Youth offending

Wiltshire's Youth Offending Team (YOT) works with children and young people who are involved in offending behaviour. We do this by working with the young person, their parents or carers, the victims of crime, volunteers and the local community. The YOT is made up of staff from a range of organisations including the police, probation service, education and children's social care, all working together to tackle youth crime in Wiltshire.

The three main areas of YOT work are:

Prevention: Some young people may be at risk of getting into trouble but have not yet committed an offence. The team supervises and supports these young people to prevent them entering the criminal justice system.
Offenders: We work with young people who have committed offences, to change their behaviour and stop re-offending.
Work with victims of crime: Through the process of restorative justice, we work with victims of crime to make sure they are given a voice within the criminal justice system.

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When young people first get into trouble with the law, commit offences or behave anti-socially, they can be dealt with by the police and local authority, outside the court system using various different orders and agreements. This is to stop young people getting drawn into the youth justice system too early, but still offers them the help and support they need to stop offending.

The orders and agreements you can get in the youth justice system are:

Out of court disposals

Out of court disposals allow the police to deal quickly and appropriately with low-risk, low-level and mostly first-time young offenders outside of the court system.

If a young person is involved in low level crime and admits their guilt the police could recommend:

No further action
Community resolution
Youth caution
Youth conditional caution

If none of these options are suitable, the young person faces being charged and prosecuted through the courts.

Reparation Order

The aim of a reparation order is to help prevent a young person from offending again by understanding the consequences of their actions and taking responsibility for what they have done. Reparation requires a young person to repair the harm caused by their offence either directly to the victim or indirectly to the community.

A reparation order will be supervised and managed by someone from the YOT, who will carry out an assessment and arrange a suitable form of reparation for you. If you are in school or in training then reparation will be organised at a time that does not interfere with this. A reparation worker will supervise you while you complete the agreed work objective set out in your contract. They will collect you from your home address, stay with you for your session and then drop you back at home.

Reparation can take a number of forms, such as direct reparation, which is work that directly benefits the victim of your offence; indirect reparation, which is reparation suggested by the victim; or community reparation, which will see you working on a community project.

Referral Order and the contract

A referral order is given to a young person aged 10-17 who pleads guilty at court to their first criminal offence. The only exceptions are in very minor cases or if the court decides the offence is so serious that a custodial sentence is necessary. A referral order can be made for a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 12.

If you have been given a referral order, you will have to appear before a meeting of the Youth Offender Panel. The aim of the initial panel meeting is to agree a plan of action after they have heard your views on what you have done, the views and feelings of the victim and the views of your parents. You will then be expected to agree a contract with the panel to repair the harm caused by the offence.

When the order is complete your conviction will be spent. This means that you do not have to tell anyone about it, and most people will have no right to know about it. The only exception is if you are applying for certain jobs, for example, working with children. The referral order is the only court order that will not be recorded as a criminal conviction.

Youth Rehabilitation Order

For the majority of young people who offend, a community sentence known as a Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) is used. A court must consider the offence the young person has committed is serious enough to warrant a community sentence, requires a restriction on their liberty and equals the seriousness of the offence.

The YOT team will be asked to prepare a Pre-Sentence Report to inform the court about the seriousness of the offence, the needs of the young person and the risk of harm they present to others in the future. Those needs and risks will help the court to decide the requirements of the YRO and how long it will last.

Intensive supervision and surveillance

Intensive Supervision and Surveillance can be ordered by the court as part of a Youth Rehabilitation Order. As a mixture of punishment and positive opportunities, it is an alternative to custody for young people who have committed a serious offence.

The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme targets the most active repeat young offenders and those who commit the most serious crimes. It combines intensive supervision with close monitoring and is designed to:

Ensure the young person makes amends for their offences
Address the underlying causes of the offending
Put in place support and activities to avoid offending in the future
Manage the risks posed by the young person to the community
Stabilise what is often a very chaotic lifestyle
Involve the young person in the community
Help the young person do what is necessary to stop offending and to protect the public from harm.

Every young person has their own programme tailored to tackle the root causes of their offending behaviour.

Custody and imprisonment

Young offenders can receive custodial sentences, but they will only be imposed in the most serious cases. When they are given, they aim to provide training and education and rehabilitate the offender so they do not re-offend.