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

Andy Smith, Assistant Chief Inspector, said:

“This Core Case Inspection of youth offending work in Bromley 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 81% 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 75% the time, and the work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough 82% 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.

“Since our last inspection in 2008 the Youth Offending Team had restructured, had a more experienced, knowledgeable staff group, and improved systems for assessment, planning and interventions. The team, which had historically dealt with a prevalence of low level offending, had adapted its approach to deal with a higher incidence of violence-related crime. In this context, while more work was
needed to improve processes linked to managing Risk of Harm to others and Safeguarding, we found that performance was generally good with a number of examples of notable practice.

“Overall, we consider this a very creditable set of findings.”

	Scores from Wales and the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Bromley
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Safeguarding’ work (action to protect the young person)	37%	91%	68%	81%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	36%	85%	63%	75%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend)	43%	87%	71%	82%

Download this press release (PDF, 66 kB)

Notes to editors:

1. Read the inspection report (PDF, 138 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. Andy Smith can be contacted on andy.smith@hmiprobation.gsi.gov.uk (E-mail address) and 07771 527327.