Swindon Youth Offending Team (YOT) was committed to helping children and young people stop offending, but needed to make some improvements, said Paul Wilson, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today he published the report of a recent joint inspection of the work of Swindon YOT.

This joint inspection of youth offending work in Swindon 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 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. Case managers had a good understanding of the reasons why children and young people offended. They used their knowledge to provide sound information to court both to inform sentencing decisions and to put appropriate intervention plans in place;
• work to ensure that the sentence was served was good. The YOT’s key asset was its staff. The YOT worked with other agencies to build effective relationships with children and young people and their families. Case managers also took appropriate measures to encourage and enforce compliance where necessary; and
• the delivery and management of interventions to reduce reoffending were satisfactory. Case managers gave thought to what should be delivered, and how, in order to achieve the greatest level of engagement by children and young people, many of whom showed positive progress in key factors linked to their offending behaviour.

However, inspectors were concerned to find that:

• work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was unsatisfactory. The YOT often underestimated the level of harm a child or young person posed to others and the subsequent need to plan to manage this. Too little use was made of the expertise held by YOT police staff;
• work to protect children and young people and reduce their vulnerability was unsatisfactory. Case managers made determined efforts to link with partner agencies and contributed to inter-agency safeguarding processes in order to protect children and young people. However, case managers were not good at assessing the vulnerability needs in their cases and planning to address these; and
• the effectiveness of governance and partnership arrangements was unsatisfactory. The success of the YOT was underpinned by strong, informal relationships and ambitions rather than the governance, scrutiny and challenge by its Management Board. Its evident commitment to improving services lacked strategic direction and planning.

Inspectors made recommendations to assist the YOT, including ensuring that governance arrangements provided appropriate support, challenge and scrutiny, and that partnership working arrangements promoted the safeguarding of children and young people and the protection of the public and victims.

Paul Wilson said:

“Overall, we found an evident commitment by Swindon YOT to keep the children and young people with whom it worked safe, enhance their wellbeing and help to reduce the likelihood of them offending again. The YOT formed strong relationships with its partners and service users to provide a wide range of good interventions. However, there were a number of gaps at an operational and management level in work to protect the public and safeguarding. The YOT Management Board was interested and knowledgeable about the YOT but had yet to put the governance, scrutiny and challenge structures in place to help direct and inform its work.

 

“We have identified a number of areas where Swindon has cause to celebrate its performance and highlighted others where there is scope for review. We have made a small number of recommendations in specific areas for improvement and look forward to Swindon’s successful implementation of these.”

 

– ENDS –
NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The report is available at www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation (PDF, 804 kB) from 10 June 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 Swindon YOT because its performance relating to reconviction rates had deteriorated and there were high rates of reoffending by children looked after by the local authority.
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.