Working with the Youth Offending Team

South Gloucestershire Youth Offending Team

Assessments:
The type of work and the amount of time that you are working with the YOT depends on the sentence you are given by the court.

The first time you meet with your YOT worker they will interview you about both the offence(s) and your own life - questions about your school or work, your family etc... Try to be as honest as possible, this will help when you have to agree to the programme of work that your YOT worker will put together. The interview forms the basis of a report to Court or to a panel in the case of a Referral Order and will include the areas necessary for your YOT worker to complete the ASSET assessment. ASSET ensures that all areas are covered in which you need help to stay clear of further offending. The information from both the interview and the ASSET will be used by your YOT worker to plan what work you will do on your order.

Your YOT worker will explain about the interview and ASSET in more detail, how long it will take, what the possible outcomes will be and who else will see the information. They will listen to what you have to say and will not jump to conclusions.

The Asset will be reviewed during the time that you are working with the YOT as part of the review of the progress made on the work you are doing with the YOT. This gives you and your YOT worker a chance to compare your updated ASSET to your earlier ones and to see what progress has been made.

Interventions:
The information about you will help your YOT Worker to put together a programme. This programme of work is called an intervention. The next time you meet your YOT worker they will have written a programme plan for you. This plan needs to be agreed by you and your YOT worker after both of you have talked about it - though there may be some areas that the YOT worker insists must be included. This means that there are a number of things that you have agreed to do while you are on a Court Order.

Your YOT worker will explain what you need to do on the programme. They will let you know what is expected and that you understand what will happen if you do not follow the programme.

Your programme may involve doing a number of different things. There will be reasons for each different part of the programme, but overall the aim will be to help you avoid further offending. You will be told why you are expected to do all the different tasks and what may be achieved by completing them.

Reparation:
Part of the programme may be reparation. Reparation is showing that you want to make up for the hassle caused. Your YOT worker will talk to you about your offence, the victim and how you feel before deciding what sort of reparation will be included as part of your programme.

Reparation can either be directly to the victim, or be in the form of some unpaid task done for the benefit of the local community. Which type is used will depend on the views of any victim, the YOT worker and yourself. In either case things will be fully discussed between yourself and your YOT worker.

Education:
We may find that you have problems with school, college or work. It may be necessary to get you the right help in dealing with any problems you may have. The YOT worker will contact a Connexions Personal Adviser to try and sort out these problems.

Substance Misuse:
If you have been taking drugs or drinking you may want to talk to someone about it. All of the YOT workers are trained to help and assist; and there is a YOT worker who specialises in this area who you may have the chance to see. The advice and support you will receive will aim to help you to better control and reduce your use, and to stay safe and avoid offending in the process.

Housing:
We may find that where you live may be a problem for you. All of the YOT workers are trained to help and assist with this. It may be necessary to find you somewhere else to live if things get too bad. If this happens you will need to talk to someone who can do something to help.

Priority Youth Housing work closely with the YOT to assist with both Housing Support and support accessing learning and employment opportunities.

Your YOT worker will contact somebody from Priority Youth Housing and they will need to see you. Working together with Connexions, Priority Youth Housing will try to link you up with a Personal Advisor.