North Lincolnshire Youth Justice Partnership (YJP) has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: “North Lincolnshire Youth Justice Partnership has a clear vision for the future and is enthusiastic in its work with children and young people as much as supporting victims and their own staff.

“We were impressed with how they are tackling substance misuse and managing the risk of child exploitation. The service knows what they want to improve, and how to go about it, and we look forward to watching them develop further.”

Inspectors found that North Lincolnshire YJP had prioritised efforts to keep children in appropriate education, training, and employment. Children also had access to a nurse, so we were pleased to see that varying health needs were being met.

At the time of the inspection there was no specific speech, language, or communication provision for children at the service. However, we acknowledge that the YJP were aware of this and had previously commissioned a pilot project which had a positive impact on this key area of youth justice service.

We would like to see improvements in the way the YJP manages the risk of harm children may pose as we found the assessment, planning and reviewing of this work to be inconsistent.

We have made six recommendations that, if implemented, will have a positive impact on youth offending services in North Lincolnshire, including the development of a diversity strategy to address the needs of all staff, children, and victims accessing the service.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJS supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
2. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
3. The inspection looked at standards of organisational delivery (leadership, staffing and facilities), their management of children serving court sentences (court disposals) and children serving cautions or community sentences (out-of-court disposals).
4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 05 September 2023 00.01.
5. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth offending and probation services across England and Wales.
6. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in June 2023.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications Diane Bramall media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)