Inspectors praise Sandwell’s youth offending service with a ‘Good’ rating

Sandwell's Youth Offending service has been praised by government inspectors and received an overall rating of 'Good' following their recent visit to the service.

The report praises the Youth Offending Service, part of Sandwell Children's Trust, for their "culture of innovation and creativity" when dealing with young people and their families.

The Right Honourable Jacqui Smith, Chair of Sandwell Children’s Trust is thrilled with the 'Good' rating from the inspectors. She said: "We are very proud of our Youth Offending Service and the great work they do with some of the most hard-to-reach young people in Sandwell. 

"This is such a challenging area of work so we are thrilled we were able to demonstrate to inspectors the innovative approaches we use when working with young offenders."

Frances Craven, Chief Executive of Sandwell Children's Trust added: "The inspectors were impressed with the staff and the work they are doing to help young offenders with some areas of work being deemed 'Outstanding'.

"We already have an improvement plan in place to work on the areas where we need to do better and we will continue to build on the strong base highlighted in many areas of the report." 

Martin Hurcomb, Chair of Youth Offending Service, Sandwell, said: "I am pleased with the inspection result of 'Good'.

 "The board and I are fully committed to improve in areas where we can do better and this will be driven by the improvement plan and strong partnership working.”

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation has only carried out a handful of inspections since the new process was introduced. The ratings use the same terminology as Ofsted ranging from 'Inadequate' to 'Outstanding'.