Youth Offending Service

The Leicestershire Youth Offending Service was established in 2000 in response to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Its primary aim is to prevent offending of young people.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 recognised that if youth crime was to be tackled effectively it needed organisations to work together by pooling experience, staff and resources. The Youth Offending Services includes staff seconded from Children and Young Peoples Services, Connexions, Health, Probation, and Police.

The Youth Offending Service works with young people who are at risk of offending and those who have been charged or convicted of offences. The activities of the Youth Offending Service are all designed to follow approaches that have been shown by research to be effective at reducing the likelihood of offending or further offending.

Whenever the Youth Offending Service works with a young person it makes an in-depth assessment. A plan of work is designed which focuses on those issues which will reduce the likelihood of offending or re-offending. This plan is then agreed with the young person and their parents or carers and reviewed at regular intervals.

Where there is a victim of the young person’s behaviour the Youth Offending Service works with the victim directly on reparation or, when this is not possible, with the young person to develop awareness of the impact of their behaviour. When young people are supervised on a Court order they must keep to its requirements, or be required to return to Court.

The Youth Offending Service work with parents and carers, both on a voluntary basis and by order of the Courts to assist them to develop the skills to try to prevent their child from offending in the future.

The delivery of services is split up into 4 areas of work:

The latest Youth Justice Plan summarises the work of the Youth Offending Service.

The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) oversees the youth justice system. For more information on national youth justice policy, please see the YJB website.

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