Checking services for young people who drink alcohol and get into trouble In England and Wales

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1 Checking services for young people who drink alcohol and get into trouble In England and Wales Original document title: A Joint Inspection of Youth Alcohol Misuse and Offending, by the Care Quality Commission, Her Majesty s Inspectorate of Probation, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and Estyn EasyRead

2 About this report This is an Easy Read report on some inspections. It is about the services that help young people who drink alcohol and then get into trouble with the police. We checked these services to see if they were doing a good job. We are a group of organisations who joined together to do this check. Our names and the names of the services we checked are all listed at the end of this report. If you want more information or more details, there is a longer version of this report. You can get this from: We have put some words in bold and said what they mean in a box like this. 1

3 We know that lots of young people with a drink problem get into trouble with the police. We checked services in England and Wales to find out what is being done already and what more needs to be done to help young people to: drink less x get back to good health x not get into trouble. 2

4 How bad is this problem? Children and young people are now drinking alcohol less overall. But there are now twice as many people who are dying from drinking too much as there were 20 years ago. We know that young people, who are drinking, are: starting younger drinking more drinking more often. 3

5 They are then getting into trouble. Young people who drink are: behaving badly being aggressive destroying things getting into fights and hurting others. This is often called anti-social behaviour and can be against the law. 4

6 Young people who drink can have other problems. They: often fall over and hurt themselves are less responsible about sex forget to use condoms get sexual infections. 5

7 Young people who drink can have more problems with: learning and remembering things their livers as they get older their bones as they get older. These things can affect how good their life is as adults. We are worried about young people who drink too much. We don't want to see more people dying or getting into trouble. 6

8 There are new guides out to help organisations which are working with the young people who drink and get into trouble. We wanted to check to see how well these organisations are working and if they are following the guides. The next section tells you what we found. 7

9 What did we find out and what needs to be done? We looked at Youth Offending Teams. These teams help young people who might get into trouble with the police or, if they already have, try to help them so they don t do it again. The Youth Offending Team or YOTs as they are called for short, includes the Police, probation service, social services, health, education,, drugs and alcohol misuse services. We looked at 3 types of work that YOTs do: 1. assessments 2. how young people were helped 3. what other things were done well or not so well. 8

10 Here is what we found out. 1. Assessments An Assessment looks at: the things in their life that might cause the young person to offend what risk they are to other people ways to help the young person to stop them offending again. What was done well? Assessments were done on time. Young people and their families were involved. 9

11 They thought about and included the needs of people from black and ethnic minorities. They looked to see if there were risks to other people. They checked to see if the young person had a drink problem as part of the assessment. What was not done so well? Only half the assessments were seen to be good. Health checks didn't cover enough things, this meant that drink problems were sometimes not picked up. 10

12 Where problems were picked up, there was not enough of a link between drinking too much and health problems. The people who did the assessments didn't always agree that drugs or drink had caused the young person to break the law. Assessments were not checked often enough. What needs to change? Assessments need to be checked more often. They need to tell you about the person and what should be done to help them. 11

13 Assessments need to say more about things like: has the person taken drugs or drink? how is their health? do they have any speech or language needs? All the details about the young person s drug or drink problems and when they have broken the law need to go onto the official computer system. 12

14 2. How the young people were helped What was done well? Information about drugs and alcohol was being given out. But often it was more about drug problems. Young people were involved in the plans being made to help them. The mental health service was used best when the Youth Offending Team had good links with them. Most workers made sure people did what the court had told them to do. As young people got older they moved to adult services. This worked well where they had a special worker for this, called a transition worker. Transition is about moving to another service. Usually from children s to adult services. 13

15 What was not done so well? The reasons for home visits were not always clear in the records. In some areas the move to adult services was not so good. Often we didn't know if the young person had been helped by services or not. x Even when someone was helped, others were not always told about it. 14

16 What needs to change? Plans to help the young person must be checked to see if they are working. If not, they need to be changed, especially if they are about better health. The young person should be checked to see if they: might still hurt themselves or other people are still likely to drink and break the law again. The move to adult services must make sure that treatment continues. Adult services need to make sure that young people don t have to wait too long and are offered the right sort of treatment. 15

17 3. Other things we found out What was done well? Young people and their families got on well with the Youth Offending Teams and health workers. Young people were asked what they thought about services. What was not done so well? x Parents and carers were not always asked what they thought. x Sometimes agencies worked well together and told each other what was happening, sometimes they didn t. Some Youth Offending Teams did not have enough staff and the people wanting a job did not have the right experience. 16

18 What needs to change? We need more work on how to deal with drug and drink problems in the future. People who need a lot of help should be seen and given it more quickly. 17

19 Who supports young people with drink problems? The Youth Offending Team, this includes the Police, probation service, social services, health, education, drugs and alcohol misuse staff. The Substance Misuse Service helps people who have drug and drink problems. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAHMS) helps young people with mental health problems. This is when someone does not feel well in their mind and their thoughts. 18

20 Who checked these services? The Care Quality Commission checks that health and adult social care services are doing a good job. Her Majesty s Inspectorate of Probation works with young people who have broken the law. They try to stop them from doing it again and help protect the public from harm. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales checks health care in Wales and makes sure that services are good. Estyn makes sure Welsh education and training is good. 19

21 Credits This paper has been designed and produced for the Care Quality Commission by the EasyRead service at Inspired Services Publishing Ltd. Ref ISL077/10. June Artwork is from the Valuing People Clipart collection and cannot be used anywhere else without written permission from Inspired Services Publishing Ltd. To contact Inspired Services: 20