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 Hackney 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 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 47% of 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 43% of the time, and the work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough 58% of 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.

“We undertook this inspection at a time where the YOS was undergoing significant changes to its structure and we saw two different methods of working. The majority of the cases inspected had been supervised under the older case management system but a few had been worked under a recently introduced ‘core unit’ model, known as Young Hackney. This new method of working, which had been rolled out immediately before the inspection, had required fundamental changes in how the service was delivered and was showing considerable promise.

We are aware that these are, in this context, a disappointing set of findings for the managers and staff in Hackney. We hope, however, that they provide them with the evidence and pointers that they need to target the improvement work already ongoing effectively. The evidence from Young Hackney gave us confidence in the ability of the managers to take this work forward and improve the quality of work on offending behaviour in the borough for the future.”

	Scores from Wales and the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Hackney
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Safeguarding’ work (action to protect the young person)	37%	91%	68%	47%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	36%	85%	63%	43%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend)	43%	87%	71%	58%

 

Download this press release as a PDF (PDF, 65 kB)

Notes to editors

1. The report is available at www.justice.gov.uk/about/hmi-probation/index.htm.
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 and 07973 264412.