Greenwich Youth Offending Service (YOS) was well managed, well led and had improved the work it was doing to help young people move away from crime, said Paul Wilson, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today he published the report of a recent joint inspection of the work of Greenwich Youth Offending Service.

This joint inspection of youth offending work in Greenwich is one of a small number of full joint inspections undertaken by HM Inspectorate of Probation with colleagues from the criminal justice, social care, education and health inspectorates. Inspectors focused on six key areas: reducing reoffending, protecting the public, protecting children and young people, ensuring the sentence is served, the effectiveness of governance and the delivery of interventions.

Inspectors were pleased to find that:

• work to reduce reoffending was satisfactory. There were excellent education, training and employment services, which delivered a high level of provision for young people. However, plans did not always capture the issues identified in the assessment and needed to improve;
• work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was satisfactory. Multi-agency arrangements were working well and there was a strong partnership approach to risk of harm work. Interventions to address the risk of harm were not delivered in all cases;
• work to protect children and reduce their vulnerability was satisfactory. Assessments were thorough and the YOS had appropriate multi-agency arrangements in place to manage vulnerability. Management oversight processes were in place but were not always effective;
• work to ensure that the sentence was served was good. Staff were good at motivating children and young people to engage with their sentences and used effective methods to improve compliance where required;
• the effectiveness of governance and partnership arrangements was good. There was strong strategic leadership and a clean plan for the YOS. The YOS Management Board was aware of its responsibilities and there was evidence of constructive challenge; and
• the management and delivery of interventions to reduce reoffending was satisfactory. Case managers skilfully delivered interventions to reduce reoffending and had access to a range of good quality resources.

Inspectors made recommendations to assist the YOS to make continuing improvements, including: producing good quality action plans which address risk of harm, vulnerability and interventions, ensuring all staff understand Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements and follow the correct procedures and ensuring a physical health screening service is available for children and young people.
Paul Wilson said:

“Greenwich Youth Offending Service (YOS) had made a step change in performance since the last inspection in 2011. The YOS was strong in assessment and delivering good quality interventions. The Management Board had clear objectives and was successful in ensuring children and young people had access to a range of services designed to move them away from crime. There was still work to do to improve planning to address offending and ensure the provision of a full suite of health services. The YOS were aware of where they needed to improve and were constructively addressing the issues.”

 

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NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The report is available at https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/ from 26 November 2015.
2. The inspection programme of youth offending work, based on a risk-proportionate approach, was agreed by ministers in December 2011. Under this programme, full joint inspections are targeted primarily on areas where there are significant concerns about the effectiveness of youth offending work, based primarily on the three national youth justice indicators, supplemented by other measures, such as recent inspections. Occasional inspections are undertaken in areas that report high performance, in order to maintain a benchmark for good practice. Inspectors chose to inspect Greenwich primarily because their performance showed it was a possible area of good practice relative to other inner London Youth Offending Services.
3. These inspections focus on issues not subject to other forms of external scrutiny: work to reduce offending and re-offending by young people; the management and minimisation of the risk of harm that a young person may pose to other people; safeguarding young people from harm (from their own actions and others); and work to ensure they serve their sentence.
4. There are four ratings which can be given: good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory and poor.
5. The inspections are led by HMI Probation, with participation by Ofsted, CQC and HMI Constabulary (and in Wales by the corresponding Welsh inspectorates, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Estyn and Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales).
6. For further information, please contact Jane Parsons at HM Inspectorate of Probation press office on 020 3681 2775 or 07880 787452.