Newport Youth Offending Service had got better at helping children and young people turn away from crime, but still had work to do, said Dame Glenys Stacey, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today she published the report of a recent joint inspection of the work of Newport Youth Offending Service (YOS).

This joint inspection of youth offending work in Newport is one of a small number of full joint inspections undertaken by HM Inspectorate of Probation with colleagues from the criminal justice, social care, education and health inspectorates. Inspectors focused on six key areas: reducing reoffending, protecting the public, protecting children and young people, ensuring the sentence is served, the effectiveness of governance and court work and reports.

Inspectors were pleased to find that:

• work to reduce reoffending was satisfactory. Good quality pre-sentence reports were provided for the courts. Staff were good at investigating the reasons why children and young people had offended. There was no basic skills strategy in place to make sure literacy and numeracy levels for children improved;
• work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was satisfactory. Initial assessments of the risk of harm children and young people posed were sufficient. Risk management plans did not contain a sufficient focus on victim issues or contingency planning;
• work to ensure that the sentence was served was good. The YOS was good at engaging children and young people and their parents/carers throughout their sentence. The appropriate use of compliance and enforcement action was evident in most cases;
• the effectiveness of governance and partnership arrangements was satisfactory. There was evidence of strategic leadership with a clear plan and direction of travel for the YOS. Effective scrutiny arrangements existed for the YOS Management Board and there was involvement from local authority elected members in addressing youth crime; and
• the management and delivery of interventions to reduce reoffending was satisfactory. There was a suitable range of interventions available at the YOS. Staff thought innovatively about adapting existing materials. Barriers to positive engagement were not always identified, especially with regard to work for girls.

However, work to protect children and reduce their vulnerability was unsatisfactory. Plans often did not contain sufficient focus on vulnerability and how it should be managed. The quality assurance process in place was not effective.

Inspectors made recommendations to assist the YOS to make continuing improvements, including developing an education, training and employment strategy and ensuring good quality plans and reviews are produced, particularly on risk of harm and vulnerability.

Dame Glenys Stacey said:

“I am pleased to see that Newport have stepped up and made real improvements that are helping to turn children away from crime. Managers know what they have to do and they have some good plans in place. I hope that our recommendations will help them to go further and focus on education and keeping children safe.”

– ENDS –
NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The report is available at https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/ from 9 June 2016.
2. The inspection programme of youth offending work, based on a risk-proportionate approach, was agreed by ministers in December 2011. Under this programme, full joint inspections are targeted primarily on areas where there are significant concerns about the effectiveness of youth offending work, based primarily on the three national youth justice indicators, supplemented by other measures, such as recent inspections. Occasional inspections are undertaken in areas that report high performance, in order to maintain a benchmark for good practice. Inspectors chose to re-inspect Newport YOS following poor outcomes during a full joint inspection in 2014.
3. These inspections focus on issues not subject to other forms of external scrutiny: work to reduce offending and re-offending by young people; the management and minimisation of the risk of harm that a young person may pose to other people; safeguarding young people from harm (from their own actions and others); and work to ensure they serve their sentence.
4. There are four ratings which can be given: good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory and poor.
5. The inspections are led by HMI Probation, with participation by Ofsted, CQC and HMI Constabulary (and in Wales by the corresponding Welsh inspectorates, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Estyn and Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales).
6. For further information, please contact Alex Pentecost at HM Inspectorate of Probation on 0161 240 5336 or Alan MacDonald on 07917 073528.