Despite some good work with children who had committed crimes, Lewisham Youth Offending Service (YOS) and the other bodies they worked with needed a sharper focus on reducing reoffending and protecting the public, said Dame Glenys Stacey, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today she published the report of a recent joint inspection of the work of Lewisham YOS.

This joint inspection of youth offending work in Lewisham 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, making sure the sentence is served, the effectiveness of governance, and work to deliver interventions.

Inspectors were concerned to find that:

• work to reduce reoffending was unsatisfactory. Although most initial assessments of the reasons why children had offended were sufficient, the plans to address those risks and the frequency with which those plans were reviewed were unsatisfactory, so the impact on reoffending was limited;
• work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was unsatisfactory. There was some good work by case managers to protect the public, but plans lacked measurable objectives, which meant interventions to address the risk of harm did not always address the specific risks children posed;
• work to protect children and reduce their vulnerability was unsatisfactory. There was some good safeguarding work undertaken by individual case managers. The immediate sharing of information between the YOS and children’s social care services about missing children was not sufficiently robust;
• governance and partnership arrangements were ineffective. There was a lot of partnership activity in Lewisham and a sense of energy around the delivery of services, but this was not always cohesive and the impact for children and young people was inconsistent; and
• work to deliver interventions to reduce reoffending was unsatisfactory. A range of interventions was available for case managers and partners but further work needed to be done to engage with young people better. Interventions were not evaluated routinely, so it was difficult for the YOS to understand what was effective.

Inspectors were pleased to find, however, that work to ensure the sentence was served was good. The YOS made consistently good efforts to understand and respond to things stopping children or their parents/carers from engaging. Work to ensure young people complied with their sentence was effective.

Inspectors made recommendations to assist the YOS to make continuing improvements, including planning work better and reviewing it regularly, improving management oversight of case work, and ensuring the Youth Justice Management Board focuses on improving outcomes for children and young people.

Dame Glenys Stacey said:

“Lewisham Youth Offending Service doesn’t have an easy task. Its staff work with children with complex needs who live in an environment where keeping young people safe and preventing them from harming others can be a challenge. Staff were determined and committed, and some of their work was impressive, such as getting children and young people into employment, training and education. Some work, however, needed to be more joined up and more sharply focused so that reoffending is reduced and the public are better protected.”

– ENDS –
NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The report is available at https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/ from 08 December 2016.
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 Lewisham YOS primarily because of high rates of reoffending and custodial sentence in the area.
3. These inspections focus on issues not subject to other forms of external scrutiny: work to reduce offending and reoffending 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.