Inspectors praise Wakefield YOT for cutting reoffending

A joint inspection carried out by the Probation Inspectorate, alongside the Prison Service, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, found that the YOT had been effective in substantially reducing reoffending by children and young people.

“Positive leadership, effective management and partnership work had ensured that intervention needs were met and there had been generally good outcomes in inspected cases," the report states.

“The YOT was attentive to the wide needs of the children and young people with whom it worked."

The report also praised staff for being "enthusiastic and extremely committed", while work to ensure that sentences were served was also found to be good.

Staff were deemed to know the children and young people well and involved them in assessment and planning for the changes they needed to make in their lives.

Inspectors judged work to protect the public and victims as satisfactory, with good assessments of the risk of harm posed by the children and young people to others and those in custody taking place.

Work to protect children and young people and reduce their vulnerability was also satisfactory.

However, the report does call for more attention to be given to the speech, language and communication needs of the young people the YOT works with.

Management oversight processes, and interaction between the YOT and police were also highlighted as areas for improvement.

Paul McDowell, chief inspector of probation, said: “We were pleased that Wakefield YOT has achieved a reduction in the numbers of children and young people reoffending.

“The quality of work with children and young people who had offended has improved considerably since our last inspection in 2010.

“The YOT management board and management team have worked innovatively and mostly effectively to deliver better performance, but need to ensure that the quality of work continues to improve, gives sufficient focus to protecting the public, and is consistent across the YOT."

Olivia Rowley, lead member for children and young people at Wakefield Council, said: “We are pleased that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation has recognised the hard work of our youth offending team and the improvements in reoffending rates this has brought about.”