Children and young people

An Action Plan Order is intended to prevent an offender from offending further, by allowing a member of the Youth Offending Team to work with them to deal with the problems which may have led them to get into trouble.

An Action Plan Order is a sentence of the court which is supervised by a member of the Youth Offending Team.

What an offender has to do

The court may order an offender to complete an Action Plan Order over a period of three months. The content of the Order will vary for each young person and will be determined once his or her needs have been assessed. It may include some or all of the following:

• undertaking two activities each week, at least one of which will be a session with the Youth Offending Team Officer;
• doing something to help the victim of the offence: this is called “reparation” and could be anything from writing a letter to say sorry, to more practical work - it may be that the offender will be found more general reparation work to help the community;
• receiving sessions to help with health issues (e.g. drugs and alcohol) or help with education;
• returning to court after 21 days to review the progress of the Order;
• going to an Attendance Centre to do two hours of activities once a fortnight;
• attending sessions, perhaps as part of a group, to address their offending;
• keeping away from a particular place or places;
• keeping to any plan which has been put together for their education;
• reporting to a particular place each week.

What are the rules?

Offenders must:

• keep all appointments given to them by their Youth Offending Team Officer;
• tell their officer if they change their address;
• allow their officer to see them at home when required;
• complete the actions set out in their Action Plan Programme.

What happens if they do not keep to the rules?

• Their officer will ask them for an explanation and will decide if their reason is acceptable or not.
• If they fail to keep more than two appointments without an acceptable reason, they will be taken back to court.

What happens if they do not co-operate?

If they do not co-operate with the Action Plan Order, they will be returned to the court.

The court may:

• order them to complete the Order;
• fine them up to £1,000;
• impose an Attendance Centre Order;
• discharge the order and sentence them in a different way for the original offence;
• if their Action Plan Order was made in the Crown Court, send them back to the Crown Court for re-sentencing.

^ (back to top)