Wokingham Borough Council’s Prevention and Youth Justice Service (PYJS) has received excellent feedback following a recent independent inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation.
The inspection recognised the significant improvements which had been made, rating the service as “good” overall, as well as identifying several outstanding features, including its staff.
The PYJS received recognition for how children received a positive response from the service and how it offers a universal offer to all the children it works with, ensuring the focus is on the need of the child and not the intervention type.
The inspector explained how this ensures the child is placed first and there is a genuine desire in the service to develop and deliver positive outcomes for children, their parents and carers.
In addition to singling out staff for their knowledge, enthusiasm and motivation, the service was rated as outstanding for the work in the area of out-of-court- disposals.
The PYJS were also praised for how the voices of children and their parents / carers were used to help inform and shape how the service was delivered. This Included their new Children Speak Freely panel, which is helping the team gain a greater understanding of the impact of their work on children needing support.
“This is excellent news and we are pleased to see our Prevention and Youth Justice Service receive recognition for the hard work they have been doing to continually improve,” said, Cllr Prue Bray, executive member for children’s services.
“I do not like one-word ratings in inspection reports, but agree with the detail in the inspector’s report, in particular that the service should feel rightly proud of their progress to date and what they have achieved.
“It’s important that all our young people receive the support they need and have access to the opportunities they deserve.
“That’s why the work the PYJS carries out with partners to look at how we can draw all the different strands together is so important.
“We understand that it’s not just about addressing the obvious issues but about working with the children themselves to understand their individual needs, before looking at how we can bring together wider support, such as education and health services, to help turn lives around.
“We’re also pleased to have received some good feedback and ideas from the inspectors on how they think we can continue to grow and improve the service, such as attracting more organisations to get involved with the PYJS Board and continuing to strengthen partnerships such as with the Probation services as we move ahead.”
The inspection was carried out by HM Inspectorate of Probation, the independent inspector of Youth Justice and Probation Services in England and Wales.
Inspections are aimed at helping improve services across the country by highlighting best practice, and encouraging discussion and ideas for how changes can be made.
