Enfield Youth Justice Service rated as ‘Good’
Enfield Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.
The service was inspected and rated across three broad areas: the arrangements for organisational delivery of the service, the quality of work done with children sentenced by the courts, and the quality of out-of-court disposal work.
The quality of resettlement policy and provision was also inspected and separately rated as ‘Good’.
Interim Chief Inspector of Probation, Sue McAllister, said: “Enfield YJS and its partners are aspirational for children, with staff who are motivated and positive advocates for those they supervise. The team works in an innovative and creative way and demonstrates a desire to deliver high-quality services.
“The partnership understands the needs of its children and their families, with a wide range of services and a variety of impressive activities for children, including state-of-the-art sporting, music production, and IT facilities.”
The report noted whilst work to divert children from the criminal justice system is mainly effective, Black and mixed heritage children are over-represented in the YJS cohort, and despite efforts by the YJS to try and reduce this, it remains a challenge for the partnership to tackle and address.
This is despite a strong focus from Enfield YJS on the needs of Black and mixed heritage children, with all staff recognising the link between identity, heritage, culture and ethnicity, and children encouraged to explore their lived experiences, including any discrimination they have encountered. The service has also developed and delivered the identity group work programme, the ‘No Knives, Better Lives’ programme, and anti-robbery and knife crime groups.
The report highlighted a mix in the quality of work with children on court orders, where initial assessment and initial planning activities did not consistently meet standards to a sufficient level. However, inspectors were reassured that the YJS had already identified these issues through its own quality assurance processes and had taken steps to improve the quality of work in these areas; and work delivered on out-of-court disposals was of a consistently high quality.
Sue McAllister added: “Enfield YJS is a dynamic service, delivering services in a complex and challenging environment. It can be rightly proud of its achievements, and we trust our findings and recommendations will further support it on its journey to deliver consistently
high-quality services for all its children.”
ENDS
Notes to editor
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.
- The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
- 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).
- The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 27 February 2024 at 00.01.
- HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
- Fieldwork for this inspection took place in November 2023
- For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)