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“Evidence of promising practice” at Medway Youth Justice Service rated ‘Requires improvement’ following inspection

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Medway Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection of work with children and victims by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones, said: “The practitioners at Medway YJS were skilled at building meaningful and trusting relationships and tailoring interventions to the needs of children.”

Planning to achieve positive change for children was impressive. Practitioners had high aspirations for children, reflected in detailed and strengths-based planning which was grounded in achievable steps for children.

The inspection found the quality of assessing needed strengthening, particularly in understanding the safety of children and the community. Assessing activity generally identified the key factors to support positive change, however there was less focus on how to keep victims and the public safe. Information from the police was not always detailed enough for the YJS to understand all of the safety factors for the child and to the community and this needed to be remedied.

While senior leaders and the management board demonstrated a strong recognition of the importance of victim work and had established this as a strategic priority, the board was not providing consistent or effective strategic oversight of this area and needed to provide greater coordination to ensure YJS victims consistently received personalised and responsive services which supported their needs and safety.

Mr Jones continued, “While we found evidence of promising practice, there remained important aspects of service delivery that needed to improve to ensure consistent outcomes for children, victims and the community were met.”

The Inspectorate’s report makes 12 recommendations. Six recommendations are for Medway YJS, one recommendation is for the Director of Medway Children’s Services, three recommendations are for the YJS management board and two recommendations are for Kent Police.

Notes to editor 

  1. Inspections of work with children and victims is one of two separate types of youth justice inspection undertaken by the Inspectorate.
  2. In this inspection we have inspected and rated work against our standards in domain two, and the victims’ standard. For more information, visit our website: Youth Justice Services – HM Inspectorate of Probation
  3. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’; ‘Good’; ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’; rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
  4. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJSS supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
  5. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 04 August 2026.
  6. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
  7. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in May 2026.
  8. For media enquiries; please contact Head of Communications: media@hmiprobation.gov.uk