More youth justice services (seven-out-of-ten) were rated ‘Good’
or ‘Outstanding’ in 2022 and, for the second year running, no
services were rated ‘Inadequate’, says HM Inspectorate of
Probation on the publication of its Youth Annual Report 2022.
Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell, who is publishing
his final youth annual report before leaving the post this
autumn, praised the performance of local youth justice services:
“I am pleased to complete my tenure as chief inspector on a
positive note, having watched how hard those in the youth justice
world have strived to build a bright future for their services
and the children they support.”
This annual report finds strong youth justice services, across
England and Wales, that are delivering high quality services to
children, young people, and the communities in which they live.
Overall, services know how to work with their partners to get the
best outcomes for children, management boards understand their
services and partnerships, and essential requirements such as
substance misuse treatment and mental health support are being
met.
No services rated ‘Inadequate’
Last year we rated 70 per cent of the 33 services inspected as
‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ compared to 58 per cent in 2018/2019.
Staffing, partnerships, IT, and facilities were found to be
particularly impressive in these high-performing services. For a
second year, no services were rated as ‘Inadequate’ and
reinspected services have shown considerable improvement. Across
the 108 services we have reported on over the past four years in
our annual reports, 55 have been rated as ‘Good’ and 12 as
‘Outstanding’.
Mr Russell continued: “I’ve been particularly pleased to see an
improvement in the quality of essential work that services are
doing to assess and manage the potential risk of serious harm
that children may pose to others, including those close to them
and to their local communities.
“Children leaving custody are receiving better support compared
to four years ago, and I’m impressed with the range of specialist
services available to support children with speech, language, and
communication needs. Also, it has been good to see that many
children are now getting the assessments they need for autism and
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – though it’s worrying
how many only receive a diagnosis when they enter the youth
justice system, and often in their mid-teens.”
More children dealt with out of court
This annual report notes that a vanishingly small proportion of
children are now processed through formal criminal justice
processes – whether through the courts system or a police
caution/conditional caution. Instead, an increasing number of
children are dealt with via out-of-court disposals. These are
increasingly taking the form of a community resolution or an
‘Outcome 22’ – where children are offered support and
intervention without receiving a criminal sanction.
Mr Russell added: “There is no doubt we are seeing an increasing
trend for managing children who commit crime via informal
out-of-court disposals. But how these are managed varies widely,
leading to inconsistences across the country in which children
receive them and for what offences. Given the overwhelming
importance of these informal processes, it is very disappointing
that five years after we recommended that the Ministry of Justice
publish national data on the number and effectiveness of this
sort of out-of-court disposal in 2018, this information is still
not available. It remains the case that what is now the
predominant way of dealing with children who have committed an
offence remains uncounted and unevaluated.”
Concerns around education, training and employment
(ETE)
Despite the positive overall inspection findings, the annual
report notes that concerns remain around education, training and
employment (ETE). The number of recommendations made to services
on this issue has doubled since last year, the Inspectorate is
still finding services with a high number of older children who
are not in any form of training or education, along with high
levels of permanent exclusion from mainstream education.
Mr Russell concluded: “This annual report has given me the
opportunity to reflect on my four years as Chief Inspector, and
the significant amount of time I’ve spent with youth justice
services out on inspection. The resilience, compassion,
commitment, and imagination they have shown in keeping their
services going through the most challenging of times, to meet the
needs of the children on their caseloads and keep the wider
public safe, have been truly inspiring to me and to our
inspectors.”
