Halton’s Youth Justice Service has been praised in a national report. The YJS was inspected as part of the HMIP Youth Public Protection Thematic Inspection in May 2017.

The Inspector said he ‘saw evidence of well-managed cases, with staff having a good understanding of their young people. Staff were knowledgeable about public protection and were well-informed, trained and supported by managers.’

Areas of strength highlighted included.

• A dedicated workforce who knew young people well and were committed to improving their life chances.
• Assessments were thorough and complemented by other assessments where appropriate
• Planning processes were thorough
• Practitioners had good access to support via high risk meetings, which supported planning and access to resources
• Youth Offending Team staff had access to a range of highly skilled practitioners specialising in speech, language & communication needs (SLCN), mental health, substance misuse, education and harmful sexual behaviour. We could see clear impact of their work in the cases examined. The YOS had the kite mark for working with dyslexia, and we saw evidence of a strong focus on this area of need.
• There was good multi agency co-operation to support public protection work
• There was a broad range of interventions available, including group work supported by an interventions team. An example was the music group, where young people addressed their emotions through songs and lyrics.

The national HMIP Youth Public Protection Thematic Inspection is released today (26 Oct) and there are specific references to Cheshire West, Halton and Warrington as follows:

In the overall report which is published tomorrow YJS is mentioned specifically on three occasions:
Page 31 – good practice example in regard to a case
Page 35 – reference to the Service having to deal with “gang overspill activity” from neighbouring areas
Page 36 – direct quote from one of the case managers in terms of their positive experience of supervision from their line manager.

Halton Borough Council’s Executive Board Member for Children, Young People and Families, Cllr Tom McInerney, said the service wasn’t resting on its laurels.

He said: “We have already devised an Action Plan to make our service even better. This will be added to include staff training in regard to Social Media interventions and consideration of how to implement a trauma based approach to our work.”
*’Trauma’ is a specific model to use in working with children and young people

Only cases from Cheshire West, Halton and Warrington, based in Halton, were inspected, although staff now cover Cheshire East too.