Lambeth Youth Justice Service (YJS) has been rated as “Good” by an inspection of its work with children and victims of crime by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMP).
“There were many examples of encouraging practice at Lambeth YJS,” said Martin Jones, Chief Inspector of Probation. “Diversity and lived experience were well understood and practitioners knew what services were required to support children’s needs.”
Feedback from children and parents surveyed was “overwhelmingly positive” according to a report published today (13 January).
In it, inspectors say they found ”strong work” to achieve positive change for children.
“Practitioners displayed an understanding of how trauma impacted children’s wellbeing,” said Jones. “Practitioners worked alongside children and ensured their voices and opinions were heard, which influenced the work undertaken with them.”
HMP said the overall quality of victim work needed improvement and recommended a review of the structure of the service’s victim work to make sure it is sufficiently resourced.
The report says further support is required to ensure victims have a high profile in the service and to ensure that their needs and wishes are considered consistently by all staff.
“While there were some small deficiencies in practice, Lambeth YJS understood the importance of high-quality provision for victims and were passionate and committed to improve their offer.” Jones said.
Recommendations
The inspectorate’s report makes four recommendations.
Lambeth YJS should:
- Strengthen assessments “to ensure consistent and high-quality activity to keep children and communities safe”.
The Lambeth Youth Justice Partnership Board should:
- Review the structure of victim work by the service and make sure it has sufficient resources
- Work with the police to better understand the profile and diversity needs of victims and develop a detailed analysis of why some victims do not consent to sharing their contact details
- Strengthen and develop the “victim offer”, include the voice of victims to inform service delivery, and ensure that processes are fully delivered, embedded, and understood across the partnership.
The YJS partnership board oversees the work of the service. It is co-chaired by the council’s corporate director for children, families, and education and a Metropolitan Police detective superintendent.
Vulnerable
“The Lambeth Youth Justice Service provides vital services for our community, supporting young people at an incredibly vulnerable moment in their lives,” said Cllr Dr Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth council’s cabinet member for community safety, responding to the report.
“As someone who has been a youth worker in Lambeth for more than 20 years, I know the value of strong interventions at what is a crucial point in these young people’s lives.
“Good support, and good council services, can really change a young person’s life by putting them of the right path for a positive future.
“So I’m pleased to see that the expert government inspectors have praised our work, and also provided advice on how we can be even better in the future.
“Lambeth is committed to being one of the safest boroughs in London, and good services like this are helping us make that happen.”
Strong work
The report, work for which took place in October last year, says partnership working is a strength of the Lambeth YJS and that it had found “strong work to achieve positive change for children”.
Inspectors noted that, of the 63,200 children in Lambeth, 39% are living in poverty after housing costs are taken into account.
They said that security guards meet people entering the YJS office in Brixton. “Children using the building had requested that everyone should be scanned using a security wand to enable them to feel safe when they attended,” the inspectors explain.
They were also impressed with the “Safe Road, Safe Way Home” project that developed “because children had identified unsafe travel routes on their journeys home after YJS or school sessions, and had spoken about their fears about exploitation, violence, and unsafe public transport”.
The project was co-designed by children with support from YJS staff, safer neighbourhood teams, and community mentors.
Children co-created campaign visuals, slogans, and social media messaging, and provided education as well as being mentors to other children in the community.
Over-representation
The council’s youth justice plans for 2024 through 2026 acknowledge that there is a high level of Black and Global Majority over-representation in young people the YJS is working with.
“Racial disproportionality was most evident in custodial sentences,” the report says.
Lambeth’s diverse and multicultural population identifies as follows:
- Asian and Asian British 7.3%
- Black British, African or Caribbean 24%
- Mixed heritage or multiple ethnic 8.1%
- White British 40%
- White other 15%
- All other 5.7%
At the time of the inspection, 93 per cent of the children known to the YJS were from Black and Global Majority communities, with 41 per cent identifying as Black or Black British Caribbean, and 27 per cent as Black or Black British African.
When the inspection was announced, the YJS was working with 41 children subject to a community sentence, seven on remand, 17 on bail support, four subject to a youth caution, three on a youth conditional caution, and seven on a community resolution or other out-of-court resolution. Three children had been sentenced and were in custody.
Of this total, 12% were girls; 19% had an education, health, and care plan (EHCP) or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support; and 25% had substance misuse issues.
Focused
Inspectors said the YJS and its partners were specifically focused on the rate of first-time entrants to the criminal justice system to see, as a partnership, what they could to reduce the numbers of children becoming involved with the YJS.
They set up a first-time entrants operational group, co-chaired by the YJS and the police. All children who came into contact with the police were reviewed by a prevention and diversion panel to see what early help and support could be put in place.
The YJS had identified that its first-time entrants’ rates were beginning to see a downward trend, although it was still higher than rates in London overall.
There had been a slight increase in the YJS reoffending rate, which between July 2022 and June 2023 was 27.3% compared to 32% for England and Wales.
In an analysis of victims’ ethnicity data, the YJS found that the majority of victims who consented to sharing their contact details with the YJS described their ethnicity as White.
“This data was disproportionately high compared with published data on victims of crime and suggested an under-representation of Black andGlobal Majority victims,” the report says.
Dynamic
Inspectors said they were encouraged by the dynamic way in which practitioners sought a range of resources to support change.
These included creative opportunities such as visits to a House of Commons youth conference, art projects, the Go Ape adventure facility, and Easter and summer sports programmes and projects.
Brixton projects
Two Brixton projects specifically mentioned in the report are the Clink charity at Brixton prison and the Brixton Topcats basketball club.
The inspectors sought feedback from children and parents or carers, which, they said was “overwhelmingly positive”. All felt respected and valued by YJS staff and other people working with them.
One parent commented: “My child is so impressed they want to become a YJS worker. Their worker has been such a positive role model.”
Another said: “When I consider some of the racism experiences I’ve faced, this has not been my experience here, and when we talk about racism, workers can relate, and I’ve appreciated the diversity within the YJS team.”
“Encouraging practice” found at Lambeth Youth Justice Service, rated ‘Good’ following inspection
