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 Camden 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 90% 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 86% the time, and the work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough
84% 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.

“In Camden the YOS worked with children and young people from diverse backgrounds and with complex needs, some of whom posed a high Risk of Harm to others. Gang violence was a feature in many cases. This made the behaviour of the children and young people they worked with challenging.

“Despite the challenges the YOS staff and their managers faced, we found them
to be enthusiastic and committed to delivering high quality services to children
and young people.

“Overall, we consider this a very creditable set of findings with only minimal
improvement needed across all areas.”

	Scores from Wales and the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Camden
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Safeguarding’ work (action to protect the young person)	37%	91%	68%	90%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	36%	85%	63%	86%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend)	43%	87%	71%	84%

Download this press release (PDF, 38 kB)

Notes to editors:

1. Read the inspection report (PDF, 144 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) 07973 264412