Future Directions project
Our new Future Directions project will be a 12-month pilot. This aims to provide a coordinated approach to responding to serious youth violence in Southampton. This it to support young people most at risk. This project is aligning our Contextual Safeguarding and Focused Deterrence approaches.
What is Focused Deterrence?
The Focused Deterrence approach looks at focusing support on a small number of individuals. Those who are at higher risk of violence. This is done in three key ways:
- Offering intensive support
- Engaging the community to address the social conditions that are driving violence
- Providing fair, proportionate police responses to deter further violence
The program seeks to offer tailored support and consistency for children. This is by building long-term professional relationships. As well as providing commitment to those within the cohort.
Why have we chosen this approach in Southampton?
This is an approach that has been piloted in some other areas before. It has shown very positive outcomes for young people. This includes significant reductions in involvement in violence or being victims of violence.
Southampton City Council has developed a Contextual Safeguarding team. They have been undertaking an innovative response to risk outside the home. They target the spaces and places where concerns about extrafamilial harm have been identified. The Contextual Safeguarding team will be working closely alongside the Future Directions Program. They will undertake assessments of peer groups, places and spaces linked to presenting risks. They will also be key to the coordination of the community voice and engagement.
Who will the children work with?
The Future Directions team is made up of:
- Young Person Practitioner (YPP)
- Specialist Future Directions police
- An oversight from the Contextual Safeguarding team
Who are the YPPs and what do they do?
The Future Directions YPPs will be based within the Contextual Safeguarding team. This is alongside practitioners focused on context responses, as well as dedicated police colleagues.
Each YPP will work with 10–15 young people and provide:
- Weekly or more contact, providing relational and outreach-based support
- Young person-led planning that develops over time. Planning which is focused on their strengths, needs, goals, and interests
- Targeted support linked to education, training, employment, identity building, and community connections
- Responsive critical moment interventions, especially if risks escalate
- Consistent positive messaging around safety, responsibility, and consequences, coordinated with police
- A trauma-informed, systemic approach. One which ties in with broader contextual responses to where harm is occurring. Such as peer groups, schools, communities and neighbourhoods
What about the role of police?
Each young person and their family will also be visited by a dedicated police officer. They will clearly communicate:
- Why they have been selected
- The concerns relating to serious youth violence
- What the consequences may be if involvement in violence continues
- Building trust and reinforcing the support offer and opportunity this presents
Police will work within a fair and proportionate way to support children towards positive outcomes. This will align with the child first approach.
What does procedurally-just policing mean?
Procedurally-just policing relates to ensuring that police work in a way that is seen by members of the public to be fair. This is achieved by ensuring that any response made by police is proportionate to what has occurred. And that this assists in building trust with young people, their families and communities.
What support may be offered?
Any support given will be bespoke to the needs and wants of the young person. However, the following areas will be actively considered for each child:
- Learning skills, accreditation and work, and one-to-one tuition
- Weekly support and positive activities
- Opportunities for parents to come together, gain support and learn strategies
- Place, peer group, school context interventions
- HAF activities over the summer period