We are delighted to launch our new youth justice inspection framework, which will go live with inspections from Spring 2025 across England and Wales.   

The framework has been developed following roadshows, consultation, piloting and collaboration with the youth justice sector.  Work has also been undertaken with the Youth Justice Board, the Ministry of Justice Youth Justice Policy Unit, a stakeholder working group (representing YJSs across England and Wales), speaking with children, and working with other inspectorates, as part of the programme development. 

The framework has undergone significant changes and is designed to ensure we: 

• put the work delivered with children and victims at the forefront of our inspections 

• are agile and responsive as an Inspectorate, to ensure maximum impact of inspection 

• drive effective practice and improvement. 

The framework introduces updated and refreshed standards throughout and is based on up-to-date research and evidence.  It combines all statutory court work, out-of-court disposals, resettlement, and bail and remand into a single domain two standard and features the introduction of the victims’ standard.   

Our organisational delivery standards have undergone significant revision and, as part of this, there is a new focus on Appropriate Adult arrangements. 

Our use of language has changed throughout the framework, with an emphasis now on achieving positive change, and keeping children and communities safe.     

As part of our programme launch, we have shared a range of key documents, including: 

Response to our consultation on the inspection of youth justice services (PDF, 354 kB)

Youth justice inspection guidance manual – December 2024 (PDF, 505 kB)

Youth justice inspection standards November 2024  (PDF, 184 kB)

Youth justice rules and guidance October 2024 (PDF, 634 kB) 

Frequently asked questions (PDF, 95 kB)

New youth inspection programme presentation slides (Presentation, 332 kB)

And, an animated video that can be shown to children, parents, and carers about the Inspectorate and our inspections. (Also available in Welsh.)  

We will also publish our Case Assessment Rules and Guidance (CARaG), which outlines our expectations in relation to work delivered with children and victims prior to the first announcements. 

In November 2024, we hosted roadshows and online events to discuss the new framework. We received several questions that we couldn’t answer immediately but promised to address later. The outstanding questions and answers are in the document below.

Outstanding questions and answers (PDF, 119 kB)