North Yorkshire Youth Justice Service rated ‘good’ by inspectors
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, September 17, 2020
North Yorkshire Youth Justice Service (YJS) has been rated “good” by inspectors with its services for children described as “outstanding”.
Justin Russell, chief inspector of probation at HM Inspectorate of Probation, praised the service’s support to children who have offended or who are at risk of offending, following an inspection carried out just before lockdown in March.
The inspectorate looked at 12 aspects of the service’s work and awarded an overall rating of "good".
North Yorkshire YJS works with 10- to 17-year-olds who are serving court sentences, or who have received cautions or community resolutions.
“Many children have complex needs – 13 per cent are in the care of the local authority, nearly half (46 per cent) have mental health issues and more than half (55 per cent) misuse substances,” Russell's report states.
It praises staff for their “commitment to the children they work with” and states they have “high aspirations for them”.
Russell awarded the service an “outstanding” rating for the quality of its partnerships and services for children.
His report highlights one of the YJS’s projects saying it “has received national recognition”.
“Staff created a pop-up shed that can be driven across the county to deliver restorative justice projects. Staff set up the shed in spaces such as gardens or church halls and supervise children to create woodwork projects for local charities or communities. Children develop new skills and, at the same time, give something back to society,” the report states.
The YJS has also partnered with a social enterprise to run a project for children with high offending-related and social care needs. Children spend four days per week on construction and horticulture projects, and one day a week developing their English, Maths and ICT skills or studying for a vocational qualification.
Russell says: “We were particularly impressed with the way the YJS uses performance data to understand children’s needs and to commission a strong mix of targeted, specialist and mainstream services.”
The chief inspector describes the service overall as “well-led and well-managed”.
He adds: “The Management Board sets a clear vision and strategy for the service. Board members have sufficient seniority to make decisions and commit resources from their own agencies to support children.
“Positive steps had been taken to include education representatives at board level. As a result, the YJS has effectively used specialist education workers, which has resulted in improvements in YJS children accessing statutory education provision.”
However, inspectors also identified some areas for improvement including work with children with a court sentence.
As part of its recommendations, the inspectorate has called on the YJS to “take a more consistent approach to ensure any risks to others are identified, analysed and managed more robustly”.
It also recommends that “contingency planning is tailored to the needs of individual cases, recorded appropriately and shared effectively with partners” and that “there is improved management oversight of risk-of-harm work for court disposal cases”.
