Youth justice services in Ceredigion have “systemic shortcomings” with “significant concerns” over whether it can keep children and victims safe, a damning inspection has said.
Ceredigion Youth Justice and Prevention Service (YJPS) has received an overall rating of ‘Inadequate’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.
It is the first ‘Inadequate’ rating given to a Youth Justice Service since July 2020.
Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones CBE said the inspection of Ceredigion services “observed systemic insufficiencies in all levels of service delivery and the concerning findings from this inspection require immediate attention.”
The report found that, operationally, there were a team of just four staff members responsible for delivering post-court and out-of-court disposal work at Ceredigion YJPS.
The staff had wide responsibilities and dual roles which diluted the expertise required to deliver effective services.
However, despite this, inspectors commended the “committed and dedicated” staff members for their adaptability in delivering services to children with the limited resources at their disposal.
The report found that “the vulnerabilities and complex needs of children in the youth justice arena are overlooked and the profile and identity of the service have become lost within the local authority and statutory partnership arrangements.”
Inspectors raised concerns over the “assessing, planning, and delivery of work to promote desistance and to keep children and other people safe.”
Safety and wellbeing thresholds for children subject to out-of-court disposals focused on the child’s immediate physical safety, rather than analysing the child’s emotional and psychological safety to create a more holistic understanding of their needs, the report said.
A lack of data and information collected by the service also created a “barrier to analysis and evaluation activity”, and has resulted in the service “not fully understanding the profile of the children known to the service.”
“The voices and views of children, parents or carers, and victims are not effectively incorporated into setting and reviewing the vision and strategy,” the report said.
The inspection found that a child’s diversity needs and individual circumstances were only considered in the minority of out-of-court disposal cases and “assessing did not pay sufficient attention to understanding the child’s levels of maturity.”
“We found an inherent belief in the YJPS, and across the partnership, that children referred for out-of-court disposals present with low levels of needs and concerns,” the report said.
“This perspective may have contributed to insufficiencies in assessing activity to keep the child and others safe in all of the out-of-court disposal cases inspected, and was at odds with some of the challenges, vulnerabilities and complexities of the children the YJPS was working with on out-of-court disposals.”
The report also found that in over half the cases inspected, “victims’ needs and safety had been overlooked.”
“This included not recognising ongoing risks to actual and potential victims, and making appropriate plans to mitigate concerns,” the report added.
The delivery of services to keep children and others safe was sufficient in just one out of nine cases inspected, inspectors found.
Inspectors found examples of children “experiencing deterioration in their emotional and mental health which did not result in a responsive offer”, and also found “examples of escalating concerns regarding violence and aggression which would have benefited from a YJS-led multi-agency forum focused on keeping the child and other people safe.”
Mr Jones said: “This inspection is part of our programme of youth justice service (YJS) inspections.
“We have inspected and rated Ceredigion youth justice and prevention service (YJPS) across two broad areas: the arrangements for organisational delivery of the service, and the quality of out-of-court disposal work.
“Overall, Ceredigion YJPS was rated as ‘Inadequate’.
“Although we inspected the quality of work done with children sentenced by the courts, due to the low number of cases, we have not rated this area of work.
“We also inspected the quality of resettlement policy and provision, which was not rated because there were no resettlement cases within the timescale covered by the inspection.
“In Ceredigion, the fundamental foundations required to deliver effective youth justice services to children and victims are missing.
“We found significant concerns with governance and leadership, staffing arrangements, partnerships and services, and information and facilities.
“This has contributed to systemic insufficiencies in the assessing, planning, and delivery of work to promote desistance and to keep children and other people safe.
“Governance arrangements require considerable development.
“The YJPS management board is not driving the vision and strategy for the service.
“Connectivity with the team, volunteers, and children is absent and there is a void between operational practice and strategic arrangements.
“Barriers to collating and analysing data mean that neither the YJPS nor the board understand the profile of children known to the service, or whether the work with children and their parents or carers is effective.
“Essential policies, processes, and joint working agreements are not in place, and this has exacerbated the lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities.
“Partnership arrangements do not support the effective delivery of work with children.
“The YJPS does not benefit from secondment arrangements with health, education, or probation services.
“Referral pathways into key specialist services are not formalised or monitored by the board, meaning that children’s needs are not always identified or supported.
“Operationally, the team responsible for post-court work and out-of-court disposals consists of one case manager, a restorative practitioner, a volunteer coordinator, and a senior practitioner.
“Staff are attempting to deliver the entire range of services a youth justice service needs to operate effectively, largely in isolation.
“The team manager and head of service have responsibilities for the YJPS and additional teams.
“We found dedicated managers and staff, motivated to do their best for children, but their vast spans of responsibilities and dual roles have diluted the youth justice expertise required to deliver effective services to children and victims.
“Quality assurance processes require urgent development to ensure that casework effectively keeps children and others safe from harm.
“The disappointing findings from this inspection require immediate action and we are reassured by the response from senior leaders in Ceredigion to commit additional resources to prioritise progress against our inspection recommendations.
“We will monitor that progress.”
The inspector makes 11 recommendations it believes that, if implemented, “will have a positive impact on the quality of youth justice and prevention services in Ceredigion” and “will improve the lives of the children in contact with the service, and better protect the public.”
Six of the recommendations are for the Ceredigion Youth Justice and Prevention management board, including to develop connectivity with the YJPS staff team, volunteers, parents or carers, and children.
Five recommendations are for the Ceredigion YJPS leadership team, including to urgently develop a quality assurance and management oversight process to ensure that the sufficiency of assessing, planning, and delivery of work keeps children and others safe.
Mr Jones added: “In our youth annual report, I warned that the high-quality work we generally see in the youth justice service is at risk if it does not continue receiving adequate funding, and I reiterate my call for recent cuts to be urgently reviewed.
“This inspection was extremely disappointing, but we have been reassured by the senior leaders at Ceredigion YJS that they will be committing additional resources to prioritise action in response to our recommendations.”