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“Impressive” Camden Youth Justice Service rated ‘Outstanding’ in inspection

Published:

Camden Youth Justice Service 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: “We saw an authentic culture of care and innovation for children, families, and victims at Camden YJS. The aspirational and tenacious senior leaders are supported by a highly skilled staff team who are delivering strong work with children, families, and victims.”

Assessing, planning and delivery of work with children was consistently of high quality, ensuring that achieving positive change was effectively balanced with keeping the child and community safe. Inspectors were impressed with the focus on education, training, and employment (ETE) at Camden YJS. The extensive post-16 offer included paid work experience and employability projects to support sustained change and demonstrate investment and aspiration for children. Diversity practice was consistently strong in assessing and planning, with the delivery of services being responsive to protected characteristics, individual needs, and the personal circumstances of the child.

Direct work with victims was of a high standard, with a trauma-informed and restorative approach taken by the service. The holistic partnership victim strategy is in its infancy and reflects the management board’s approach that ‘support for victims is everybody’s business.’ This could be further enhanced with improved data to understand victim profiles and an improved mechanism to collect and analyse feedback.

Mr Jones continued: “Camden YJS is an impressive partnership. Much of what we saw during this inspection was strong, with creative and innovative partnership working which helps to transform the lives of the children in their care.”

The Inspectorate’s report makes four recommendations. One is for the Camden YJS management board to implement the planned development of the partnership victim strategy. Two recommendations are for Camden YJS, including to develop an understanding of the range of services supporting victims within the borough. One recommendation is for the Probation Service to work with the YJS management board to improve its involvement of the transitions of children to adult services.

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. 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.
  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. 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).
  5. The report is available on the HM Inspectorate of Probation website on 24 June 2025 at 00.01.
  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 April 2025.
  8. For media enquiries, please contact Head of Communications: media@hmiprobation.gov.uk