COVID-19 Impact Assessment and Initial Recovery Planning – Hillingdon Youth Justice Service (April 2020)

Published:
Summary: Copy of Hillingdon YJS impact assessment to support initial recovery planning.

Aims:

  • Support youth justice services to start considering the needs of the service users and the organisation through and post COVID-19.

Description:
An integral process to recovering planning is completing an impact assessment which support and provide a clear picture of the operational position of current services, any developing backlogs, peaks in demand alongside the anticipated impact of changes in government restrictions and the evolving needs of service users. Hillingdon YJS have provided a copy of their impact assessment as well as a blank version of the same, for other youth justice services to use if they wish.

The impact assessment is structured on the ‘Reinvent’ and ‘Retain’ principles encouraging all managers to reflect on the needs of users and the organisation through the move forward from managing the immediate impact of the pandemic.

Restore – Restore services to how they were prior to the crisis.

Reinvent – Decommission or reshape services put in place to respond to the crisis, bolster services anticipating increased demand or that already have backlogs of work built up during the crisis, bring back some services at a lower level than prior to the crisis or potentially in a different structure/design.

Retain – there may be benefits associated with new ways of working in some services that we would wish to retain as they have been operating in during the crisis. We may also wish to embed any positive organisational change.

The impact assessment is completed by all teams across Hillingdon Local Authority, to help with gaining an understanding of the immediate impact of COVID-19 on each team, an overview of the recovery priorities and implications and initial proposals for recovery actions over two key phases demonstrating how the actions meet the recovery principles and priorities.

Phase 1 – focusing on remaining lockdown period to prepare it for bringing activities/work back on stream, or recommendations to continue operating in a different way.

Phase 2 – post lockdown outline priorities for work programmes, approach to tackling backlogs that may have arisen and approaches to reprioritising activity based on safe working guidelines from public health/central government. Identify operational improvements that can be implemented alongside the transition.

Implementing the practice:

  • Impact assessment was completed in partnership with YJS management staff
  • Impact assessment has been disseminated to all YJS staff
  • Impact assessment is used to form part of a wider children’s services response and recovery plan
  • Impact assessment model has supported the ability to look at the learning and consider shaping of service deliver moving forward.

Contact:

Youth Justice Service: Hillingdon Youth Justice and Adolescent Development Services
Name: Kat Wyatt
Email: hillingdonyos@hillingdon.gov.uk