| The Youth Justice Board has identified effective practice as
a key element in developing and improving youth justice services.
Youth Offending Services use effective practice to develop and monitor
their services. The key elements of effective practice have been
designed to ensure that work with young people is as effective
as possible and based on best practice and research evidence.
The Board has developed the Key Elements of Effective Practice
that describe the features of effective services and support
the identification of staff learning and development needs. The
Key Elements of Effective Practice are linked to the Effective
Practice Quality Assurance Cycle (EPQA)
www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk
This
framework is used to ensure that staff working for the YOS
can identify and apply effective practice at all points in the
youth justice system. The EPQA process needs a commitment from
Practitioners, Managers & Strategic Partners. The KEY
to this process is self-assessment. The YOS are asked to assess
target areas on an annual basis.
When the YJB come in to validate
the YOS's self assessment, they look at all evidence considered
by the YOS including:
The YOS complete an Improvement Action Plan that needs to have
SMART Targets :
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time bound
The Improvement Action Plans will be assessed looking at the
following:
Other information and sources used include :
- Previous self assessment for reviews
- Annual Youth Justice Plan
- Quarterly & Annual returns
- Local Authority CPA
The Youth Justice Board Regional Manager then sets a rating
for the area assessed as follows:
- Little or no evidence of effective practice
- Some evidence that effective practice is being followed,
but not by all practitioners, managers & strategic partners
- Evidence that effective practice is being mostly followed,
but is not system-wide
Evidence that effective practice is being followed consistently
and systematically by practitioners, managers & strategic partners |
