The latest inspection report of Youth Offending work in England and Wales was published today.

Julie Fox, Assistant Chief Inspector, said:

“This Core Case Inspection of youth offending work in Bexley 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 64% 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 51% the time, andthe work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough66% the time. A more detailed analysis of our findings is provided in the mainbody of this report, and summarised in a table in Appendix 1. These figures canbe viewed in the context of our findings from Wales and the regions of Englandinspected so far – see the Table below

.“Bexley was a small YOT in one of the safest boroughs in London, butnonetheless over half the cases we looked at were for offences of violence. Theirlocation within the Directorate of Education and Social Care gave them readyaccess to other specialists, which supported effective multi-agency working,particularly in the area of child Safeguarding. The YOT was striving hard to Media support children and young people with whom they were working and to ensurethat plans were in place to sustain achievements beyond the end of their courtorders.

Particularly in relation to work to reduce the Risk of Harm to others, we considerthis a rather mixed set of findings. Other areas of work required less development.We were encouraged that the YOT appeared well motivated to learn from thisinspection and to improve practice for the future”

 

	Scores from Wales and the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Bexley
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Safeguarding’ work (action to protect the young person)	37%	91%	68%	64%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	36%	85%	63%	51%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend)	43%	87%	71%	66%

 

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Notes  to editors

1. The report is available at www.justice.gov.uk/about/hmi-probation/

.2. This Inspection of Youth Offending (IYO) programme started in April 2009. YouthOffending work in all 158 areas of England & Wales will be inspected over thecourse of a three-year cycle.

3. Julie Fox can be contacted on julie.fox@hmiprobation.gsi.gov.uk and 07973264412.