Lincolnshire Youth Offending Service (YOS) has received an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: “The success of Lincolnshire Youth Offending Service is built on a strong and effective team of people dedicated to preventing children from reoffending. They understand each child under their supervision and know how to provide the best support to improve their lives. All of this important and impressive work is for the benefit of not only the children, but for victims and the local communities of Lincolnshire.”

The leadership of Lincolnshire YOS stood out during this inspection, not least how senior staff lead the way in working with partners and in governing the service. Inspectors also commended Lincolnshire YOS for its effectiveness in ensuring each child can swiftly access vital support. This includes health, mental health, substance misuse and speech and language services, working alongside case managers. Practitioners establish positive relationships with children, and this has proved effective in deterring children from offending, and towards more positive futures.

We judged that the foundation of this effective work with children has developed thanks to the management of staff within the YOS, who are empowered to deliver a high-quality, personalised, and responsive services. The YOS had countered increasing workloads for out-of-court disposals by employing two new case managers and we found highly motivated, well trained and experienced staff.

The inspection made four recommendations to Lincolnshire YOS, including that they should look to increase the number of children in education, employment or training (EET) and ensure the consistency of safety and wellbeing practice in out-of-court disposals across all of the locality teams.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJS 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). We also inspected the quality of resettlement policy and provision, which was separately rated as ‘Good’.
4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 04 April 2023 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 January 2023.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications Diane Bramall media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)