Despite some promising practice, more needed to be done to learn lessons from serious incidents involving children known to Youth Offending Teams, said Paul Wilson, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today HM Inspectorate of Probation published a report on the Youth Justice Board’s systems for learning from serious incidents.

The Youth Justice Board Community Safeguarding and Public Protection Incidents procedures govern how and when Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) report safeguarding and public protection incidents and the support that they can expect to receive in so doing. HM Inspectorate of Probation’s report, An Inspection to Assess the Effectiveness of the Reporting, Monitoring and Learning from the Youth Justice Board’s Community Safeguarding and Public Protection Incident Procedures relates to findings from visits to 19 YOTs. The quality was assessed of a sample of 30 Critical Learning Reports completed in response to serious incidents that had occurred over a four-month period in 2014.

Overall, inspectors found that the majority of YOTs had put a lot of effort into this work and inspectors saw some promising practice. However, more work was required to achieve meaningful learning.

Inspectors were concerned that:

• too often, learning reviews failed to incorporate aspects of the child’s behaviour and life experiences which could have helped to explain why the serious incident had occurred;
• learning reviews did not always identify the right lessons to be learned, which could then be translated into appropriate action to improve;
• local oversight and quality assurance arrangements had not been robust enough to address this;
• while YOTs would often identify learning relevant to other agencies, they did not feel empowered to draft actions which applied to the work or procedures of other services, and this was particularly so for looked after children;
• the YJB management information system set up to capture and monitor serious incidents did not work as it should, resulting in a high level of frustration and wasted time; and
• YOTs rightly expect to receive an annual report on trends, good practice and learning and this had not happened since the launch of the Community Safeguarding and Public Protection Incident procedures in April 2013.

Inspectors made recommendations to the Youth Justice Board which included reviewing its procedures, providing clearer guidance to YOTs and publishing a report drawing together key lessons learned. Inspectors also recommended that the Chairs of YOT Management Boards ensure that partner agencies contribute to Critical Learning Reviews and are held to account. Recommendations made to YOT managers included ensuring that all reviews were thoroughly quality assured by a senior manager of sufficient independence before submission to the YJB.

Paul Wilson said:

“Working with children in Youth Offending Teams presents challenges to frontline workers and managers, and the complexity and demands of many cases are often underestimated. Good practice can be taken for granted and frequently goes unnoticed. However, when things go wrong it is the responsibility of leaders to ensure that lessons are learned. We found that while there were good intentions, the procedures in place had not facilitated a sufficient level of local and national learning.

“While relatively rare, serious incidents connected to safeguarding and public protection can have catastrophic consequences for all concerned. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that proper learning takes place in order to reduce the likelihood of similar events happening in the future.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. A copy of this report can be found on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s website at http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation from 25 June 2015.
2. HMI Probation is an independent inspectorate, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, and reporting directly to the Secretary of State on the effectiveness of work with adults, children and young people who have offended, aimed at reducing reoffending and protecting the public. Further information about the work of HMI Probation is at http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation.
3. Please contact Jane Parsons in HMI Probation Press Office on 020 3681 2775 or 07880 787452 if you would like more information.