Southend-on-Sea Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation Martin Jones said: “Whilst staff and management at Southend-on-Sea understand their children well and have an enthusiastic, child-centred approach to their practice, the management board need to better understand the needs of the children known to the service, particularly those who are care experienced or are over-represented in the system.”

The report found assessment activity to be consistently strong across children’s desistance and their safety and wellbeing, with case managers demonstrating an understanding of children’s life experiences and taking account of their individual learning needs. However, for those subject to court disposals, inspectors observed past behaviours and convictions were not consistently used to analyse the risk of potential harm presented by the child. In some instances, there was insufficient analysis of what could be put in place to keep other people safe.

Southend-on-Sea YJS has no YJS-led multi-agency risk management panel and inspectors found a lack of clarity in how children’s risks were managed across different partnership forums. Contingency planning to address escalating concerns about the safety of other people were also found to not be sufficiently detailed or relevant to the child’s specific circumstances in enough cases.

Mr Jones continued: “We make seven recommendations in this report, and we hope these will assist the YJS and management board to making the changes needed to drive improvement and help children live their best, crime free lives.”

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).
4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 24 September 2024 at 00.01.
5. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
6. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in June 2024.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)