Birmingham Youth Offending Service told to improve

A service dealing with young offenders has been told to improve "at pace" after 11% of its under-16s were found not to be in education.

More than half of the children known to the Birmingham Youth Offending Service (YOS) were not in mainstream education, an inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation found.

The service was rated as "requires improvement".

Birmingham Children's Trust, which runs the YOS, said improvements had begun.

According to the inspectorate, the service is the largest youth offending service in England and Wales, with an annual budget of over £7m and working with more than 370 children.

A report, released by the inspectorate on Tuesday, said the quality of service it provided to children was inconsistent.

Despite a disproportionate number of black boys being known to the Birmingham YOS, inspectors found not enough work had been done to understand the needs of this group in order to address them.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: "There is a lack of management oversight and scrutiny across the organisation.

"It was disappointing to find such inconsistent practice in a significant proportion of the inspected cases.

"The service must improve the overall quality of its work to keep children safe, ensure there is a sufficient focus on addressing children's needs, and to protect the public."

In total, the inspectorate made 12 recommendations for the service.

However, inspectors also found a "motivated staff team who are committed to supporting the children they work with".

Birmingham Children's Trust's chief executive Andy Couldrick said it took the findings "very seriously" and had already taken "important steps to improve the quality and consistency of practice across the Youth Offending Service".

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