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 Nottinghamshire 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 78% 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 73% the time, and the work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough 80% 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.

“Nottinghamshire YJS covered a large geographical area, including some very deprived boroughs; therefore the children and young people who came into contact with the YJS often proved challenging in a range of different ways. The YJS was working hard to raise the quality of its work across its three office bases and was successful in this respect, with good quality interventions, effective partnership working and careful exit planning taking place.

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

Notes to editors

1. Read the report (PDF, 587 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 07771527327