Royal Borough of Greenwich Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ following an inspection led by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell said “Greenwich YJS is an aspirational service. They have an innovative approach to youth justice work which focuses on reducing reoffending and supporting those impacted by youth violence. Improvements to the service are needed – particularly in areas such as the safety and wellbeing of children dealt with outside the courts, but the foundations are in place for this YJS to flourish.”

Inspectors were impressed by the way Greenwich YJS has identified the needs of each child under their supervision and found ways to deter them from a life of crime. This includes a creative arts programme, where children have benefitted from taking part in exhibitions. The YJS is managed and governed well, and we were pleased to see very good and well-resourced staffing arrangements. The operational staff expressed great pride in their team and organisation, and we considered the working environment to be one in which high-quality work with children was strongly supported.

However, checks to assess the safety and welling of children who were subject to out-of-court disposals – such as cautions or community sentences – were too low, and the risk of harm to children and to others was sometimes underestimated by the service. Thankfully, when the case managers engaged with children, these earlier issues were offset by very good work to implement the plans agreed for each child. More work needs to be done to ensure this risk is minimised via thorough analysis of risk factors, including further checks with partner agencies, such as the police and local authorities, for children in the YJS’ care.

The report makes six recommendations to Greenwich YJS, including that they prioritise the reduction in post-school-aged children who are not in education, training, or employment.

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). It also rated the quality of resettlement work as ‘Good’.
4. The report is available on HM Inspectorate of Probation website: 00:01 20 June 2023
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 March 2023.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)