Slough’s multi-agency Youth Justice Service (YJS) is under pressure to demonstrate rapid improvement after being judged ‘Inadequate’ by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) in January 2025. Councillors examined the partnership’s plan and current progress at a corporate improvement scrutiny committee on 21 July.
Scope and partnership working
The YJS brings together agencies including Thames Valley Police, Slough Borough Council, schools, probation and children’s social care to support children who have been involved in, or are at risk of, offending. The committee heard that some remedial work has already started, but a further HMIP inspection is due in autumn 2026, making timely progress essential.
Root causes and challenges identified
Speakers emphasised a range of wider influences on young people’s behaviour: poverty, discrimination, housing conditions and unemployment. Donna Briggs, head of service for adolescence support and Slough Children’s First, highlighted how a child’s neighbourhood and school can affect outcomes.
“We work with our children as best as we can. Unfortunately, sometimes, our children, depending on where they live in Slough for example, we know that they’re impacted by significant contextual issues.”
Councillors were told of practical barriers affecting the partnership’s effectiveness, including:
- instances where school staff have not kept YJS involvement confidential, potentially disadvantaging pupils;
- a rise in first-time entrants who are older and not previously known to youth services;
- difficulty intervening early when children are not already engaged with local youth provision.
“They’re not necessarily known to us – they’re not known to youth services, which is a problem. If they were known to us earlier we could do more preventative work.”
What councillors will be watching
Members focused on scrutiny of the improvement plan’s delivery and the effectiveness of multi-agency working. Confidentiality in schools emerged as a specific area of concern: Rashida Baig, the council’s director of social care operations, said that schools are partners within the YJS and should keep a child’s information confidential when they are involved with the service, though this does not always happen.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| HMIP rating | Inadequate (January 2025) |
| Next inspection | Autumn 2026 |
| Key partners | Thames Valley Police; Slough Borough Council; schools; probation; children’s social care |
With another inspection months away, councillors and the YJS partnership will be expected to provide clear, measurable progress on early identification, confidentiality practices in education settings and outreach to younger, unknown cohorts. The committee meeting made plain that without demonstrable change, the service risks not meeting the expectations set by HMIP.
