The latest inspection report of Youth Offending work in England and Wales was published today.

Julie Fox, Assistant Chief Inspector, said:

‘This Core Case Inspection of youth offending work in Barnet took place as part of the Inspection of Youth Offending programme. We have examined a representative sample of youth offending cases from the area, and we have judged how often the Public Protection and the Safeguarding aspects of the work were done to a sufficiently high level of quality.

‘We judged that the Safeguarding aspects of the work were done well enough 54% the time. With the Public Protection aspects, work to keep to a minimum each individual’s Risk of Harm to others was done well enough 52% the time, and the work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough 63% the time. A more detailed analysis of our findings is provided in the main body of this report, and summarised in a table in Appendix 1. These figures can be viewed in the context of our findings from Wales and the regions of England inspected so far – see the Table below.

‘Overall, we consider this a mixed set of findings. We found some effective areas of practice by knowledgeable practitioners, who understood the needs of the children and young people they worked with. Partnership work was strong with staff from a number of agencies being able to provide support to individuals and to their families. We found some high thresholds which, in our view, had led to some children and young people not being identified as vulnerable or a Risk of Harm to others.

‘We are confident that the YOS, and in particular the Management Team, have demonstrated a commitment to improving practice through careful resource management.’

 

	Scores from Wales and the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Barnet
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Safeguarding’ work (action to protect the young person)	37%	91%	68%	54%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	36%	85%	63%	52%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend)	43%	87%	71%	63%

 Download this press release as a PDF (PDF, 68 kB)

Notes to editors

1.  The report is available at www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation (PDF, 153 kB)

2.  This Inspection of Youth Offending (IYO) programme started in April 2009. Youth Offending work in all 158 areas of England & Wales will be inspected over the course of a three-year cycle.

3.  Julie Fox can be contacted on julie.fox@hmiprobation.gsi.gov.uk (E-mail address) and 07973 264412.