Statement of Intent - Outcomes for young people

Government priority

Get troubled youth back on track and help young people achieve their potential.

Outcomes

• Young people are in education, training, work or other worthwhile activities
• Young people who get into trouble stop offending.

To achieve this we will:

• strengthen our youth justice response
• help young people successfully transition to adulthood
• support young people to achieve their potential.

Departmental output expenses that contribute

Vote Social Development

• Care and Protection Services
  - Output: Investigation and Assessment
  - Output: Case Management
  - Output: Children in Care
  - Output: Resolution Services
  - Output: Court-ordered Assessments and Reports under other Enactments
• Family and Community Services
  - Output: Development and Management of Early Intervention and Preventative
  Social Services Programmes
• Management of Student Support
  - Output: Student Allowances
  - Output: Student Loans
  - Output: Administration of Grants and Scholarships
• Policy Advice and Support to Ministers (MCOA)
• Social Policy Advice Output Class
  - Output: Ministerial Servicing
  - Output: Social Services Policy Advice
  - Output: Strategic Social Policy Advice
  Crown Entity Monitoring Output Class
• Prevention Services
• Youth Justice Services
  - Output: Case Management (Youth Justice)
  - Output: Placement and Detention
  - Output: Restorative Services
  

Vote Youth Development

• Youth Development
  - Output: Youth Development Policy Advice
  - Output: Facilitating Young People's Voices
  - Output: Enabling Youth Development
  

Young people are in education, training, work or other worthwhile activities

We know that young people are most successful when they are purposefully engaged. We will provide opportunities for young people to participate in activities that will help them become successful adults.

We help young people who want to further their education by providing access to student loans, student allowances and scholarships for tertiary education. We will develop systems to provide them with as much advice as possible so they can make informed decisions.

For those young people who are keen to go straight to work we will provide employment-readiness training, development opportunities, and financial support to help them get into good jobs.

Over the next three years we will:

• Get young people into tertiary education, training, work, and other meaningful activities, such as volunteering and mahi aroha. This will help young people to become successful adults.
• Work on behalf of young people by devising policies and legislative processes around issues affecting them.
• Provide students with information and online tools so they can make informed decisions about their study and its funding.
• Identify areas of demand for skills and prepare job-seekers to meet these demands. We will do this by working with nationally significant employers and by working with iwi, Maori and Pacific communities to develop programmes that enhance employment outcomes for Maori and Pacific people, especially youth.
• Provide 16 and 17 year olds with entitlements to free
  school-level education from a wide range of institutions, including polytechnics, wananga and private training establishments. We will work with the Ministry of Education to achieve this.
• Expand opportunities for school-based apprenticeships, and enhanced trades and technology-based learning opportunities. We will work with the Ministry of Education to achieve this.
• Make the Young Parent Childcare payment available to all young parents not receiving any other financial assistance so they can complete their education.
• Investigate how maatua whangai should develop within Child, Youth and Family.

Young people who get into trouble stop offending

Most young people deal effectively with the challenges they face growing up. Others need more help. Youth at risk of entering the youth justice system need support and guidance to quickly get them on the right track. More intensive programmes are needed to ensure those already in the youth justice system don't enter the adult criminal justice system, where offending behaviour becomes more engrained.

The youth justice system deals effectively with most children and young people who break the law. We require a stronger and more in-depth approach for the most serious, and recidivist, offenders.

From 2010, the Fresh Start reforms will go further than providing a more effective response to serious offending. Fresh Start will deliver a comprehensive step-change to the way the youth justice system responds to all young offenders.
 
The Fresh Start legislation will ensure any measures for dealing with offending by young people will seek to address the underlying causes of the offending. Those children and young people at risk of being drawn into crime will benefit from the greater emphasis on self-discipline, personal responsibility and community values in the Fresh Start approach.

Over the next three years we will:

• Implement the Fresh Start package so we can work more intensively with young offenders to help them turn their lives around. The package will give the Youth Court a range of options to tailor individual programmes for youth.
• Increase the length of residential stays for serious offenders. We will open a new youth justice facility, increasing bed capacity from 110 to 150. We will also invest more in activity programmes, treatment foster homes, military-style activity camps, and the supported bail programme.
• Respond to the results of the Drivers of Crime Ministerial Meeting.
• Increase Supervision with Activity and other wrap-around activities to help young people develop self-discipline, personal responsibility and community values. We will work with new and existing providers to help us do this.

How we will show progress

We want young people to stay out of the youth justice system. When they do come to the attention of the system, we don't want them to enter the adult criminal justice system.

The following indicators have been selected to highlight the number of young people who have come to the attention of the youth justice system once, and the number who re-offend. The logic is that effective youth justice services help to reduce the recurrence of youth offending.

Indicators - Children are safe. Systems are in place to care for and protect children in at-risk families

Indicators - Young people who get into trouble stop offending

Detailed information about the Ministry's performance in this area is contained in the Information Supporting the Estimates and in the 2009/2010 Output Plan.