Salford Youth Justice Service rated ‘Good’ in recent inspection

The Salford Youth Justice Service (YJS) has received a ‘Good’ rating after an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

The Service, based on St Simon Street, was 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 report found that Salford’s partnership working was a particular strength, especially its health provision and the multidisciplinary health drop-in sessions.

Mentors also supported children in custody and in the community, and there was a good connection with children’s social care services and the complex safeguarding team.

Chief Inspector of Probation, Martin Jones, said: “This YJS is committed to helping children achieve, promotes a child-first approach, encourages staff development, and it was pleasing to see interventions being co-created with children.”

The report found that Salford’s partnership working was a particular strength, especially its health provision and the multidisciplinary health drop-in sessions. Mentors also supported children in custody and in the community, and there was a good connection with children’s social care services and the complex safeguarding team.

Inspectors reported the YJS is well represented across strategic and operational partnerships, and the board receives high-quality information on the service’s performance.

Despite this, they found the profile and offending of children, particularly younger children, needs strategic analysis by the partnership to ensure policies and practices do not result in children being unnecessarily criminalised.

Mr Jones added: “We found consistently high-quality work to assess, plan and deliver interventions for out-of-court disposals, particularly in relation to children’s desistence. However, the quality of work to manage children’s risk of harm to others in post-court cases requires improvement, and the use of police checks needs to be reviewed to ensure this information is used to positively impact and inform risk management activity moving forward.”

For the full inspection report, click here.