Inspectors praise creative youth justice work in Hampshire

An inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation conducted in June found that in the area of court disposals, staff demonstrated good joint working with partner agencies, and adopted creative interventions to help reduce reoffending and support desistance.

In one example a young person created an online tool to research his peers' views on carrying knives, which staff then used to challenge his view that such behaviour was normal. Another young person attended a football hooligan seminar run by police.
 
The report also noted staff's use of creative interview techniques during out-of-court disposal assessments.
 
One inspector commented: "Great involvement of child in exploring their needs - excellent use of different techniques by practitioner to get child comfortable enough to discuss what happened such as asking questions out loud but allowing child to answer on piece of paper and fold it up."
 
And in planning, inspectors praised staff's "well informed, holistic and personalised" approach, which "engaged the young person's interests".
 
One example cited is of a hand-written plan by a young person, who added the detail of cars heading for a finish line.