Wakefield Youth Justice Service ‘requires improvement’ after inspection

Wakefield Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.
Wakefield Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.Wakefield Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.
Wakefield Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: “Wakefield YJS is committed but inconsistent, and their approach to identifying and addressing risk of harm to children and others insufficient.

"They must improve the quality of service delivery and appropriately identify areas of concern for each child under their supervision. Whilst we found some good practice, and an eagerness to develop, this was outweighed by the improvements required.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Wakefield YJS work with children aged 10 to 17. The majority of children under their supervision are aged 15 to 17 (63%), male (79%) and white (92%). The YJS supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority (Looked After Children).

The inspection looked at standards of organisational delivery (leadership, staffing and facilities), their management of children serving court sentences (court disposals) and children serving cautions or community resolutions (out-of-court disposals). They also inspected the quality of resettlement policy and provision, which was separately rated as ‘Good’.

With the exception of work to support desistance (stopping the previous pattern of offending) – which was of a ‘Good’ standard – inspectors found evidence that the YJS had inadequately assessed risks and failed to identify clear signs of concern.

Overall, this is having a detrimental impact on the quality of planning, implementation and delivery, and review of the service for each child – this is for both court and out-of-court disposals.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Russell said: “We found evidence that the management board and the YJS in Wakefield have a vision for the service, but this is not currently being translated into effective service delivery. Their focus must be on keeping these children safe, as well as better managing the risk they may pose to others.”

The inspection did find that children at Wakefield YJS have access to personalised, good-quality facilities and services – boosted by positive partnership working – and effective arrangements for education, training and opportunities.

Children also have access to health support, speech and language therapy and innovative services such as a music therapist.

Mr Russell said: “Wakefield YJS have a clear understanding of the educational needs of each child under their supervision. The use of a music therapist is an asset – there is clear evidence of their success in engaging with children in a meaningful way and helping a child to better understand their situation and why they should not reoffend.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This inspection made nine recommendations, including improving the quality of assessment for both court and out-of-court disposals with a specific focus on keeping children safe and managing the risks to others; ensure the needs of victims are considered by case managers, and develop clearer joint working arrangements between the YJS and Wakefield Children’s Social Care.

This is to ensure practitioners from both services are aware of their respective roles and responsibilities, and effective joint working becomes evident.

Coun Margaret Isherwood, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “We are pleased that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation has acknowledged that our Youth Justice Service are committed and eager to learn and develop.

"We accept that we could do better in some areas, and we have received some useful feedback which we will adopt into our service improvement plans. We will continue to build on our areas of best practice to ensure we provide a high-quality service for children who offend or are at risk of offending in our district.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The inspection is just one of the reporting mechanisms used to assess the effectiveness of the service. The service is also reviewed by the Youth Justice Board against three key national measures; first time offenders, reoffending rates and young people sentenced to custody. In terms of first-time offenders, Wakefield has the second lowest rate across West Yorkshire.

The reoffending rates of children supported by Wakefield services are some of the best nationally and significantly lower than comparable areas. There are also very small numbers of young people whose offending is serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence and rates for Wakefield are amongst the lowest nationally.

Coun Isherwood added: “It is important that we take the learning from this inspection alongside what we have learnt from the national measures which we are also reviewed against.

“We know that we have low rates of reoffending by the children supported by our services and that the number of children who end up with a custodial sentence is amongst the lowest in the country. This is good practice which, alongside the inspection feedback, will help our continuous development to further improve this service.”