City youth justice service rated 'outstanding'

Derby City Youth Justice Service (YJS) has been rated "outstanding" by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation

Derby City Youth Justice Service (YJS) has been given an outstanding rating by inspectors.

Following an inspection in June, the city's YJS has become the first in the country to be rated outstanding across all categories under a new inspection framework introduced by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation.

The service, run by Derby City Council, is also the first in the country to be rated outstanding for its work to support victims of crime by young people.

Chief inspector Martin Jones said YJS could "celebrate with pride at not just the outcome of this inspection, but the lasting change it has achieved to effectively support victims, and help children thrive, keeping them and others safe".

The service is run by Derby City Council

Youth justice services work with young people, aged 10 to 17, to help prevent crime and supervise offenders.

The inspection is broken down into four sections - assessing, planning, implementation and delivery, as well as work with victims.

These sections are then rated either outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

In the His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation report, 97% of contactable victims engaged in restorative processes or were signposted for support between April 2024 and April 2025.

At the time of the week-long inspection in June, the service was supervising 82 children, compared to 131 in 2023-24, a reduction of 37%.

Compared to 2023-24, there were 9% "fewer proven offences" among the young people the services oversees, while more serious offences had also reduced by 64%.

The use of secure remand has also reduced, along with a decrease in the volume and severity of offences after YJS intervention, the report added.

'Society is changing'

Inspectors highlighted that work by YJS is enabling children to "achieve great things".

The report states: "Work with children across assessing, planning and delivery was impressive and consistently strong.

"Similarly, work with victims was high-quality, individualised and responsive, driving positive outcomes and safety for victims.

"It was clear that staff utilised their professional skills to help children lead their best lives and provide effective support to victims. Staff were humble in their approach, caring, thoughtful, cheering children on to achieve great things."

The council said the service had been praised by both victims and the young people it works with.

One young person said: "It's been nice to talk about my offence without being judged.

"I'm pleased in a way that I got a referral order, as this is the only thing that really made me question my behaviour. I regret my actions and, on reflection, I can learn from this."

Meanwhile, a victim added: "We had no idea what the process would be. It felt like someone other than family cared."

Simon Pearse, service manager for the Derby City YJS, said he was "absolutely thrilled" with the inspection outcome.

"As a service, we feel that this reflects our tireless work to support children to be the very best version of themselves, whatever their starting point is."

The inspection report made two recommendations to improve further.

One was for the service to be "more consistent in their analysis in assessing activity for safety", while another was for Derbyshire Police to implement a more robust process "for the collection of protected characteristics information from victims".

Mr Pearse said the service was "always looking" at new issues that could affect children and young people.

He added: "We are a very agile and versatile service and we will continue to monitor what is happening and we will look proactively to find new ways to combat any issues which are affecting children, young people, or the safety of our local communities."