One Spirit – Update June 2024

Since the easing of Pandemic restrictions (2022) One Spirit has developed and extended its delivery to weekly provision in 5 establishments, both custodial and alternative provision education, and intensified its community offering, including curating Release on Temporary Licence provision for young people referred from HMYOI Feltham and Cookham Wood, as well as working with young people referred from custody and/or Children and Families agencies (YOT, Social Care etc) in local authorities across London and South East.

A new relationship with the Beckmead Trust and TeachRock (US) has enabled the OS team to deliver weekly sessions in Roundwood School PRU in Harlesden, and additional funding from the Mayor of London’s Propel fund has enabled work to expand in HMYOI Cookham Wood, other custodial settings and in the community, as well as plan for upcoming delivery of the project in New Rush Hall SEMH school in Hainault.

The need for the One Spirit project in custody has intensified. The project has always enjoyed very high retention and the queue of young people on referral lists waiting to get on to the project remains consistently full. There are various reasons for this, which speak to the core of One Spirit’s success:

– Consistency of staffing: OS tutor/mentors have been working on the project for 10+ years

– OS staff develop long-term relationships with the management and staff in the settings in which they deliver (10+ years, without pause, in HMYOIs Feltham and Cookham Wood)

– OS tutors/mentors develop successful, long-term relationships with participants, causing participants to voluntarily spread awareness of the project amongst their friends (and case workers where relevant) both in custody and community

– The project delivers a consistent level of quality and impact: in the last year HMYOIs Cookham Wood, Feltham and Oakhill STC, as well as Roundwood School PRU have all had Ofsted (and YCS) inspections in which One Spirit was mentioned as a successful and crucial intervention project by inspectors

Additionally, delivery is flexible. This means that during times when staffing has been particularly problematic in custody and movements of young people to activities and education has not been possible, OS tutor/mentors have been able to continue delivery in alternative spaces, including on residential wings, prison libraries and meeting rooms, ensuring that participants can still engage in the project even if education is not running.

Another reason for One Spirit’s uninterrupted success is the switch to working 1to1 and with smaller groups. In the 15+ years of working in this environment it has never been so difficult to get groups of young people together – not so much because of low staffing but because of the ‘keep apart’ issues and risk assessments. Working 1to1 and with smaller groups (1to2 or 3), and allowing young people to choose other young people to work with, reduces the risk elements and enables safer movements.

And then there is the project content and the way it is delivered, which year on year has frequently been quoted by young people as the most enjoyable activity they have engaged in whilst in custody, as well as the plaudits from management and inspectors:

“I was very impressed by the way N——- was able to articulate what she was doing in the HMDT Music project, and express some very complex emotions through metaphor, as well as sounding nice. From what I understand from Oakhill’s education management, she has come a great distance since arriving here and the HMDT Music project has clearly played a very important part in supporting her on that journey” – Ofsted Inspector 2023 Oakhill STC

Participant feedback from Oakhill STC:

“This is definitely the best thing I’ve done since being here. Unfortunately, I’m going to be in Blackpool when I am released, so I guess I won’t be able to keep working with you, but I’ll stay in touch. Also, I’ve told my ‘boy’ [ie: friend] he needs to get on this project. He’s got a few more years left to go and mostly at the moment he just refuses education and stays in his room. He needs to do this” – MA, Oakhill STC (MA’s friend has since started attending sessions and engaged successfully).

Delivery of the project at HMYOI Cookham Wood has expanded to include weekly delivery to Rule 49 young people (Phoenix wing) – young people segregated from the general population because of risk of harm (to themselves and others) or significantly complex mental health (or other) needs. This cohort can experience a lack of access to general education and activities because of the complexities around their situation, making it all the more important that they receive quality provision of some sort. HMDT Music has successfully fulfilled this demand, and in spite of various challenges in setting up the delivery, has now been consistently engaging young people in this cohort since the start of the year, with great results:

“I’m so glad we’ve managed to get you on to Phoenix now. It’s so important that these boys get meaningful engagement and the feedback from boys and staff on Phoenix has been excellent!” – DT, Governor HMYOI Cookham Wood.

Delivery in HMPYOI Aylesbury has been a mainstay of the prison’s outside agency provision since the start of 2023 and has now developed to working with NHS Pathways in the jail, engaging young adults with complex mental health issues.  Similarly, NHS staff working in Oakhill STC and HMYOI Feltham have shown interest in working more closely with the project, with one Clinical Practitioner at HMYOI Feltham stating:

“HMDT Music offer a vital service to young people at HMYOI Feltham. The project […….] allows them to express and process their emotions connected to their experiences in a meaningful way. HMDT Music are one of the only (if not the only) agency currently able to offer ‘through the gate’ support to their participants [……..] the value of this cannot be underestimated at what is a potentially highly vulnerable time for a young person, enabling continuity with established relationships” – KH, Child and Family Psychodynamic Psychotherapist HMYOI Feltham A.

As part of One Spirit’s expansion into more community / non-custody-based delivery, the project has been delivering weekly sessions at Roundwood School PRU in Harlesden, NW London. Young people attending PRU have either been temporarily or permanently excluded from mainstream education, or for other reasons simply do not have a school place yet. PRU has long been identified as a ‘brief stop’ on the downward journey of the most marginalised young people from mainstream education into detachment from education and services and into eventual incarceration; not surprisingly, the need for meaningful engagement with young people in this setting is very high. It also completes the circle in terms of One Spirit’s 360⁰ delivery in this environment – from community, to mainstream and alternative provision, to custody and back to community. Further project activity is planned for the summer term in New Rush Hall SEMH School in Hainault, as well as other AP sites in Croydon.

Since the Pandemic, the project has engaged more and more young people through intervention activities in the community – young people who have come to the attention of services (Police, YOT, Children and Families) but have not received custodial sentences – whilst continuing to support young people in the community recently released from custody. At One Spirit’s premises on Brixton Road, Kennington, South London, mentors are engaging participants in music-based mentoring, supporting and helping to divert young people, as young as 13 years old, away from criminality and towards more positive pathways, with the help of HDMT Music’s community partner referral network, which includes a range of organisations that offer training and wider opportunities in sports, leisure, creative industries, hospitality and construction, amongst other sectors. The familiar story is that there is huge demand for meaningful engagement in this area, and a lack of effective services, making One Spirit stand out and receive referrals from all over London as well as outside the capital (Northampton, Essex). It is testament to how effective the project is that some young people travel for over an hour to get to their session with their mentor. One young person recently fed back “Everyone’s on my case to ‘pattern up’ [start behaving], but no one has really put it to me like you just did. I appreciate that; you really made me think about this differently”.

The project is constantly evaluated; participants self-assess at the start of their engagement and revisit their assessment throughout. The nature of the activities encourages regular reflection, but the project has also developed an element of peer evaluation, where young people will develop their own ways of rating their experience. Staff/managers in custody also have provided regular observations and feedback, as have family members, case workers, YOT and other agency staff in charge of caring for participants.

Data gathered from and submitted by participants and staff in custody reveal that:

• 100% of participants said they enjoyed the session
• 100% declared they had learned something new
• 91% declared increased self-confidence
• Of those questioned (approx. 60%) 100% remarked how the project had helped their well-being/mental health
• 70+% of those who had mentioned issues with anger/frustration at the project start declared the project had helped
• 82% said they felt better about the future

In the community:

• 100% of participants said they enjoyed the activities (even if at first they said they “weren’t sure if this was for me”
• 100% said they learned something new
• 25% are in employment
• 69% are in education/college/FE
• 91% have NOT reoffended in 6+ months