The Children's Trust Joint Committee is scheduled to meet to discuss the Northamptonshire Youth Justice Plan, the Northamptonshire Children's Trust's contract sum outturn and savings for 2024/25, and the forecast position and savings for 2025/26. The meeting will be held in the Jeffrey Room, The Guildhall, St Giles Square, Northampton.

Northamptonshire Youth Justice Plan 2025/26

The committee will be asked to approve the content of the Northamptonshire Youth Justice Plan 2025/26, note the Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service priorities for 2025/26, and recommend that both North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) and West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) consider the plan.

The Youth Justice Plan is a statutory requirement under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998¹, and must include information on how youth justice services are provided and funded, how the Youth Justice Service (YJS) will be resourced and operated, and what functions it will carry out.

The Northamptonshire YJS priorities for 2025-26 are:

• Strengthening support for victims, especially young victims, and improving restorative justice delivery.
• Actively tackling disproportionality, particularly for Black and Mixed children and young people, and care-experienced children and young people, ensuring equity and belonging.
• Preventing serious youth violence through community-informed strategies and contextual safeguarding².
• Addressing poor educational engagement, where over 40% of Northamptonshire Youth Justice Service (NYJS) engagement involved children who were missing education for more than half the allotted time.
• Expanding the Voice4Change youth forum, developing new mentoring schemes, and identity-based interventions to support personal development and inclusion.

The report pack notes that the Youth Justice Board (YJB) welcomes plans that cover more than one year, but that the YJS is prevented from innovating and ensuring the document is child friendly and accessible to all, because of the detailed approach taken by the YJB for the completion of the plan.

The report pack also contains the Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service Youth Justice Plan 2024-25 as an appendix. The 2024 plan states that the Northamptonshire youth justice system has undergone a remarkable transformation, as evidenced by the exceptional results of the 2023 HMIP inspection, which rated the service as 'Good' with 'Outstanding' features. The 2024 plan also states that the Turnaround programme, which provides families and children at risk of offending with tailored support and interventions, is a shining example of success. The 2024 plan states that while the Ministry of Justice have stated they will not fund the program after March 2025 the success of this project is recognised by NYOS Management Board, and the Board is committed to identifying funds from partner agencies to embed this program in the core offer of NYOS.

Northamptonshire Children's Trust 2024/25 Contract Sum Outturn and Savings

The committee will be asked to note the Northamptonshire Children's Trust's (NCT) draft outturn for 2024/25, which is £13.899m above the original contract sum, and includes the non-delivery of £1.740m of red rated savings relating to joint transformation projects. They will also be asked to note that the overall impact on the councils increases to £16.167m above the original contract sum when items totalling £2.268m, which relate to items outside of the contract sum, are included.

The report pack states that in accordance with the Service Delivery Contract (SDC), the councils agreed a 2024/25 Contract Sum of £183.300m with NCT for the delivery of its services. The Contract Sum for 2024/25 was split into three blocks:

• Block 1: Core Contract Sum £177.429m
• Block 2: Agreed Transformation Costs £2.580m
• Block 3: Transformation and Efficiency (T & E) Fund £3.291m

The report pack notes that the Transformation and Efficiency (T&E) Fund was managed by the councils, and that through the change control process, the councils released £1.546m from the agreed T&E Fund to the Trust. As a result, the Contract Sum was revised to £181.661m, which includes an additional £0.106m approved for support services.

The Contract Sum for 2024/25 included the delivery of £9.045m of savings identified by the Trust. This figure was reduced to £8.895m as £0.150m related to accommodation savings funded through the support services agreement. NCT have reported that £5.805m were delivered and, meaning joint transformation savings of £3.090m were not delivered. These savings related to development of local provision (£0.663m), accommodation for care leavers (£0.627m), recruitment of foster carers (0.3m) and Joint Funding (£1.5m).

The report pack states that pressures in the outturn for 2024/25 will need to be funded by the councils, based on the contract split of 44.16% for North Northamptonshire Council and 55.84% for West Northamptonshire Council.

Northamptonshire Children's Trust 2025/26 Forecast Position and Savings

The committee will be asked to note NCT's Period 4 forecast of £12.504m above the original contract sum, and the change control request, and that the forecast pressure of £12.504m reduces to £11.244m following the agreed change control request of £1.260m.

The report pack notes that in accordance with the Service Delivery Contract (SDC) the councils agreed a Contract Sum for 2025/26 of £185.651m. A change control request has been agreed for £1.260m, to support the changes to the National Insurance thresholds, and the additional 0.5% pay inflation. A further change control request for £4.518m relating to the joint funding contribution savings, and structural demands, is to be reviewed at the midway point of the year.

The forecast outturn as of 31 July 2025 is £198.155m against an original contract sum of £185.651m resulting in a net pressure to the councils of £12.504m. After allowing for the change control request, the pressure to the Children's Trust would reduce to £11.244m; however, the cost pressure to the councils remains as £12.760m.

The Contract Sum for 2025/26 included a Savings Delivery Programme of £12.233m. At the end of July 2025 (Period 4), £3.195m (26.1%) of the savings had been delivered and were RAG rated as green, £9.038m (73.9%) were RAG rated as amber this includes Joint Transformation initiatives with the councils which amount to £3.404m.

The report pack states that if mitigations are not identified, then the pressure would ultimately fall back to the councils to fund, and that funding of pressures is based on the contract split of 44.16% for NNC and 55.84% for WNC. The report pack also notes that placement costs have been identified to each of the councils 51% for NNC and 49% for WNC.