Youth offending team shake-up after criticism (From This Is Lancashire)

Youth offending team shake-up after criticism

11:00am Sunday 13th December 2009 in

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AN action plan to improve the way that young offenders are dealt with in Bolton has been produced after a damning report.

Bolton Council’s Youth Offending Team (YOT) was heavily criticised by HM Inspectorate of Probation, which called for improvements to be made in the way that the team operates.

The YOT supports people aged 10 to 17 who have been in trouble with the law.

Probation inspectors found that proper assessments, including looking at the likelihood of young people harming themselves or re-offending, were not being carried out in many cases.

Key issues including risks to public protection and re-offending were found to require “substantial improvement”.

However, Bolton Council education bosses have said the majority of areas of work identified in the inspectorate’s recommendations are now either complete or are in progress.

Action that is being taken includes improving assessment procedures by labelling all cases as medium and high risk of harm, and discussing all “high risk” re-offending cases more thoroughly.

However, in a report to Bolton Council’s executive member for children’s services, council education officers have criticised the way the inspection was carried out.

They said it did not take into account the outcomes achieved by Bolton YOT, including the fact the risk of re-offending was lower than the regional average.

They added that the way that key areas were measured, such as with re-offending and public protection, did not take into account the complicated nature of different cases or the issues of working with what they described as “difficult and chaotic young people.”

A Bolton Council spokesman said: “We accept that there is work to be done in our Youth Offending Team to ensure that all work is clearly recorded and that agreed processes have been followed.

“As a result, the YOT has produced an action plan that has been accepted by HMI Probation and the Youth Justice Board. This plan aims to improve processes to the required standard by April 2010.”

schaudhari@ theboltonnews.co.uk