Isle of Wight Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

We also inspected the quality of resettlement work – the key services which need to be in place when a child is released from custody, for example to meet accommodation needs – which was separately rated as ‘Good’.

Interim Chief Inspector of Probation Sue McAllister said: “It was a mixed picture for Isle of Wight Youth Justice Service. Staff are committed and determined to improve the lives of children under their supervision, but there are areas we think need to be improved. This includes how the risk of harm a child may pose to others is identified and analysed, and greater input from the management board to lead the service’s future. We very much look forward to watching them develop and build on our recommendations from this inspection.”

There are services in place to support children involved in substance misuse or with mental health issues, and a clear offer of support for parents or carers.  However, we felt the management board needed to ensure there were appropriate services available to help meet children’s diverse needs, particularly their physical health, and speech and language.

We also found inconsistencies in the quality of work across both court work and out-of-court disposals (where children receive support without having to go to court) particularly the areas that focused on the safety and wellbeing of children. We identified that some staff told us their workloads felt unmanageable at the time of this inspection, and this is something we have asked the YJS to address.

We made seven recommendations which we believe will have a positive impact on youth justice services on the Isle of Wight. This includes recommendations to routinely gather and utilise the views of children and their parents or carers to inform service provision and strengthen management oversight to improve the quality of work with children.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJS 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 rated work on resettlement separately as ‘Good’
4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 14 November 2023 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 September 2023.
7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications Diane Bramall media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)