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Derby City Youth Justice Service rated ‘Outstanding’ and “helps children lead their best lives”

Published:

Derby City Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ following an inspection of youth justice work with children and victims (IYJWCV) by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones, said: “Derby City YJS is an impressive service. Staff are humble, caring, and use their professional skills to help children lead their best lives.”

Inspectors found strong work with children across assessing, planning, and delivery. Practitioners were creative in their involvement of children and their parents or carers in identifying the reasons behind a child’s offending. This ensured the voices of children, parents or carers took the main stage in all casework activity. Work delivered to achieve safety for the child and the community was a strength, and interventions were planned and delivered collaboratively with a breadth of agencies to build safety and protection for the child and wider community.  

Work with victims was high-quality, individualised and responsive. Victims were given sufficient information to make informed choices, and support was driven by the wishes and needs of the victim. Effective arrangements were in place with the police for obtaining consent and sharing victim details. An understanding of a range of data, including the victims’ profile, was evident and prioritised at management board.

Mr Jones continued: “The staff at Derby City YJS should be rightly proud of the outcome of this inspection, but also the lasting change the service has achieved to effectively support victims and help children thrive.”

The Inspectorate’s report makes two recommendations. One is for Derby City YJS to be more consistent in their analysis in assessing activity for safety. One recommendation is for Derbyshire Constabulary to put a more robust process in place for the collection of protected characteristics information from victims.

ENDS 

Notes to editor 

  1. Inspections of youth justice work with children and victims (IYJWCV) is one of two separate types of youth justice inspection undertaken by the Inspectorate.
  2. In this inspection we have inspected and rated work with children and victims in Derby City Youth Justice Service across two broad areas: the quality of work done with children working with the YJS and the quality of work done with victims.
  3. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJS supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
  4. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’; ‘Good’; ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’; rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
  5. The inspection looked at standards of organisational delivery (leadership; staffing and facilities); their management of children serving court sentences (court disposals) and children serving cautions or community sentences (out-of-court disposals).
  6. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 16 September 2025 at 00.01.
  7. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
  8. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in June 2025.
  9. For media enquiries; please contact Head of Communications: media@hmiprobation.gov.uk