Standards of service

Ensuring high standards of service to youth justice organisations.

To ensure that the training and organisational development services that we offer are of a high standard, we aim to work to the following quality benchmarks:

Benchmark One: Being needs-led

All our training and development services are needs-led.

We provide training in specialist topics has been designed specifically for youth justice practitioners.

All other training is bespoke. We will meet with you, ask lots of questions and consult as widely as possible before creating our training or consultancy package for your approval.

We will tell you if we think another training or consultancy organisation is better placed to deliver a service.

When discussing and tailoring a package, we will consider the best methods for training and development that suit your staff and your organisations needs, not just the content of a training package.

When delivering training or consultancy, we will remain flexible, respond to feedback and be willing to change tack if required.

Benchmark Two: Developing organisational skill and capacity

We will work with you, not just deliver services to you.

We will tell you if we think you already have the skill and capacity internally to carry out a piece of work, training or consultancy work, so as not to de-skill and de-value staff.

We develop working agreements for each piece of work we do with a YOT to ensure clarity and a partnership approach. This agreement clearly sets out the respective roles and responsibilities of each party for ensuring the desired outcomes of a piece of work.

Our training approach is threefold - confirming existing skill and knowledge, consolidating fledgling or under-used skills and developing new skills and knowledge.

We use an action-reflection model of learning that aims to combine reflection on experience, theory, application and practice. We will keep a focus on both the process and the outcomes, to help ensure maximum benefit to your organisation after we have gone.

Benchmark Three: Ensuring high quality trainers and consultant

All our trainers and consultants will be personally known to us and vetted to ensure they are high quality.

We will evaluate all training, trainers and consultants for knowledge, skill, professionalism and enthusiasm. We will expect ourselves as an organisation as well as our training associates to be open to critical feedback, be self-aware and strive for continuous improvement and development.

All our training will be well researched, accurate and meticulously prepared.

We will not promise to do something that we can’t deliver either because of expertise or time pressures. We would rather be honest than deliver anything less than a high standard of service.

We will ensure that all our trainers and consultants are fully committed to values of equality of opportunity and social justice and will always seek to promote best practice and to challenge discrimination.

Benchmark Four: Delivering an efficient, professional and friendly service

We place a lot of emphasis on relational working and will be both efficient and friendly in all your interactions with us.

We will ensure confidentiality regarding the organisational issues that you discuss with us.

Our Working Agreements, developed for each piece of work, will ensure that there are clear expectations about aims, responsibilities, outcomes and the practicalities for each piece of work.

We will respond promptly to your calls, emails and letters.

We will ensure open lines of communication throughout the lifetime of a package of work and will regularly check in and review how it’s going. We recognise that all training and organisational development services are delivered to people who work in the real and pressured world of youth offending, thus will, within certain limits, accommodate changes and re-prioritising.

We will operate appropriate admin procedures and systems to log enquiries, explore and assess your needs, develop, deliver and evaluate a package of work.

This standards document is a living document which we regularly use to review how we are doing and to acknowledge where we make mistakes or fall below our standards so we can improve, and receive positive feedback and encouragement.