivering interventions to try and divert them from offending behavior. Youth offending service is also purposed to coordinate all youth justice services in Buckinghamshire, prepare reports to the court to advise on the available services and to assist in decision making pertaining the sentencing of the young people (Barry, 2010).

The Buckinghamshire Youth offending service equally has a function of assessing the young people who have received a court or police disposal, designing an individualized intervention program to assess and address the issue that had led them to the offense. The Youth offending service engages with parents and carers and helps them to support their young persons in moving away from offending behavior. Additionally, the Youth offending service works with victims of juvenile crime, offering advice, information, and opportunity to share with the young person the effects of the offense on them. The Youth offending service works within the perimeters of the guidelines set by the national youth justice board.

Youth offending service as an organization operates under the guidelines of policies, and during my placement in the organization, I categorically researched on the risk to children policy. My placement outcome revealed that Buckinghamshire Youth offending service has a robust risk management procedure, which is critical for the support of the organization’s commitment to protecting the public from offending behavior while at the same time safeguarding the well-being of all children and young people who enter into the justice system. In this regard, the criminal justice system has a procedure that ensures young people who pose a risk to other younger people are monitored and have an effective risk and intervention plan in place (Farrow, 2010).

Based on the risk to children policy, in 2004, a multi-agency working group conducted a review of the schedule 1 offenders and the team agreed that it should be replaced by offender who has been identified as posing a risk to children, and to follow these offenders a systematic procedure was designed which begins by checking if offence is a triggered offence for assessment of “risk to children”. After identifying that the offense possesses a risk to a child, the policy demands a completion of a risk of social harm and a risk management plan, which is followed by informing a line manager of the need for countersigning.

If the young person is assessed as high risk of re-offending, vulnerability or serious harm, and meets the MAPPA criteria, the policy demands complete referral and sending to the operational manager for countersigning. Moreover, the risk to children policy requires that the risk to children characteristics should be entered in the young person’s information system’s front screen at the assessment stage, and the process ends by notifying child protection administrator Bucks CC of the young person identified as a risk to children (Schaefer, Rodriguez, & Decker, 2014).

The risk to children policy was meant to protect children from young persons who possess harmful behavior that could be inflicted on the children. Moreover, the policy was curved to help in the rehabilitation of the young persons who may be harmful to the children through identification of the individual and giving an appropriate referral to the appropriate rehabilitation institution. In this regard, the risk to children policy is aimed at the protection of both the children from harm as well as to the young person who is entering the criminal justice system.

In as much as the risk to children, the policy provides a systematic methodology of identification referral and rehabilitation of the young persons who present a risk to children through their behavior; the policy needs some minor amendments to ensure it conclusively covers all areas of the young persons’ behavior that may pose a risk to children. Owing to the current status of the policy, the first process in the identification of the young persons who may pose a risk to the children is to assess if the offense they have committed is of risk to the children. Nevertheless, this protocol lacks inclusiveness that can help in bringing to book all young persons who may present a risk to the children (Schaefer et al., 2014).

Based on my analysis of the policy, I propose an amendment to be made on the policy in such a manner that the historical background of an individual should be assessed for any young person who enters the criminal justice for the first time, other than just assessing the historical background of the crime committed by the individual as a basis for assessing its merit to child risk. In this regard, an individual’s current crime might not directly pose a risk to a child, however, upon scrutiny of young person’s background social and medical history, such as history of hyperactivity, history of bullying in school or history of aggressive behavior could be an indication that the young person could be a risk to children.

Therefore, in my proposal for amendment in the policy, there should be widening of the spectrum by the Buckinghamshire Youth offending service to incorporate the social and medical history of the young person who commits an offense as a basis of inclusion criteria for ascertaining that the person presents a risk to the children. Any young person who fits into the wider spectrum should then follow the process of referral to rehabilitation agencies.

Results of the placement

Working as a volunteer appropriate adult in the Buckinghamshire Youth offending service, I was able to achieve multivariate of interventions, that have not only increased my level of awareness in the criminal justice system but has also motivated me on the need for transformation of the young adults from being offenders to being change agents. One of the critical achievement I made as a volunteer appropriate adult was to identify and make a follow-up on a young adult who posed a risk to children, an intervention that ended with a recommendation for rehabilitation of the individual.

Working as a volunteer appropriate adult, I found communication skills to be one of the most critical skills a person is demanded of. Based on communication skills, a volunteer appropriate adult must be an effective listener, to be able to understand the course of action of a young offender, as the basis for formulating an action plan for helping the young person. Moreover, a volunteer appropriate adult must be able to engage with the young person in a free and non-tensed atmosphere to be able to win the trust of the young person. This will facilitate information gathering, which will ultimately form the basis for an intervention.

I equally found communication skills particularly important as it impacts the ability to explain to the young person the police caution and any other procedure in an understandable language. Other than communication skills, I found motivation to be essential for the work of a volunteer appropriate adult. Motivation gives a volunteer appropriate adult an interest in young people and their welfare, which is important in designing the appropriate mechanism for their reformation (Schaefer et al., 2014).

Significance of the work placement

The work placement has been significant both to my personal and professional life. Prior to my entry into the work placement, I had expectations of effectively presenting a young person who did not have a representative like a parent or a caregiver in his or her first encounter with the criminal justice system as well as to amalgamate the theoretical contents of the course to the practical dimensions. In my initial weeks working as a Volunteer Appropriate Adults, I experienced significant challenges in the identification and classification of different categories of youth offenders. Nevertheless, working with dedicated and supportive team members, I was able to overcome these challenges after being guided through the identification and classification protocol.

My placement as a Volunteer Appropriate Adults equally helped me in discovering my strengths as a person. The placement program was a rigorous process that required commitment and reliability. As a Volunteer Appropriate Adult, it was expected of an individual to be willing to participate in a Rota-system for appropriate adults and willingness to be called out on a short notice to attend the police station as part of the Rota-system. Initially, I thought I would be incompetent to meet the commitment and reliability requirements of the program, but owing to my high level of motivation to help the young adults and children, I discovered my strength as a committed and a reliable personality. Moreover, the placement work helped me to amalgamate the theoretical concepts learned in the course content to the practical aspect, which has made it simple for me to understand and appreciate the role of a Volunteer Appropriate Adults in the criminal justice system.

Contribution to the organization

During my placement at the Buckinghamshire Youth offending service, I contributed in proposing an amendment to the risk to children policy. In as much as the amendment of a policy takes a systematic approach of consultations and deliberations, I believe my proposal for the amendment of the policy is just a beginning of the many steps that the amendment process must undergo. Nevertheless, if the policy is amended, I believe more children will be safer as the policy would widen the spectrum for the identification of the offenders who have a potential risk behavior to the children.

Other than policy amendment proposal, I actively participated in the representation of the organization in police proceedings with youth offenders, which I believe immensely contributed to the integrity of the organization. Additionally, as a Volunteer Appropriate Adult, I was able to employ my personality traits of personal integrity, discretion, clear and firm approach to offenders and crime as well as respect for different ethnic, culture and social background to my placement work. With the inclusion of my positive traits into the placement process, I believe my actions effectively contributed to upholding the integrity and worth of the organization.

Conclusion about the experience

My experience as a Volunteer Appropriate Adults appropriate adult gave me a lot of insight into Erick Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development. According to the stages of psychosocial development, most young people (13-19 years) are in the stage of identity versus role confusion. This, therefore, is a special category of individuals who must be handled with care as a means of avoiding role confusion and curving out an identity for the individuals. The placement work thus sensitized me on the need for having a conducive environment for engaging the young adults and children on social issues affective them as a means of preventing them from entering the criminal justice system.

Based on my experience with the Buckinghamshire Youth offending service, I feel competent to handle the challenges of a volunteer appropriate adult, and I believe I am up to the task in representing children and young persons who do not have representatives in their first encounter with the criminal justice system. Additionally, I feel the placement work has helped to horn my communication skills as well as acted as a critical process in shaping my personality. This is owing to the fact that the placement process has given me an opportunity to relate with and work with others, listen to advise and views from others as well as enhanced patience and maturity in my arguments and reasoning.

Critical analysis

During the placement work, working as a team, we were not able to effectively map out and represent all the young adults who were entering the criminal justice system for the first time. This is owing to the fact that there were few personnel and resources allocated for the mapping and follow-up process. Mapping of young people with offending behavior needs sufficient amount of resources for traveling and logistics; nevertheless, a hitch in the budget for the resources was the key reason for the inability to map, represent and follow up the young offenders.

Nevertheless, it was identified that the is a need to conduct appropriate budgeting as a means of ensuring availability of funds to aid the operations of volunteer appropriate adults throughout the fiscal year. Moreover, I think the management of the Buckinghamshire Youth offending service should have had a supplementary budget to fill gaps in budgeting hence the move would have facilitated the activities of volunteer appropriate adults.

Nevertheless, the placement program had a multivariate of its success story following the representation and follow-up of minors and young adults who are making contact with the criminal justice system for the first time. The program was able to help in making contacts with the offending young adults and effectively represent them in police stations as well as prepare court reports. The achievement of this can be attributed to the formation of effective collaboration among the team members in Buckinghamshire Youth offending service. Working as a team could be applauded as the core reason for success in the objectives of the program (Smithson, Wilcox, & Monchuk, 2010).

Additionally, other than team corporation, possession of effective skills and attitudes such as communication skills, motivation, sound temperament, commitment and reliability as common values in the organization, to a great deal contributed to the achievement of the objectives of the organization. Nevertheless, for continual success of the organization, there is a need for periodic training and seminars to equip the team members with the latest knowledge and information on the mannerism of handling and representing the young offenders.

My previous theoretical knowledge on young offenders was very instrumental in the placement work, is it helped in setting the groundwork for understanding the pattern of handling the young offenders and how to rehabilitate them from offensive behavior. During my placement, I formed a close working relationship with my immediate supervisor and other team members, a fact that I attribute to the much I learned during my placement period (Bechtel, Lowenkamp, & Latessa, 2007).