To be treated with respect and decency 

 

                                 

  The Youth Offending Service (YOS) is a multi-agency statutory organisation established by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

 

Its primary aim is to prevent offending by young people aged 10 – 17 years. The service supervises all young people who are subject to either a Final Warning or an order of the Youth or Crown Court.

 

The service is responsible for co-ordinating the provision of the following youth justice services:

 

 

·         Appropriate Adults – where parents or another responsible adult is unable unwilling to act as the appropriate adult during the detention and questioning of young people under the age of 17 the YOS provides an appropriate adult.

 

·         Preventative Interventions

 

·         Assessments and Intervention Programmes for Final Warnings – decision made by the police as an alternative to prosecution. Intervention programme delivered by the YOS if deemed appropriate following an assessment and subject to the voluntary engagement of the young person.

 

·         Remand Management – services provided to unconvicted young people starting from the point of arrest and potential entry into the Criminal Justice System including; appropriate adult service, bail supervision and support programmes (usually as an alternative to custody), remand foster carers, the placement of children and young people remanded to local authority accommodation and into secure accommodation

 

·         Court reports and other information to the courts – eg; Pre-sentence Reports – forms part of the relevant information which the courts consider before finally deciding on such matters as the seriousness of the offence(s), restriction of liberty and suitability for a particular community order

 

·         Responsible supervising officers in relation to orders and the delivery of intervention programmes – in addition to the specific legislative requirements for specific court orders the YOS works to National Standards set down by the Youth Justice Board, which determine the minimum requirements for delivery eg; frequency, length and type of contact to be maintained with a young person during the order. Following an assessment the supervising officer will plan an intervention programme to address the relevant risk factors identified eg; anger management, victim empathy, substance misuse, education / training or employment issues. Some of the work will be delivered by YOS staff and some issues will be addressed through the wider partnership eg; with Connexions, education specialists, schools etc. Most intervention programmes will include an element of Restorative Justice work – an opportunity for the young person to repair the harm done, either directly to the victim or indirectly within the community

 

·         Placement, ‘through-care’ and supervision in the community of those subject to custodial sentences. As above, supervising officers (working to National Standards) will plan an intervention to address relevant risk factors which is delivered both during the custodial community supervision element of the sentence (usually referred to as ‘resettlement’ work)

 

 

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