Islington Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones, said: “I am delighted with the outstanding progress made by Islington YJS since their last inspection in 2016. The approach to meeting the diverse needs of children, parents, carers, and victims was of a high standard in the cases we reviewed. We found senior leadership to be knowledgeable, passionate, and held in high regard by their staff.”

Inspectors were impressed with the range of partnerships and services on offer at Islington YJS. The health provision gives YJS children access to a range of in-house, specialist services. Partnership services to support children at risk of exploitation are well coordinated and provide wraparound support to promote children’s safety. Trained parents with lived experience, known as parent champions, provide peer support to parents and carers.

The report found the staff at Islington YJS to be dedicated and invested in their work. Their workloads are manageable, and managers consider a child’s diversity, and the practitioners’ skills and workload when allocating cases. The service promotes a culture of continuous learning, and there is an expansive training offer available, providing staff with regular opportunities to develop.

Effective deferred prosecution options, such as Outcome 22 (see Notes to editor) is not currently available at Islington YJS which is limiting the diversion offer for children subject to out-of-court disposals. This report recommends that the Metropolitan Police review the use of Outcome 22 and work with the service to embed this.

Mr Jones added: “The service is truly child-centred, even consulting children on the redesign of the service’s meeting rooms to ensure the space is as child-friendly as possible. The staff, leaders, and partnership services should rightfully be proud of what they are achieving at Islington YJS.”

The report makes two recommendations to Islington YJS including to work with police and probation partners to improve its offer for victims and to continue to work with the partnership to review and improve education outcomes for children under 16 years. The report also makes one recommendation to the Metropolitan Police and one to the out-of-court disposal external scrutiny panel.

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. Outcome 22 is a police outcome code that can be used when the police have decided to defer prosecution until the accused has been given the opportunity to engage with an intervention activity.
4. 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).
5. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 20 August 2024 at 00.01.
6. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
7. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in May 2024.
8. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)