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‘Good’ Pembrokeshire Youth Justice Team show “genuine care”

Published:

Pembrokeshire Youth Justice Team (YJT) has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.  

Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones, said: “Pembrokeshire YJT has experienced a challenging period of transition, which has resulted in increasing demands placed on practitioners and managers. Spans of control are vast, and the delivery of services is maintained by practitioners and managers routinely going above and beyond to meet the needs of children, parents or carers, and victims. Despite the challenges, this is a forward-thinking and reflective service where staff show genuine care in achieving positive outcomes.”

Inspectors praised the child-first and trauma informed practices for children subject to court-disposals. Plans were co-produced with the child and parent or carer, and meaningful engagement was observed in all cases inspected. Formal reviews and ongoing reviewing of desistance, the safety of the child, and the safety of others were also found to be strengths, with effective and timely information sharing across the partnership.

The service has recently revised its out-of-court disposal framework for children, but an absence of a joint working protocol with Dyfed-Powys police has caused significant delays between offences taking place and police referral to the YJT. Inspectors found an inconsistent approach to the use of diversionary outcomes and deferred prosecutions, and a recommendation is made in this report to ensure police representation of sufficient seniority attends the YJT management board.

Mr Jones continued: “Moving forward, the management board has a critical role in ensuring the YJT is sufficiently resourced so they can build on their existing strengths and make important improvements in service delivery – I trust that our recommendations will help them in this journey.”

The Inspectorate’s report makes eight recommendations. Four of these are for the Pembrokeshire YJT, including to ensure YJT managers have the capacity to provide consistent and effective management oversight of out-of-court work. Two recommendations are for the management board, and two recommendations are for Dyfed-Powys Police. 

ENDS 

Notes to editor 

  1. This service works with children aged 10 to 17. The YJT supervise children with complex needs and some in the care of the local authority.
  2. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’, rating specific aspects of each service and giving an overall rating.
  3. 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).
  4. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 11 March 2025 at 00.01.
  5. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales.
  6. Fieldwork for this inspection took place in October 2024.
  7. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications: media@hmiprobation.gov.uk