‘Outstanding’ Hammersmith and Fulham Youth Justice Service is ‘confident and capable’

Hammersmith and Fulham Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ following an inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation – the highest rating available.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: “Hammersmith and Fulham YJS is a dedicated, capable and confident service where children have every opportunity to move away from crime. We were impressed with how staff at the service work with children under their supervision, and their parents or carers, to understand their circumstances and drive them toward positive futures.”

Inspectors praised the work of the service across the board, whether they were managing children in custody, those leaving custody and in need of resettlement services and those given community sentences or similar.

The service has impressive arrangements with partners, including the voluntary sector, which gives YJS children access to an extensive range of services and provision. Additionally, children have in-house access to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), speech and language therapy, clinical practitioners, and substance misuse services.

As well as its successful work with children, inspectors commended the service’s investment in its own staff by way of training and promotion.

The Inspectorate reported that Black and mixed heritage children are overrepresented at Hammersmith and Fulham YJS, and notes that the service had already made addressing this as a priority and is seeing improvements in areas such as improving access to education, but this needs to be consistent for all children.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. Youth offending services work with children aged 10 to 17 and supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
2. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
3. The inspection looked at standards of organisational delivery (leadership, staffing and facilities), their management of children serving court sentences (court disposals) and children serving cautions or community sentences (out-of-court disposals). It also rated the quality of resettlement work as ‘Outstanding’.
4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 19 October 2022 00.01.
5. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth offending and probation services across England and Wales.
6. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in July 2022.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications Diane Bramall media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)