Calls To Improve Doncaster's Youth Offending Service

Doncaster's Youth Offending service needs to improve, according to inspectors.

They've been looking at what's being done to reduce re-offending and to protect the public, as well as children and young people.

They did find some good work though.

Paul Wilson from HM Inspectorate of Probation said:

"Despite some good work by individual case managers in Doncaster Youth Offending, other aspects of work were not carried out well enough, often enough"

Inspectors focused on six key areas: reducing reoffending, protecting the public, protecting children and young people, ensuring the sentence is served, the effectiveness of governance and court work and reports.

Inspectors were concerned to find that:

• Work to reduce reoffending was unsatisfactory. Education, training and employment work was a strength. Overall, however, planning was not good enough and interventions did not always follow on from either the assessment or the plan;

• Work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was unsatisfactory. Some good public protection work was carried out by individual case managers but the assessment of the risk of harm posed to others and the plans to manage that risk were not always carried out well enough;

-Work to protect children and reduce their vulnerability was unsatisfactory. There was little joint work with children’s social care services. Assessments of vulnerability lacked understanding of the potential consequences of identified factors;

• The effectiveness of governance and partnership arrangements was poor. The YOS Management Board had been ineffective and there was sporadic attendance by some agencies. There was no evidence of scrutiny, challenge or joint problem solving and little performance data, either requested or submitted; and

• The work in court and on report writing was unsatisfactory. The dedicated court team were knowledgeable and valued by the court. Information was available swiftly due to good IT links. Court work was process driven, however. Pre-sentence reports were largely too long and contained irrelevant information.

However, inspectors were pleased to find that:

• Work to ensure that the sentence was served was satisfactory. Engagement with children and their parents was a strength during the assessment stage of the work. Compliance work was carried out efficiently but there as not always a sufficient exploration of the reasons for non-compliance.

In response Doncaster Children's Services Trust said:

"We welcome the findings and recommendations in today’s HMI report on our Youth Offending Service, one of several rigorous and important inspections recently undertaken at the Trust.

"These come as we approach our first year operating as an independent organisation.

"Our goal is to provide outstanding services for Doncaster children and families and we are absolutely determined to drive improvements forward across all areas of Doncaster Children’s Services Trust.

"The HMI Probation inspection follows recent Ofsted inspections of our children’s homes and our fostering and adoption services. And a full children’s services inspection is currently underway.

"Two of our children’s homes are rated as ‘good’, one is rated as ‘outstanding’ and our fostering and adoption services are also rated as ‘good’.

"As today’s HMI report acknowledges, we had already recognised some of the areas where significant improvement was needed within our Youth Offending Service, for example within the service’s Management Board.

"Plans to recruit new Board Members are now well underway and we have added Doncaster Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools Cllr Nuala Fennelly to provide additional scrutiny and oversight.

"We are pleased that the report also acknowledges areas of good practice, such our engagement with children, young people and their families, and our work to help young people progress well in education, employment and training. Also the positive recognition of our “Getting On” programme which works with parents experiencing domestic violence issues from their children.

"I am very proud of the commitment, dedication and hard work of all Trust staff to improve how we help young people stay safe and reach their full potential.

"We know there is much more to be done and we will be using the recommendations in today’s report to help us continue to shape and deliver the very best services for Doncaster’s young people.”

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