Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement

1. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement Children and Young People who commit sexual offences’ Thematic Inspection Julie Fox HMI Probation Publication: 7 February 2013

2. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement • Background • Thematic inspections as part of overall programme • Led by HMI Probation with full involvement from CQC, HMIC and Ofsted • Sample Areas • Seven youth offending teams visited following a pilot • Nature of Inspection • Examined individual cases • Group discussion with representatives from all the involved agencies • Spoke to young people and parents/carers about their experiences

3. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement • There are effective national, regional and local strategic arrangements to ensure a coordinated multi-agency approach to the assessment and delivery of services • There is an agreed inter agency framework for referral and assessment of C&YP who commit sexual offences which results in an agreed multi agency plan to manager LoR, RoH and vulnerability • Effective use is made of a range of multi-agency interventions which are appropriate to the specific needs of young people who commit sexual offences, their families/carers and victims • Multi agency interventions have had a positive impact on reducing re-offending, addressing safeguarding needs and protecting the public and victims

4. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement • To examine the quality of the assessment, planning, interventions and outcomes for children and young people who sexually abuse • Focus on the quality of the work undertaken with these children and young people – how the different agencies worked together and what had been achieved

5. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement • Issues with the time between disclosure and conviction • Missed opportunities for early intervention • Reluctance to share information • Issues with specialist assessments and multi-disciplinary meetings • Underlying reasons for offending not fully analysed • Lack of robust quality assurance of assessments • Children and young people and parents/carers involved • Diversity assessed but not always addressed

6. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement • Positive holistic interventions rare • Work not delivered as identified in various plans • Interventions lacked coordination • Denial proved a major barrier to provision • Good examples of health, education & family support work • Variations in management oversight and supervision • Good engagement and compliance • Child-focused approach and commitment • Progress on offending factors • Little routine evaluation • Variations in services to victims

7. Inspecting to provide assurance and promote improvement • Increase in monitoring and evaluation • Improve comprehensive, co-ordinated multi-agency work • Improve information-sharing • Close gap between policy and operational practice • Increase early intervention opportunities