A new MoJ ‘process evaluation’ of Newham Y2A Probation Hub, a specialist youth to adulthood transitions service, which Barrow Cadbury Trust’s T2A (Transition to Adulthood Alliance) has supported for several years, has concluded that it is a successful model. The process evaluation took two years to look in detail at the implementation of this specialist young adult Hub in East London.  

The model is based on T2A evidence of what works for young adults. Over the last 20 years, T2A has focused on how best justice services can support young adults to build positive lives away from crime. T2A’s core ask is for a distinct service that takes the best elements from youth justice services and develops them for young adult use. These services would be ‘young adult first,’ trauma-informed, strengths-based, and build strong pro-social identities.  

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), with support from the Ministry of Justice, London Probation Service and the Treasury’s Shared Outcomes fund, set up the Hub in March 2022 to respond to the specific needs of young adults on probation in Newham. It was purposefully and carefully designed to meet the specific needs of young adult, with input from young adults themselves. 

The set up 

A purpose-built space was developed so that young adults could be supported separately to older adults. Young adults were consulted during the design stage and all staff had specialist training in trauma-informed practice, neurodiversity, and developmental maturation. Staff worked with young adults on strengths-based and future-focused approaches. Flexibility around breach and enforcement was part of the ethos, and young adults’ successes were celebrated – a model adapted from youth justice services. 

Alongside the mandatory service provided by probation, probation staff also supported young adults to access voluntary sector services such as mentoring and coaching, speech and language support, restorative justice, and housing support, along with education, training, and employment advice.   Those young adults with mental health needs or who face extra neurodiversity challenges could access creative therapy.  

Findings  

Barrow Cadbury Trust’s ambition in supporting this project was that the Hub would be a template for the delivery of probation services to young adults across England and Wales.  

The key finding of the process evaluation, was that the Hub had the potential to shape young adults’ maturational development and enable them to develop self-belief, build resilience, and regulate their behaviour.  

Staff were positive about the impact of the Hub on young adults’ compliance and engagement, notably in the successful completion of sentences, as well as on young adults’ lives. The bedrock of the service is developing responsibility and forward planning skills that are all important for desistance. The evaluation found that staff were well-informed about the specific challenges facing young adults and supported them in responding to trauma in an informed, and person-centred way. Multiple services all on one site meant same day referrals were possible, and there were relatively short waiting times for first appointments, so that momentum built early on and made building relationships easier.   

The evaluation highlighted the difficult life experiences that these young adults have faced in their short lives, including social and economic disadvantage, poverty and racial discrimination, reflecting the fact that Newham is the second most disadvantaged borough in London. Many had high levels of support needs because of their lack of maturity, their thinking, behaviour, attitudes and lifestyles. The evaluators recognised that these adversities and life changes take time to work through and overcome. Practitioners acknowledged this: “It takes time for young people who haven’t had the same benefits, the positive inputs, the positive attachments, the community. If they haven’t had that, they need time, and time isn’t two years … for long lasting change.” 

How the Hub supported young adults 

This model of delivering probation services to young adults, where the emphasis is on preparing them for a stable adulthood and independence, is significantly different to the offer available to older adults. Six core values  – safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment, and inclusivity are the essence of the Hub’s approach.  

Although it is not the function of probation to turn children into adults, probation services can support the goal of reducing offending by assisting in the young person’s journey to independent adulthood. Young adults interviewed had a sense that maturity is something that develops and with the support of the Hub staff they felt empowered to put in place the building blocks to change their lifestyles.  

It wasn’t just the young adults who recognised the benefits of the Hub. Staff welcomed the greater professional autonomy and flexibility they had as well as the advantages of holding pre-breach interviews before proceedings were necessary.   

Young adults found the Hub a safe and welcoming area to engage, both with their probation officer and in therapeutic activities. This holistic approach made a crucial contribution to long-term positive outcomes. The wraparound support gives young adults the space to grow and learn about themselves.  

The evaluation found that the Hub’s emphasises on cultural awareness and gender-specific services was appreciated by staff and young adults. This emphasis ensures that the diverse backgrounds and experiences of individuals are respected and valued, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding. The gender-specific approach recognises the unique needs and challenges faced by women, and how important  tailored support is in a separate space, alongside other women’s services.  

Outcomes/Experiences 

One objective of the hub is to improve partnership working and information sharing between services so that young adults are less likely to fall through the net when children’s services support falls away at 18. The evaluation found that staff were able to develop strong, collaborative, trusted relationships with each other, with a shared purpose, and gain knowledge, formal and informally, from specialist professionals, a greater diversity of partners, as well as tapping into ongoing training and development. Probation officers benefitted from more time with young adults due to smaller caseloads. 

The future 

So far, more than 400 young adults have engaged with probation services in the Y2A Hub. The evaluation has demonstrated that success or failure of the service cannot be captured solely in reoffending data.  T2A agrees with the evaluators that stage-specific services which help young people develop into mature adults are crucial. But we also recognise the importance of finding metrics for a young adult’s growth in their outlook, perceptions, maturity and self-identity. 

The fact that staff and young adults interviewed were unanimously in favour of rolling out similar hubs in other parts of London and more widely is testament to the value of the model and the careful evidence-informed work that went into its planning. This is an innovation that the Government should be grasping with both hands, in line with its mission to “reduce the barriers to opportunity” and its ambition to tackle violence amongst young people.  And the probation service deserves huge credit for putting evidence into practice and in so doing showing that the principles espoused by T2A have benefited young adults involved in the justice system.  

This positive evaluation and the 20 years of T2A’s experience strongly underpin the need for young adults to receive specialist support, delivered in dedicated settings. 

Roger Grimshaw, Research Director at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) carried out research for T2A into how practitioners have been using T2A’s ‘Taking Account of Maturity’ guide which was published in 2013.  His findings have just been published in his report ‘Making Sense of Maturity’.  

In the publication Making Sense of Maturity, research with practitioners and managers shows ways in which the Guide was disseminated and embraced within probation services, and how they see it in the present context. We wanted to find out how the Guide was being used to develop frontline probation practice, to discover any ‘ripple’ effects (for example, on other agencies), to provide a template for monitoring use of the Guide and to scope out directions for future guidance.

Because fieldwork started in 2014, at the point when Transforming Rehabilitation brought abrupt structural changes, the research was delayed as probation grappled with its new priorities. Later, it proved possible to listen to practitioners who were operating with the Guide in the new context that prevails today. Amid the turbulence, the buy-in of senior management to promoting a maturity agenda was a factor in making the Guide a part of practice with young adults, though not all probation areas will have followed the same path. The Guide’s use was enhanced by practice briefings and support which could then chime with organisational delivery, especially by specialist teams.

Maturity looks different from the point of view of probation practice, because there are specific social pathways that have created challenges to the maturity of young adults under supervision.

‘So maturity is fundamental, it’s absolutely fundamental. About 30% of our young people have been in care. 50% of them didn’t finish school. Out of the 50% that did, only 5% got a formal qualification. So the rites of passage that you would normally associate with teenage growth and maturity, they just haven’t hit those milestones.’ (Probation manager)

Missing out on education, going through the care system, having difficulty communicating with agencies: these are just some of the experiences that need to be properly understood. Good communication and the development of trust are vital if young adults are to be engaged. Hence caseloads have to be adjusted to allow time for this sensitive work and other agencies must be fully engaged.

Crucially, the future health of maturity initiatives in probation depends on: an active strategic commitment to developing practice sensitive to the maturity of young adults; and an awareness of the pathways and milestones that a well-informed social policy binding together all agencies should address. If practitioners want to turn those conditions into reality, our research will give them plenty of ammunition and evidence.