RYOGENS

Nobody knows yet who will win the contract for establishing the children database, but amongst the contenders is Deloitte with a system called RYOGENS – ‘Risk of Youth Offending Generic Solution’. This was originally piloted as an IRT system for children thought to be at risk of offending, and was supported by the Youth Justice Board. The emphasis gradually changed and it is now being marketed as a full IRT system in its own right.

There is a pretty good indication of the kind of issues that ‘professionals’ will be asked to flag on children’s files in the RYOGENS Toolkit at http://www.ryogens.org.uk/useful_resources/solution_process.html

It’s a bit like re-visiting the Connexions APIR document. ‘Professionals’ are asked to judge whether a child is keeping the right sort of company and doing the right sort of things in his spare time; what constitutes ‘bad’ or ‘dangerous’ behaviour; whether parents are up to scratch and delivering the national parenting curriculum, and so on.

Then there’s the Kafka-esque ‘denies involvement in crime/antisocial behaviour’, and the thought-crime of ‘has intent to harm others’ as opposed to actually harming others. And if you’re broke whilst living in a run-down flat in a ‘high-crime area’ you can probably expect an ‘intervention’. Like a decent flat and more money, perhaps?

Of course, at the moment information is only shared with a person’s consent. But just in case someone withholds their consent, there’s a handy list of the bits of law that get ‘professionals’ round that thorny problem. If the Children Bill gets through, of course none of that will be necessary.