Youth offending service praised for 'excellent' work
Adam Offord
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
The Inspectorate of Probation has praised a youth offending service (YOS) in south London following an inspection last month.
????Inspectors said that staff at Southwark YOS were "energised, knowledgeable and skilled" and that there was evidence they had established meaningful relationships with children and young people.
It also praised the YOS for excellent quality of assessment and planning, and said a "key strength" was the effective balance of managing offending, risk of harm and vulnerability issues.
??The report also noted that there was effective and supportive management oversight, and good work around collaborative and joint working with parents and carers.
??"We found excellent work being undertaken to understand and address
the particularly complex situations of children and young people, some of whom used serious violence against their peers and the public," the inspection report said.
??Inspectors also praised the YOS and its partner agencies for changing the approach to addressing reoffending and said that other youth offending teams could learn from the new approach. ??
"For many years Southwark YOS has had to respond to serious youth violence, which is highly challenging work and reducing reoffending in this context is very difficult," inspectors said.
??"This new approach was showing some real benefits in tackling offending behaviour, risk of harm to others and the vulnerability of children and young people.
"We believe that there is learning for other youth offending teams about this approach." ??
However, the report did note areas for improvement. Inspectors said that Crown Prosecution Service information should be available to assist with all assessments as soon as possible and police intelligence should be provided quickly to assist with assessment and response to the risk of serious harm to others.
