GovWire

Local areas multi-agency responses to serious youth violence will be the focus of upcoming thematic JTAIs carried out by Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC), HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and HM Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP), starting in September 2023.

Inspections will focus on how the police, childrens social care, education, youth offending services and relevant health services in local areas work together to address and prevent serious youth violence. The inspectorates will consider interventions with individual and groups of children to see how well agencies help them and reduce the risk of serious youth violence.

The JTAIs will also consider multi-agency interventions in places such as parks, streets and shopping malls, where individual or groups of children are at risk, to improve safety for children and for communities. In addition to individual local area reports, an overview summary of the thematic will be published.

Yvette Stanley, Ofsteds National Director for Social Care:

Serious youth violence has a devastating impact on the lives of children, families and communities. The causes are complex and the JTAI framework is well placed to evaluate how different local agencies work together to tackle this critical issue.

The response to serious youth violence is a developing area of multi-agency work and these inspections will explore the approaches local partnerships are taking. We want to identify practice that is making a real difference to children, and aspects of multi-agency work that need to improve, so that we can share this learning widely.

Nigel Thompson, Deputy Director Multiagency Operations at CQC:

This important collaboration by the joint inspectorates will look closely at how agencies work together to prevent and respond to serious youth violence. These inspections will highlight good practice and identify where improvements can be made,?to safeguard children and young people,?and protect their communities.

Wendy Williams, HM Inspector of Constabulary:

HMICFRS?recognises and supports the importance of joint targeted area inspections, which make clear the polices commitment to working with partner agencies to tackle the issue of serious youth violence and in turn keep children safe.

By working together, we can evaluate the effectiveness of the multi-agency response to serious youth violence and, importantly, highlight examples of good practice, as well as areas that require improvement.

Justin Russell, Chief Inspector of Probation:

Tackling serious youth violence and its impact on children and communities is an increasing concern for youth offending services. Our inspections have shown that, overall, services are performing well when it comes to work to prevent reoffending but sometimes less so in terms of childrens safety and wellbeing or their risks to others.

These joint inspections will be vital in identifying the next steps in how local agencies should approach the issue of youth violence, what effective practice is already in place, and how to make long-term improvements for the benefit of children and the partner agencies.