Offending team
Who we are:
We are a multi-agency team comprising or Social Workers, Police officers, Education Staff, Health Staff, Probation Officers, Youth Workers and other specialists. We work with young offenders between the ages of 10 and 18 years.
During 2007 the Youth Offending Service was inspected. To read the Improvement Plan click here.![(PDF [50.6Kb] opens in new window)](/images/PDF.gif)
Our aims are:
- To prevent offending by children and young people
- To reduce crime and the fear of crime
- To help offenders lead a better life
- To strengthen families and communities
We achieve our aims by:
- Tackling delays in the Youth Justice System
- Confronting young offenders with the consequences of their offences
- Intervening to reduce the risk of re-offending
- Ensuring appropriate punishment
- Reinforcing the responsibility of parents
- Encouraging young offenders to make amends with their victims
Services we offer:
Accurate assessment - We look at young people's specific problems and potential risks to others and decide what help and redirection they need to help them stop offending.
Pre court - We provide Change Programmes in all appropriate cases where the police have issued a Final Warning
Court services - We write reports to assist Courts to choose the best sentence to reduce offending and supervise young people on Bail
Young people on court orders - We supervise young people in the community using a wide range of programmes to prevent re-offending. This includes short three month Action Plan orders through to Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programmes that offer up to 25 hours supervised activity per week.
Young people in custody - We help with sentence planning, maintaining contact with offenders in custody and supervising their return to the community
Parenting - Through Parents Like You and Barnardos we offer a range of parenting interventions from self help and general support to parents to structured parenting interventions and orders.
Tackling offending behaviour:
Supervision - offenders are supervised to strict National Standards. Our work challenges them to think differently about the way they behave. Young people who do not cooperate know they will be returned to Court.
Specialist programmes - we use a wide range of individual and group based specialist programmes each designed to tackle specific elements of offending behaviour (e.g. anger management) or types of crime (e.g. car crime).
Reparation - we help offenders to understand the impact of their crimes and to make amends to their victims, either directly or through helping the community.
Substance misuse - we provide assessments and counselling and refer people to other drug and alcohol misuse support programmes as appropriate.
Health and mental health- our Health Staff assess the health needs of young people and where necessary refer them to specialist provision
Racial offences - we have specific programmes to deal with young people convicted of racially motivated offences
Victims - we consult with victims wherever possible to ensure they have a voice
Developing responsibility:
Community and citizenship - we help young people to develop their community and citizenships skills and to become more responsible members of the community
Education, training & employment - we help people to gain new skills through going back to school or finding them alternative education or by helping them to find training and employment
Mentoring scheme - this is where an adult acts as a role model providing direction and support
Personal advisors - young people are offered access to their own Personal Advisors through the Youth Offending Team.