Trafford YOS maintains high standards

Following a Probation Inspectorate-led visit last November, inspectors gave the Trafford YOS their top grading of "good" for its work in protecting the public and ensuring sentences are served.

It also received a good rating for providing an innovative range of support to reduce reoffending among young offenders. This was often through well-established partnerships including a programme called Act Like A Man, which was developed with Manchester Primary Care Trust and focuses on addressing stereotypes.

Inspectors also praised community sentence ideas developed by the YOS such as its Bike Kabin project, where young offenders repair and refurbish unwanted bicycles that are then donated to local charities and community groups.

“As well as being reparative, the participants also learned useful skills which could be accredited by a nationally recognised qualification in bicycle maintenance,” said inspectors in their report.

Also highlighted was Trafford’s use of multi-dimensional treatment foster care, where young people are placed in long-term fostering placements that have an intensive programme to address behavioural issues, as an alternative to custodial sentences.

Among areas that were found to be "satisfactory" were reoffending rates, protecting children and young people and governance and partnership arrangements. No areas were found to be either "unsatisfactory" or "poor".

Areas inspectors want to see improve include oversight of safeguarding work and assessing the vulnerability of young offenders. They also wanted to see improvements in staff training, particularly around more complex cases.

Deputy chief inspector of probation Alan MacDonald said: “Overall, we found an enthusiastic and committed staff group, that levels of performance had been maintained and that a large majority of work had been completed sufficiently well across each of the areas inspected. Arrangements for health, education and learning for children and young people were especially good.

“However, close examination of a small number of cases identified some systemic and governance issues relating to the safeguarding work of the service which require attention.”

This joint inspection also looked at education, social care and health work carried out by the YOS.

While inspections usually prioritise local areas where concerns had previously been raised Trafford was selected because of its strong track record of good performance to help measure good practice in the sector.

Lin Hinnigan, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board, said the report showed how "enthusiastic and committed" staff were, and that levels of performance had been maintained, with the large majority of work being completed sufficiently well.