Agenda item

To consider  the report in relation to the conclusions and recommendations from the Youth Justice Service’s inspection.

DECISION:

·         To accept the report on the outcome and recommendations of the inspection.

·         Congratulate the Service on the results of the inspection.

A report was submitted by the Head of Children and Supporting Families Department and the Manager of Gwynedd and Anglesey Youth Justice Service updating the Committee on the findings and recommendations of the Inspection of the Service carried out in November 2023.

It was reported that The Gwynedd and Anglesey Youth Justice Service (YJS) Management Board was extremely pleased with the overall 'Good' rating issued following the Inspection and thanked partners of both Local Authorities, the Local Criminal Justice network, and the Voluntary Sector for their support during the preparation work and during the Inspection week. It was noted that the inspectorate identified many areas of good practice including strong partnership arrangements that inform and provide resources for working effectively with children and families; a group of staff who are well supported and supervised, and evidence that children and parents are actively involved in planning and delivering support. 

Reference was made to the areas for improvement, the improvement plan drawn up in response to the seven inspection recommendations along with the next steps. It was noted that the Improvement Plan in collaboration with members of the Management Board, Executive Management Group and Service staff following a meeting at the end of January to review the draft report and initiate the process of formulating a response so that the ownership to implement the Improvement Plan is accepted throughout the Service and partners.

Officers were thanked for the report and staff were congratulated on the encouraging and positive results of the inspection – it was a pleasure to read the report. The inspection highlighted a good, caring outcome with dedicated staff.

In response to a comment regarding who would monitor the progress of the Improvement Plan, it was noted that the Improvement Plan had been approved by the Management Board in April 2024 and would be reviewed regularly at meetings of the Management Board.

Although praising that the score for the planning (domain 3: Out-of-Court disposals) on the element that the 'planning focused on supporting the child's desistance' was 100%, concern was highlighted that 'planning is focused sufficiently on keeping the child safe' received a score of 58%. In response to a question of whether the 58% reflected a percentage that the processes did not pose a risk and whether it was a risk of administrative work or a risk of care work, it was noted that the element expressed that sufficient work was being done to keep the child safe but that staff needed to improve the safeguarding plan records attached to the child's case. It was reiterated that the matter had been addressed in the implementation plan.

It was suggested that in the Information and Facilities - Staff Diversity and Children domain, it was necessary to include details of the percentage of staff who spoke Welsh and the percentage of children who requested a service in Welsh. In response, it was noted that around 95% of service staff spoke Welsh and 60% of children received a service in Welsh. It was reiterated that the Criminal Justice System did not offer itself to Welsh and that many service users used English technical terms to the ease the situation. 

In response to a comment that the absence of the Education Department at Strategic Management Board meetings highlighted that there was no link between the service's work and the education service and that a good opportunity was being missed here to interconnect good practice and messages, it was noted that this element had now been addressed and despite the absence, it was the duty of the Strategic Management Board to share messages and feed the information back to the Education Department. It was accepted that messages about policies and good practice that would strengthen the messages could be shared with the Education Departments of both Counties and that a meeting could also be held with Heads of Education to discuss this particular service.

In response to the number of actions in the Implementation Plan and whether the challenging timetable was realistic to resolve some issues along with adequate resources to complete them, the Service Manager agreed that the timeline of operations for some issues was ambitious and that the Board needed to adjust this. He reiterated that links with other Services can also be challenging and that training arrangements take time to be put in place but some improvements had already been completed.

In response to a comment about the Service's location and that there were no good network connections to the site, it was noted that the office was not suitable for public transport users and particularly for individuals under 16, but that the service was peripatetic; the third sector, Police and Health services offered rooms to use. He reiterated that despite the high travel costs, the regime was well-managed.

RESOLVED:

·       To accept the report on the outcome and recommendations of the inspection.

·       Congratulate the Service on the results of the inspection.

Note:

·       Add percentage of users who receive a Welsh language service to the statistics.