HM Inspectorate of Probation has today published its Annual Report 2021: inspections of youth offending services (YOS).

The 2021 annual report details the findings from inspections of 33 YOS – two-thirds of the services we inspected were rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ – none were rated ‘Inadequate’.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell: “Caseloads may be falling, but the needs of children in the criminal justice system certainly are not and have become more acute as a result of Covid-19. It has been equally challenging for staff and leaders, but services should be heartened – more than half were rated ‘Good’ and five ‘Outstanding’ in the past year. I pay credit to the resilience and commitment they have shown, as we hope for less challenging times ahead.”

“Some aspects of YOS work, including the quality of leadership and staffing as well as the quality of case management for children subject to out-of-court disposals we have rated higher this year than last. Though an increase in children who have committed violent offences, and in the complexity and needs of the caseloads being supervised, is proving a challenge for some services.”

Falling but more challenging caseloads

The pandemic has meant record reductions in the number of children coming into the youth justice system as arrests and court volumes plummeted and the number of children supervised by youth offending services in 2021 fell by 28 per cent on the previous year.

The effect is a higher concentration of children entering the system who have committed a violent offence – these children made up 49 per cent of the court cases of the 33 services we inspected in the last year, and 42 per cent of out-of-court disposals (cautions and community sentences/resolutions). Nearly 80 per cent of children sentenced to a court order were assessed as presenting some form of risk to others, and 29 per cent were considered to present a high or very high risk of harm.  And as in previous years, our inspectors found high levels of educational and health needs with significant numbers of children missing from full time education, training or employment.

Varied response to the continued challenge of Covid-19

Local YOS continue to adapt to the impact of Covid-19. Until recently, services were required to work in and out of pandemic-related restrictions and their response to this varied.

Additionally, getting children into education, training and employment (ETE) was hampered by a lack of entry-level jobs, due to closures in the hospitality sector, digital exclusion, and getting children who were already disengaged from the education system to return to it.

Also, while some services had kept offices open, others could only accommodate a small proportion of staff in an office. It meant some had to find new ways of communicating, and being in contact, with children – vital for successful YOS supervision.

Mr Russell added: “Frontline staff and managers were clearly fatigued but determined to maintain face-to-face contact with children. A pre-pandemic trend towards taking services ‘out to the child’ rather than relying on being in an office, proved helpful, with a wide variety of community venues and outdoor spaces being used and a return to home visits in places.”

Black, Asian and minority ethnic children

The Inspectorate has stepped up the work it does around diversity and racial equality over the past year. In October 2021, we published a major national thematic inspection of the support and supervision of black and mixed heritage boys across nine different youth offending services in England, which included detailed analysis of 173 individual cases and interviews with 38 boys.

Staff and managers we spoke to, told us that the majority of black and mixed heritage boys they worked with had experienced multiple adverse childhood experiences. They also had high levels of need, such as special educational needs (SEN) and mental health difficulties Sixty per cent of the boys in the case sample we inspected were, or had been, excluded from school, the majority permanently. In half of the cases inspected there was evidence that the child had experienced racial discrimination.

Almost all the black and mixed heritage boys we spoke to described positive relationships with their YOS workers, whatever that worker’s ethnicity, stating that they felt listened to and understood. But they were not always clear about the role of the service or what support it could offer them, nor did they feel very challenged by YOS about the underlying causes of their offending.

Despite the positive relationships reported, we found significant deficits in the quality of casework being delivered to black and mixed heritage boys in both post-court and

out-of-court cases. Overall, less than half of the cases we inspected were sufficient in terms of the quality of assessment and planning.

Resettlement after custody

Children sentenced to custody are some of the most vulnerable, as well as presenting a risk of harm to others, and their needs are often complex. Recognising that this is an important area of YOS work, we now inspect YOS resettlement – or how a child is reintegrated back into society. This includes whether accommodation, healthcare, education and family support and more have been considered as part of their release from custody.

The report includes ratings for seven services inspected on resettlement. Three of these YOS were rated as ‘Good’ and four as ‘Requires improvement’. None were found to be ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Inadequate’.

Mr Russell said: “Thanks to our new inspection standard, services have turned the spotlight on resettlement. Many have reviewed or introduced new ways of working, and there is an increased focus upon ensuring resettlement work is of a high quality – this must now be put into practice.”

Quality of court and out-of-court casework

This year we looked at 362 court cases and 315 out-of-court cases. The quality of work undertaken with 70 per cent of cases , to identify what is driving young people’s offending and their underlying social and welfare needs, we found to be strong. Though other areas of practice were weaker.

Mr Russell said: “Ratings for the quality of work on children’s safety and wellbeing and risk of harm to others were lower. We are still finding that some services are not recognising specific concerns about individual children’s safety. This means that some children are missing out on potentially beneficial support. However, the quality of out-of-court disposal work has improved, which is positive.”

In addition to inspecting individual cases, HM Inspectorate of Probation introduced a new standard in July 2021 which rates the policies and practice adopted by each YOS in relation to  out of court disposals. Of the eight YOS inspections that included this new inspection standard, two areas were graded as ‘Good’, five were rated as ‘Requires improvement’ and one was ‘Inadequate’.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. The report is available at justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation on 16 March 2022 00.01.
2. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth offending and probation services across England and Wales.
3. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’. The Inspectorate rates specific aspects of each service and also gives an overall rating.
4. For media enquiries, please contact Corporate Communications Manager Diane Bramall media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)