Inspections Clinic: Tackling disproportionality
Jo Stephenson
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Inspectors now assess how youth offending services promote diversity and address disproportionality. While the issue is on the radar of most teams, few have made sufficient progress, reports Jo Stephenson.
Youth offending services are failing to meet the needs of black and mixed heritage boys who continue to be over-represented in the criminal justice system, according to HM Inspectorate of Probation.
A report published by the inspectorate towards the end of last year highlighted a lack of progress in addressing “disproportionality” despite the fact it has been a long-standing priority for services.
The report is based on in-depth research carried out in April and June last year. Inspectors visited nine youth offending services and examined the cases of more than 170 black and mixed heritage boys. They also surveyed and interviewed staff, managers and parents, and heard from young men.
The findings did not come as a surprise to chief inspector of probation Justin Russell. “From our local inspection data, we knew the quality of support and supervision for black and mixed heritage boys was less than it was for white peers,” he says. “If anything, the pattern we saw in the sample of cases we inspected was even poorer.”
Keen to improve
Most services recognise they are not doing enough and are keen to improve the quality of services for black and mixed heritage boys.
“Over the past year, all of us have been having discussions because of Black Lives Matter and the death of George Floyd, and that includes youth offending team (YOT) workers,” says Russell. “Disproportionality is definitely on the agenda for YOTs and their management boards, and has been for a while. What they’re not doing is coming up with the specific plans and actions that would do something about it.”
Key issues identified in the report include a lack of data to help understand and then address disparities both at a local and national level.
“Stop and search is a big issue, with black and mixed heritage boys saying it is an everyday part of their lives,” says Russell. “But we don’t actually have data that breaks down stop and search by age as well as ethnicity, so we don’t know the picture for under-18s.”
Another major data gap is around school exclusions. Of 114 cases that went through the courts, nearly 60 per cent of boys had been permanently excluded from school – often before they came through the door of a YOT.
“We found a lack of data on disproportionality in exclusion rates in individual schools or within local areas,” says Russell.
Report recommendations
The report features a series of recommendations for government, the police and others on ensuring key data is published so it can inform the work of YOTs.
The need for early intervention is another key message. So many of the black and mixed heritage boys who end up in the youth justice system have issues that should have been addressed much earlier on in their childhoods.
“YOT workers are quite frequently saying to us ‘Look – this kid had clear education, mental health or speech and language needs much earlier on in their childhood, but these weren’t acted upon’,” says Russell.
“We’ve found children in our cases that had education, health and care plans that had not been looked at for four or five years – if they ever had such a plan.”
In a third of the court cases examined as part of the research, boys had been identified by children’s services as a child in need or placed on the child protection register.
“One of the big messages in this report is if you don’t do stuff earlier on and address children’s needs, they are going to turn up on the caseloads of YOTs,” says Russell.
“Tracking the early help and provision for black and mixed heritage boys when they are primary or pre-primary school age is really important to prevent problems down the line.”
He highlights the key role of directors of children’s services “who can make a big difference with education and police colleagues through the YOT management board, but also through other local partnerships”.
The research found an increasing number of black and mixed heritage boys are remanded in custody while waiting to stand trial. “One of the reasons this is happening is because the court does not have an adequate alternative to custody,” says Russell.
In eight of the 25 remand cases examined, inspectors found accessing suitable and timely accommodation was an issue. Children’s services are key when it comes to finding suitable accommodation, but there is a shortage of placements making it difficult for YOTs to put together bail support packages.
The report found the needs of black and mixed heritage boys on YOT caseloads are often not being met.
Analysis of court cases showed that many black and mixed heritage boys failed to receive the services they had been assessed as needing (see table).
In post-court work, only half of boys who had mental health, speech and language or substance misuse concerns identified in their initial assessment went on to receive an intervention.
Community organisations
There were some good examples where youth offending services were working with community organisations around issues like mental health.
“The austerity cuts to youth and community services funding has massively impacted on some of these organisations,” says Russell.
The report also found youth offending service staff were failing to recognise or act on the impact of discrimination.
In 40 per cent of cases dealt with outside the courts and about half that went to court, the child had experienced racial discrimination but in the large majority of cases the impact of this had not been explored or considered.
“An example of this was the case of a boy who was being stopped and searched five times per week and, while the case manager thought this was concerning and that the child was being targeted, it was not raised with colleagues or managers,” says the report.
“This lack of attention and escalation could suggest that black and mixed heritage boys in the youth justice system experiencing racism may have become normalised, not only to the boys themselves, but also to those working with them.”
The report highlights the need for more training, supervision and support for staff. In many cases, management supervision was inadequate, says Russell.
Shortage of mentors
The report found a lack of mentors from black and mixed heritage backgrounds as well as paid staff in YOTs.
“One of the insights from speaking to boys was they don’t actually mind if their case manager is black or white, but they did welcome it when their case managers talked to them about issues around race and culture,” says Russell. “I think they welcome people acknowledging they have discrimination in their lives.”
HM Inspectorate of Probation has introduced new inspection standards to help ensure the needs of black and mixed heritage boys are prioritised.
“We’ve woven diversity into both the way we inspect leadership and management of YOTs and probation services, as well as the individual case assessments we do,” he says. “Each of our inspection reports will now include a separate section on diversity where we will run through what we found in relation to casework, staffing and other aspects of the organisation.”
The inspectorate has also produced an effective practice guide highlighting examples of good work by youth offending services and their partners.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUTH OFFENDING SERVICES
Youth offending service partnership boards
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Should have a clear vision for improving outcomes for black and mixed heritage boys, and make sure this is understood by staff and partners.
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Ensure all board members contribute data from their services that identifies areas of disproportionality and the action taken to address these.
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Have a joint set of targets to improve services for black and mixed heritage boys, and mechanisms in place to monitor progress.
Youth offending service managers
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Establish effective processes for gaining feedback from black and mixed heritage boys on the services they receive – and use this to improve quality.
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Ensure staff understand what is expected of them in their work with black and mixed heritage boys, and get the right training and support.
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Improve management oversight so there is a focus on diversity and addressing any issues preventing black and mixed heritage boys accessing services.
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Address gaps in specialist provision either by delivering services in-house or commissioning them from community organisations.
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Offer appropriate support to parents and review uptake of this provision.
Source: The Experiences of Black and Mixed Heritage Boys in the Youth Justice System, HM Inspectorate of Probation, Nov 2021
INSPECTIONS SHORTS
EDUCATION
Ofsted has been asked to speed up the inspection of schools and colleges to give a quicker assessment of how well education is recovering from the pandemic. All providers will be inspected at least once by summer 2025, with extra funding from last autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
SOCIAL CARE
About four out of five children’s homes are rated “good” or “outstanding”, the latest figures from Ofsted show. Data on inspection outcomes shows 79 per cent of homes had received the top two ratings as of August 2021 – down three per cent on the most recent comparable data from August 2019. In all, 209 homes received their first full inspection between April and August last year, with 61 per cent judged “good” or “outstanding”, 24 per cent judged “requires improvement” and 15 per cent rated “inadequate”.
EDUCATION
Ofsted has urged professionals to help protect children by reporting schools they suspect are operating illegally. The regulator set out what to do in new guidance on how to report an unregistered school. Private and independent schools must be registered with the Department for Education and if managers fail to do this, they could face a fine or prison sentence. Anyone who suspects a school is operating illegally can report their concerns by emailing unregisteredchoolreferrals@ofsted.gov.uk. Referrals can be made anonymously.
SOCIAL CARE
A lack of capacity in the foster care sector means vulnerable children are missing out on the support and care they need, warns Ofsted. The regulator’s annual fostering statistics shows there are not enough foster families in England to meet demand, despite the fact the number of fostering households and foster carers are at an all-time high. In the 12 months from April 2020 to March 2021, there were record levels of enquiries about becoming a foster carer, but the statistics show these aren’t translating into applications. Of 160,000 enquiries, 10,000 resulted in applications – a decrease on previous years.
YOUTH JUSTICE
Wirral Youth Justice Service has been rated “good” overall after moving to Wirral Council’s children’s services department. An inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation in July 2021 found the transfer in July 2020 had proved beneficial. Inspectors found the service had an excellent understanding of the factors that help children to stop offending, although some improvements were needed in the assessment of children’s safety and wellbeing, and provision of health and education support.