The Role of a Youth Offending Officer.
“In England and Wales in 2008/2009 around 245,000 offences were committed by young people between the ages of 10 and 18 years old. It's the role of Youth Offending Team's (YOT) to work with these young people within the criminal justice system, with the aim of rehabilitating and supporting them so as they don't commit further offences. A Youth Offending Officer will work with a local authority working within their YOT.” (ccwales, pg 1).
These teams are made up of various services to support young offenders examples of this are, city council, the police, the health service and the probation service. Their goal is to protect the public from high-risk offenders and deal with problems that could reduce youth crime. The YOT helps individuals aged from 11 – 25, they help a wide range of individuals. These can be from first time offenders to repeat offenders. (www.ccwales.org.uk, positive carer choice, page 1)
A YOT Workers duties could include some or all of the following:
•Carrying out risk assessments and planning how to manage future risk
•Preparing reports for the courts before sentencing, based on risk assessments
•Coming up with action plans to support young offenders and prevent them from reoffending
•Referring young offenders to agencies such as housing, or drug and alcohol misuse services to support their welfare needs
•Agreeing ways of resolving some offences to benefit the victim or the community
•Supervising young offenders on court orders and community sentences, and after their release from secure institutions
•Helping young offenders back into education, or find work or training, and encouraging them to take part in constructive activities
•Working with young offenders to help them see how their behaviour and attitudes affect other people, so that they will take responsibility for their actions
•Visiting young people in secure institutions, and making risk assessments and plans for after their release
•Working closely with staff from organisations such as the police, social services, probation, health services and education.
•Managing the amount of cases that you have, recording case notes and writing reports.