Walsall and Sandwell youth offending teams found wanting on work to protect the public
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Inspectors have called for substantial improvement in the way members of the public are protected from harm by two youth offending teams in the Midlands.
Walsall and Sandwell were both found to be falling short on work to protect the public.
Staff in Walsall were judged to be carrying out the work satisfactorily 49 per cent of the time and, in Sandwell, 52 per cent of the time. Inspectors in Walsall said that half the risk of serious harm screenings were not accurate with, in one case, previous inappropriate sexual behaviour and phone calls to female members of staff having not been noted.
Inspectors in Walsall found that in more than two-thirds of cases (71 per cent), risk of serious harm assessments did not draw adequately on all appropriate Information.
In both Walsall and Sandwell, moderate improvement was in terms of safeguarding and work to reduce re-offending.
Julie Fox, assistant chief inspector at HM Inspectorate of Probation, said of Sandwell: "Overall, we consider this a disappointing set of findings with risk of harm to others requiring particular attention.
"It was clear that senior managers were already aware of the areas for improvement raised during the inspection and had begun to put plans in place to address them.
"We judged that the service has promising prospects for the future, given its readiness to act on the recommendations in this report."
On Walsall, Fox said: "Overall, we consider this a slightly disappointing and mixed set of findings. However, we were encouraged by the standard of practice that the new strategic lead manager wanted to achieve, which was in line with the criteria for this inspection. There were some signs of improvement in practice.
"Case managers were keen to learn and responded to the inspection feedback. Consolidating the progress already made and implementing the recommendations will contribute to continued improvement of practice."
Councillor Derek Rowley, Sandwell Council's cabinet member for safer neighbourhoods, said: "Inspectors looked at a small sample of cases during November's inspection, all of which were at least 12 months old.
"They picked up on some improvements needed, which we had already started to act upon. These resulted mainly from some significant staffing changes we had during 2010 which have since been resolved."
A separate report on youth offending in Coventry found the need for moderate improvement in the risk of harm posed to the public and safeguarding, and minimum improvement required in the area of re-offending.