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South Tees Youth Justice Service “tenacious in their efforts” and rated ‘Good’ following inspection

Published:

South Tees (YJS) has received an overall rating of ‘Good’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation. This inspection looked at aspects of organisational delivery, work with children, and work with victims.

Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones, said: “This inspection took place at a time of change within South Tees YJS, and despite increased workloads and the impact of short-term funding arrangements, leaders and practitioners were tenacious in their efforts to achieve aspirational outcomes for children.”

While the YJS benefited from an inspirational leadership team who supported the management board’s activity, the actions and impact of the management board needed to be more tangible, and the Service’s governance arrangements needed development and commitment from all statutory partners from across both local authorities.

Existing health pathways were not sufficient in meeting children’s physical, emotional and mental health needs. The YJS management board needed to effectively resolve the gaps in statutory service provision to ensure the YJS was sufficiently resourced to support children to achieve positive change and keep communities safe.

Casework with children was rated as ‘Good’ across assessing, planning and delivery. However, the YJS had recognised the need to prioritise the development of working with victims and were working at pace to progress and improve this. Practitioners involved in victim work were driven and promoted the voice of the victim in all aspects of their practice. Mr Jones continued: “What we found at South Tees YJS was encouraging, and I believe the recommendations made in this report will enable the Service to build on its existing strengths and make the important improvements needed.”

The Inspectorate’s report makes eight recommendations. Three are for South Tees YJS, including to ensure that assessing, planning and delivery of work to keep children and communities safe is consistent and high quality. One recommendation is for the Chair of the South Tees Management Board, to ensure all statutory partners are consistently represented on the management board. Three further recommendations are for South Tees Management Board and one recommendation is for Cleveland Police.

ENDS 

Notes to editor 

  1. Inspections of youth justice work with children is one of two separate types of youth justice inspection undertaken by the Inspectorate. This is the first inspection of youth justice work undertaken in the Inspectorate’s new inspection programme which started in Spring 2025.
  2. In this inspection we have inspected and rated work against all our standards in domain one, domain two, and the victims’ standard. For more information, visit our website: Youth Justice Services – HM Inspectorate of Probation
  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 07 October 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 July 2025.
  9. For media enquiries; please contact Head of Communications: media@hmiprobation.gov.uk