Scrutiny review of the Youth Offending Team
We reviewed the work of the Youth Offending Team (YOT) to establish how effective they are at youth crime prevention. We also wanted to understand how other organisations help YOT with this task.
Areas we reviewed included:
- the role of youth crime prevention workers
- the funding and provision of youth crime prevention work
- how young people, who are considered most at risk of offending, are identified by those organisations involved in youth crime prevention.
Main recommendations of the review
- When organisations meet to discuss a young person considered at risk of offending, all key organisations should be represented to ensure that the person is properly assessed.
- All organisations meeting to discuss a young person should use the same criteria to identify which young people require intervention.
- YOT and the Police should meet before court cases where a custodial sentence is being considered. The aim of this is to see if an agreement can be reached which can be presented to the magistrates.
- Our Children’s Services Department should investigate the cost-effectiveness of having a pool of specialist foster parents that can support young people on remand.
The full report is available to download below.
