Manchester Youth Justice Service (YJS) was found by inspectors to have some clear strengths and a committed staff facing the challenges of supervising children and young people in a complex inner-city area.

Many staff had worked in Manchester for years and had a strong understanding of the issues facing local children and young people, including difficulties in their personal backgrounds and the risks they faced, such as gang influence and exploitation, in a major city.

Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, said that “delivering high-quality public services in Manchester is challenging.

“The Youth Justice Service is a high-profile service within the city. It is well supported by local partnerships and they, in turn, influence local inter-agency activity in support of their objective of reducing offending and reoffending by children and young people.

“There is a strong commitment among staff and managers to do their best for children and young people.” Inspectors found much innovation and collaborative working with other youth offending and justice teams in the Greater Manchester area.

However, following an inspection in October and November 2018, Manchester YJS was rated as “Requires improvement”, the second lowest rating.

Staff vacancies were a principal problem identified by inspectors. At the time of the inspection, the YJS had six vacancies out of 43 staff places and, the report noted, “caseloads were higher than normal as a result. Case managers had less time to see children and young people and less flexibility about where they see them, because they did not have time to travel.” High caseloads undermined the quality of the YJS’s work to supervise court orders.

A further significant problem was identified at the YJS’s premises in the north of the city, at Cheetham Hill, where staff had safety concerns.

The report noted: “The north office is close to a housing estate that has frequent incidents of crime and disorder. Staff told inspectors that known gang members live close to the office. Many staff from across the partner agencies told us that they felt unsafe in the north office, and had done so for some time. They state that there are regular confrontations between children and young people attending the office and members of the local community… An incident occurred at the north office during the inspection that resulted in action taken to relocate the service temporarily elsewhere.”

YJS work to help children and young people engage in education and training also needed to improve, inspectors found, with too many young people not receiving sufficient education.

Overall, Dame Glenys Stacey said: “The recommendations in this report are designed to assist Manchester YJS to build on its strengths and focus on areas for improvement.”

 

• Ends –

1. The report is available at justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation at 00.01 on 01 February 2019.
2. Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), which deliver youth offending services, supervise 10-18-year olds who have been sentenced by a court, or who have come to the attention of the police because of their offending behaviour but have not been charged and instead are dealt with out of court.
3. In Manchester the team is known as the Youth Justice Service. It covers the city of Manchester and is one of a number of youth justice teams across the wider Greater Manchester area.
4. This is the second joint inspection carried out under our new inspection arrangements that commenced in 2018. In these inspections we involve specialist inspectors from the police, health, social care and learning and skills sectors who together examine the work of the youth justice partnership. Inspectors from HMI Probation also assess the quality of both court orders and out-of-court disposals delivered by Manchester Youth Justice Service (YJS).
5. Fieldwork for the Manchester joint inspection took place in October and November 2018.
6. We inspected against new standards and all services are given one of four ratings: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
7. For further information please contact Catherine Chan, Head of Communications, on 07889 405930 or media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)