Ceredigion Youth Justice and Prevention Service (YJPS) has received an overall rating of ‘Inadequate’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation. This is the first ‘Inadequate’ rating given to a Youth Justice Service since July 2020.

Chief Inspector of Probation Martin Jones said: “In Ceredigion, the fundamental foundations required to deliver effective youth justice services to children and victims are missing. We observed systemic insufficiencies in all levels of service delivery and the concerning findings from this inspection require immediate attention.”

The report found that, operationally, there were a team of just four staff members responsible for delivering post-court and out-of-court disposal work at Ceredigion YJPS. The staff had wide responsibilities and dual roles which diluted the expertise required to deliver effective services. However, despite this, inspectors commended the “committed and dedicated” staff members for their adaptability in delivering services to children with the limited resources at their disposal.

Inspectors were concerned with the assessing, planning, and delivery of work to promote desistance and to keep children and other people safe. Safety and wellbeing thresholds for children subject to out-of-court disposals focused on the child’s immediate physical safety rather than analysing the child’s emotional and psychological safety to create a more holistic understanding of their needs. A lack of data and information collected by the service also created a barrier to analysis and evaluation activity, and has resulted in the service not fully understanding the profile of the children known to the service.

Mr Jones continued, “In our youth annual report, I warned that the high-quality work we generally see in the youth justice service is at risk if it does not continue receiving adequate funding, and I reiterate my call for recent cuts to be urgently reviewed.

“This inspection was extremely disappointing, but we have been reassured by the senior leaders at Ceredigion YJS that they will be committing additional resources to prioritise action in response to our recommendations.”

This report makes 11 recommendations. Six of these are for the Ceredigion Youth Justice and Prevention management board, including to develop connectivity with the YJPS staff team, volunteers, parents or carers, and children. Five recommendations are for the Ceredigion YJPS leadership team, including to urgently develop a quality assurance and management oversight process to ensure that the sufficiency of assessing, planning, and delivery of work keeps children and others safe.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. The last rating of ‘Inadequate’ was given in July 2020 to Cardiff YJS – https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/inspections/cardiffyos/
2. HM Inspectorate of Probation’s 2023 Annual Report of Youth Justice Services found that 75 per cent of YJS inspections result in a rating of ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’.
3. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJPS supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
4. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
5. 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).
6. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 12 November at 00.01.
7. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
8. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in July 2024.
9. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)