Barnet Youth Offending Service (YOS) has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ following an inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: “Barnet Youth Offending Service is committed to enhancing the lives of children under their supervision and protecting the local community from the risk of further offending. They are a developing service, with a modern approach to understanding diversity and disproportionality, and are not afraid to be innovative. It’s clear that Barnet is a service on an upward trajectory, and we look forward to seeing their continued progress.”

Although we identified some deficits with Barnet YOS’s assessments, we saw evidence of effective work by the service’s case managers, particularly when planning and delivering the required programmes to children under their supervision. The report commended their work with children given  out-of-court disposals and noted that the outcomes for these children, deterring them from further offences, were generally positive.

Inspectors were pleased with the way Barnet YOS was organised, citing high-quality work in safeguarding, governance arrangements and work with their partners. The inspection also found the service has in-house speech and language therapy and a psychologist, though we found they need to improve the effectiveness of Education, Training and Employment (ETE) services.

This inspection noted that Barnet is proactive in its work around diversity and disproportionality and recognised their efforts in addressing the number of school exclusions for Black, Asian and minority ethnic children. Further work in this area is still required and also Barnet YOS need to do more to understand why girls are over-represented (16 per cent compared to the national average of 13 per cent) at the service.

The report makes seven recommendations, including ensuring robust contingency plans are in place for all children, which address their safety and wellbeing, and risk of harm to others, and improve the way they work with victims.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. Barnet YOS work with children aged 10 to 17. The majority of children under their supervision are aged 15 to 17 (83%), male (84%) and Black and minority ethnic (59%). The YOS supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
2. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
3. The inspection looked at standards of organisational delivery (leadership, staffing and facilities), their management of children serving court sentences (court disposals) and children serving cautions or community sentences (out-of-court disposals). We also inspected the quality of resettlement policy and provision, which were separately rated as ‘Good’.
4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 31 May 2022 00.01.
5. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth offending and probation services across England and Wales.
6. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in February 2022.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Corporate Communications Manager Diane Bramall 07929 790 564 or media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)