Wakefield Youth Offending Team (YOT) had improved its work considerably and seen a welcome reduction in the numbers of young people reoffending, said Paul McDowell, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today he published the report of a recent joint inspection of the work of Wakefield YOT.

This joint inspection of youth offending work in Wakefield 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 the likelihood of reoffending, protecting the public, protecting children and young people, ensuring that 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. Reoffending rates had reduced and assessment and planning were good. Work in custodial cases was good. Health-related work was positive, properly linked to reducing reoffending, and attention was given to restorative justice;
• work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was satisfactory. Good assessments took account of the risk of harm posed by the children and young people to others and those in custody were well served by the YOT;
• work to protect children and young people and reduce their vulnerability was satisfactory;
• work to ensure that the sentence was served was good. Staff knew the children and young people well and involved them in assessment and planning for the changes they needed to make in their lives;
• the effectiveness of governance and partnership arrangements was satisfactory. Wakefield YOT had achieved reductions in the number of first-time entrants to the youth justice system and performed well against other key targets; and
• work to deliver interventions to reduce reoffending was satisfactory. Performance had improved and good quality work was delivered which was designed to improve engagement, although planning required some improvement.

However, inspectors were concerned to find that:

• more attention needed to be given to victims’ issues, whether potential or known victims;
• management oversight processes needed to improve, and interaction with police needed to be better recorded;
• more attention should have been given to speech, language and communication needs; and
• management oversight of the YOT was not always fully effective, but the management team worked effectively together.

Inspectors made recommendations to assist Wakefield in its continuing improvement, including: monitoring outcomes across interventions types in order to measure their effectiveness in reducing reoffending, improving information provided to the Management Board, assessing the speech, language and communication needs of children working with the YOT and prioritising the needs of victims.

Paul McDowell said:

“We were pleased that Wakefield Youth Offending Team has achieved a reduction in the numbers of children and young people reoffending. The quality of work with children and young people who had offended has improved considerably since our last inspection in 2010. The YOT Management Board and management team have worked innovatively and mostly effectively to deliver better performance, but need to ensure that the quality of work continues to improve, gives sufficient focus to protecting the public, and is consistent across the YOT.”

– ENDS –

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The report is available at https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/ from 8 October 2014.
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 Wakefield YOT because analysis showed their performance had previously deteriorated in relation to reducing reoffending.
3. These inspections focus on issues not subject to other forms of external scrutiny: work to reduce the likelihood of 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. 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).
5. For further information or to request an interview, please contact Jane Parsons at HMI Probation on 020 3681 2775 or 07880 787452.