HMIP reports positive progress at Bromley youth offending work

Work with young people in Bromley who had committed crimes had improved and the foundations were laid for further progress to reduce offending, said Dame Glenys Stacey, Chief Inspector of Probation. Today she published the report of a recent joint inspection of the work of Bromley Youth Offending Service (YOS).

This joint inspection of youth offending work in Bromley is one of a small number of full joint inspections undertaken by HM Inspectorate of Probation with colleagues from the criminal justice, social care, education and health inspectorates. Inspectors focused on six key areas: reducing reoffending, protecting the public, protecting children and young people, making sure the sentence is served, the effectiveness of governance and interventions to reduce reoffending.

Inspectors were pleased to find that:

• work to reduce reoffending was satisfactory. Assessments and reports for courts and youth offender panels were generally good, and education, training and employment outcomes for young people were good. The transfer of cases to or from other youth offending teams (YOTs) was not done well;
• work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was satisfactory. Assessment of the risk of harm to others had improved considerably. Management oversight arrangements were not always effective;
• work to protect children and reduce their vulnerability was satisfactory. Many aspects of this work had improved substantially, particularly assessment and planning within the YOS and its delivery of suitable interventions. Joint work with children’s services remained inconsistent;
• work to make sure the sentence was served was good. Engagement with children and others in assessment and planning had improved considerably. Response to non-compliance with the sentence, and to other incidents, was appropriate;
• governance and partnership arrangements were satisfactory. Governance and leadership arrangements were generally strong. A broad range of partnerships was in place. While education, training and employment partnerships were particularly effective, there were some difficulties with health-related arrangements; and
• work on interventions to reduce offending was satisfactory. When interventions had been delivered, this was done well. Interventions were based on the needs of the individual case, a substantial improvement from the previous inspection. Not enough effective use was made of the custodial period of sentences.  

Inspectors made recommendations to assist the YOS to make continuing improvements, including recording and evaluating work completed in individual cases to improve the quality of case management, developing the use of localised information to enable the Board to provide effective oversight and improving the arrangements for transferring cases between YOTs.

Dame Glenys Stacey said:  

“It was good to see that the youth offending partnership in Bromley had made positive progress since our last inspection. Leadership arrangements were strong and the local authority was highly committed to youth offending work. Important foundations had been laid which should lead to further improvements and long-term stability. Many aspects of managing cases had improved though there was still some way to go. We were pleased to see that work to address education, training and employment difficulties for young people had maintained its previous high quality.”