Information for young offenders

The Youth Offending Service must follow guidelines when working with you. We will:

• Tell you what our job is and explain how we can help and support you.
• Answer any questions you have that will help you complete your order.
• Follow your progress and give you practical information to make sure you are doing what your court order says and also tell you when you are not doing what you should be doing.
• Tell you what we have to do and how we can help you.
• Respect that your information is private and if we need to share it we will explain why we have to do this.
• Try to help you if a problem occurs or you're having trouble completing your order.
• Help you to understand how your behaviour has affected your victim and the community.
• Help you to reduce your offending.

Working with your Youth Offending Officer

While you are working with your YOS officer they will explore different areas in your life such as personal relationships, mental health, substance misuse, accommodation, education and training.

Your worker will complete an assessment and put together a plan with you and your parents/carer to support you with any problems you are having. This will meet the conditions of your court order and this will include any work that is needed to make good any harm your offending has caused.

If we can't help you we’ll find someone who can, but we'll talk to you about this. Your worker will make sure that when your order is finished you'll continue to get any help and support you need if you still have any problems.

Remember

The YOS works with you and your needs, and the need to put right any harm, which means no plan is the same. You could spend more time with your YOS officer than someone who committed the same offence as you. Even if you did the offence with someone else, you may get different amounts of time with the YOS and different activities or restrictions from them.

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