Darren was arrested at 3am after committing a house burglary. He was 12and already known to the youth justice team following previousconvictions. We had many concerns about the level of parental care hewas getting, which was bordering on neglect. We had done our best toalert social services to these concerns but they did not believe therewas significant risk and were not involved with him.
After being arrested, Darren was kept in a police cell overnight andremanded to court the next day. Our enquiries revealed his parents hadleft him home alone at the weekend. They said they would "have him back"but we were concerned that if he went home, not only would there stillbe a question mark over his care but would be at a high risk ofreoffending.
In court, the prosecution were looking for remand to the care of thelocal authority and we supported this. However, we knew that due tolimited resources a child on remand in care may well be placed backhome.
Our assessment was that Darren urgently required alternative care tokeep him out of secure remand. But we knew social services might take adifferent view. So we used the courts to force their hand - we putforward a bail condition which prevented Darren from returning to theparental home.
The court agreed to follow this route. Some may say the criminal justicesystem was hijacked to push one case ahead of another. Some may say weshould have had more faith in multi-agency working. But we felt that itwas not doing its job and that using the court was a legitimate courseof action. It was a situation where one agency held all the resourcesbut was reluctant to put them to use. There was a chronic issue thatsocial services were not addressing and we felt that this was the bestway of ensuring that Darren's case was given the urgent attention itmerited.
Now, Darren's needs are being taken more seriously by socialservices.
But if we had not devised the additional condition we are fairly certainDarren would have returned to his home life with only the youth justiceteam working to address his welfare and reduce the risk ofreoffending.
- Have you ever faced a tough professional choice? Call Stovin Hayter on020 8267 4767 or email stovin.hayter@haynet.com.
