AYJ’s Young Advocates provide insight to HMI Probation consultation
Last month, at our first ever Member’s Meeting as the AYJ, we heard from guest speaker Louise Falshaw, Director of Strategy and Research at HMI Probation, who provided an update on the inspectorate’s plans for thematic inspections and research around youth justice issues. HMI Probation inspects how well youth offending services (YOS) and teams (YOT) are working, reports on their services, and reviews broader topics for examples of best practice.
The planned areas for thematic inspection in 2021-22 include:
Race: a review of the quality of YOS delivery specifically to black and mixed heritage boys.
Youth to adult transitions: a review of YOS to adult probation transitions looking at the quality of provision for those who exceptionally remain in YOS and for those who transfer to adult services at the age of 18 years. (This has had to be postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions)
Girls: a review on the experience of girls in custody and their resettlement in the community.
Serious youth violence: a review on ‘serious youth violence’.
Education, training and employment: a review of education, training and employment opportunities for children.
As the above areas were in the consultation period, our AYJ Young Advocates, a collective of 14-20-year-olds who have experience of the youth justice system, were keen to provide some feedback to HMI Probation. The Young Advocate’s thoughts and key points that they believe should be kept in mind when carrying out the inspections are as follows:
HMI Probation passed on their gratitude for the insight provided by the Young Advocates, with Louise Falshaw kindly providing the following feedback:
“Massive thanks for the time you gave to take a look at the list of work we’re planning to do next year and for coming back to us with your comments.
It’s hugely appreciated and really helps us focus on what matters to those who are experiencing the issues we’re looking at.”
For more information about the Young Advocates and how to get involved, please visit the Young Advocates project page.