A Youth Justice Agency bail supervision project in Northern Ireland is making a positive contribution to children's lives but staffing levels and interagency working need to be improved, according to an evaluation report.
The report, by Deloitte for the Northern Ireland Office and calledEvaluation of the Bail Supervision and Support Scheme, says the schemeis successfully engaging with children. However, it says staff "areworking to full capacity and are finding it difficult to undertake thesupervision element".
The report calls for staffing resources to be reviewed and formalprocedures to be developed to strengthen interagency working. A keycriticism is that when children and young people leave the scheme "thereappears to be a gap" in service provision.
David Weir, the Youth Justice Agency of Northern Ireland's assistantdirector of community services, said staffing levels were being lookedat.
- www.nio.gov.uk.
