Youth offending teams

The principal aim of the youth justice system, as set out in section 37 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, is to prevent offending by children and young people aged 10 to 17. Youth offending teams (Yots) are the main vehicle by which that aim (and its supporting objectives) are delivered, through coordinated work at a local level.

Context

The principal aim of the youth justice system (established by Section 37 of the Crime and Disorder Act) is to prevent offending by children and young people, to be achieved through the following objectives:

• The swift administration of justice so that every young person accused of breaking the law has the matter resolved without delay
• Confronting young offenders with the consequences of their offending, for themselves and their family, their victims and their community and helping them to develop a sense of personal responsibility
• Intervention which tackles the particular factors (personal, family, social, educational or health) that put the young person at risk of offending and which strengthens protective factors
• Punishment proportionate to the seriousness and persistence of offending
• Encouraging reparation to victims by young offenders
• Reinforcing the responsibilities of parents

Working with young offenders aged 10 to 17, Yots were introduced in April 2000 to coordinate provision to deliver these aims and objectives at a local level.

Section 40 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires local authorities, in consultation with their statutory partner agencies, to put in place an annual youth justice plan. This describes the nature and scale of offending by young people in their area and the programmes available to tackle it. The plan needs to cover:

• How youth justice services in their area are to be provided and funded
• How the Yots or teams established by them (whether alone or jointly with one or more other local authorities) are to be composed and funded, how they are to operate, and what functions they are to carry out

Who is in a Yot?

Each Yot brings together professionals with a range of disciplines. Statutory involvement is required from local authority social services and education departments, the police, probation service and health authorities; other agencies, such as housing and youth and community departments, are also encouraged to contribute resources to Yots. Each team is led by a Yot manager, who is responsible for coordinating the work of the local youth justice services.

What do they do?

The work to be undertaken by Yots is outlined in section 38 of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act and set out in the National Standards for Youth Justice produced by the Youth Justice Board. Their role includes the following:

• Preventing young people from offending in the first instance through the coordination of a range of targeted programmes
• Carrying out a standardised assessment using Asset (a structured assessment tool produced by the Youth Justice Board for use by Yots) for all young people coming into the youth justice system. This will determine why the young person has offended, what their family and lifestyle circumstances are, whether they have specific mental health or drug and alcohol-related problems, if they are engaged in learning, their level of educational attainment, and what level of risk they pose to themselves and others
• Delivering intervention programmes for young people who have received a final warning from the police - this will aim to tackle the causes of the young person's offending (as identified through Asset) and enable them to confront the consequences of their offending and carry out some form of reparation
• Providing a supervising officer for every young person who is made subject to the range of court-ordered disposals and community penalties - the supervising officer must develop a supervision plan to address offending behaviour and the associated factors identified through Asset. The supervising officer will draw on specialist colleagues within the Yot and beyond, as appropriate. A supervision plan must address education, training or employment, any substance misuse and health care needs, parental or primary carer involvement, work on offending behaviour, work to address experience of discrimination or any discriminatory attitudes or behaviour, and plans to reduce risk of harm to themselves or others where a significant risk has been assessed. Intervention might include anger management, life skills or parenting courses for the young person's carers. The plan will also cover direct or indirect reparation to the victims of their crime
• Providing a supervising officer for those young people who receive custodial sentences (detention and training orders/section 91 sentences) - the supervising officer will work with the secure establishment to draw up a training plan. The training plan, like other interventions, will focus on the factors that contributed to the young person's offending and seek to address the young person's education, health and accommodation needs. (Resettlement issues must be addressed from the beginning of the sentence)
• Provding court-based services