Delays and funding cuts blight young offender resettlement project

Plans to replace project Daedalus, which provided intensive resettlement support to specially selected inmates from the 30-bed Heron Unit of Feltham young offender institution (YOI), were announced by Mayor of London Boris Johnson in March this year.

An expanded “pan-London” resettlement scheme was due to launch in September on a payment-by-results basis, using £3.5m taken from a £10m fund dedicated to the Mayor’s Youth Programme.

But CYP Now has learned that the resettlement project is yet to launch, and the amount of funding available for the scheme will now be significantly less than the £3.5m announced by Johnson.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has revealed that funding for the Mayor’s Youth Programme has now dropped to £8.3m, made up of £4.15m in European Social Fund money, match-funded with £4.15m of GLA cash, not the £10m announced in February when organisations were invited to tender for the work.

Last week £5.75m of contracts were announced for other elements of the Youth Programme – including projects to help disabled young people and those that have been excluded from school to gain employment. These were also due to launch in September.

That leaves a maximum of £2.55m for the pan-London resettlement project, which, unless additional funding is announced, is 27 per cent less cash than organisations were told they would be bidding for.

That figure could be even lower given that the prospectus document for potential providers, published in February, stated that £500,000 of the Youth Programme grant total would be held back for other costs.

Organisations had been invited to bid for three payment-by-results contracts to deliver the programme, in 11 boroughs across central and south London (£1.15m), 11 boroughs in east and north London (£1.35m), and 11 boroughs in south west and west London (£997,000).

The prospectus said that successful providers would be paid just five per cent of the money up front, while 20 per cent of the cash would be released based on numbers of young people taking part.

A further 30 per cent of the contract is dependent on how many young people enter employment, education or training, with the remainder paid when young offenders reach so-called “engagement milestones” of 26 weeks and 52 weeks.

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “We welcomed the end of the Daedalus scheme in Feltham, as there were serious concerns about the design of the project and the effectiveness of the work being done in the Heron Unit.

"Indeed, the mayor got into some difficulty with the UK Statistics Authority when over-claiming on success around reoffending rates.

“Nonetheless, it is concerning to hear that the successor to Daedalus is running into potential funding difficulties and we hope this does not weaken the commitment to investing in the resettlement of young people leaving custody.”

A spokeswoman for the GLA said details of the new resettlement project would be announced “in due course” and should be published by Christmas at the latest.

Ray Hill, deputy chief executive and head of secure accommodation at the Youth Justice Board (YJB), said the Mayor's resettlement programme for young offenders should "further enhance" support for effective resettlement and added that the YJB is continuing to support Heron as a resettlement unit.

"The YJB is committed to developing effective resettlement proposals for young people leaving custody and helping to give them the best opportunity to improve their life chances," he said.