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 Haringey 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 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 62% of 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 57% of the time, and the work to make each individual less likely to reoffend was done well enough 61% of the time. A more detailed analysis of our findings is provided in the main body of this report, and summarised in a table in Appendix 1. These figures can be viewed in the context of our findings from Wales and the regions of England inspected so far – see the Table below.

‘The YOS undertook its work in a demanding environment. The diverse needs of service users raised a number of challenges for the YOS including responding effectively to knife crime and gang-related violence, and providing services to children and young people who could be both perpetrators and victims of crime. As a result of funding reductions, the YOS had lost a number of external grants and undergone changes to its internal delivery structures. Moreover, during the London summer disturbances of 2011 the YOS offices had been rendered unusable by fire and the team had been required to relocate to new premises. Despite these challenges, case managers showed enthusiasm to improve their
practice and YOS staff engaged well with children and young people to deliver the sentence of the court. However, there were aspects of practice, particularly in relation to some Risk of Harm issues that required particular attention.

‘Overall, we consider this a reasonable set of findings. We anticipate that the recommendations in this report will be implemented and will contribute to improvements in the services delivered by the YOS.’

	Scores from the Wales and the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Haringey
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Safeguarding’ work (action to protect the young person)	37%	91%	68%	62%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	36%	85%	63%	57%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend)	43%	87%	71%	61%

Download a copy of this press release (PDF, 289 kB) (PDF 0.30mb)

Notes to editors:

1. Download a copy of the report (PDF, 600 kB) (PDF 0.60mb)
2. This Inspection of Youth Offending (IYO) programme started in April 2009. Youth Offending work in all 158 areas of England & Wales will be inspected over the course of a three-year cycle.
3. Julie Fox can be contacted on 07973264412 and by email (E-mail address).