Children and young people

This is part of a bail condition, Supervision Order or Detention and Training Order Licence which requires an offender to be supervised by a member of the Youth Offending Team. It combines intensive supervision with close monitoring.

Once the order has been made, the offender's compliance and the support of their family are essential if it is to help them address the reasons for their offending.

The purpose of the programme is to help them do what is necessary to stop offending and to protect the public from harm.

Offenders will be expected to undertake work under the following:

Supervision

• Education and training.
• Tackling offending behaviour.
• Reparation to the victim and the community.
• Developing interpersonal skills.
• Family support.

Surveillance

• Tagging at set times.
• Voice-verification at set times.
• Intelligence-led policing.
• Tracking.
• CCTV cameras.

What will they have to do?

The length of the programme depends on which order they are on. The initial three months is the most intensive and will require the offender to do a minimum of 25 hours of supervision a week and a minimum of two surveillance contacts a day. The following three months will require them to do a minimum of seven hours of supervision each week.

Their supervising officer will direct the remainder of their order. Their supervising officer has a duty to encourage them to work at those areas that are linked to their offending. If this is going to make any difference, they will need to talk openly with their workers about themselves.

A weekly timetable will be given to them and their parents which will outline what they will be expected to do during the week. They will have a weekly progress meeting and throughout their programme, monthly multi-agency meetings.

What are the rules?

They must:

• notify any change of address,
• attend when required,
• arrive on time to appointments,
• comply with reasonable directions from their supervisor,
• comply with any additional requirements included in their order,
• comply with the contract they have signed about acceptable behaviour.

What happens if they do not co-operate?

If offenders do not keep to the conditions, their supervising officer must take them back to court. If the court considers that they have breached their order it may:

• revoke the order and pass another sentence, which could include custody,
• tell them to complete the order but punish them by imposing either a fine of up to £1,000, an Attendance Centre Order or a Curfew Order.

What are the benefits?

The programme is the most rigorous non-custodial intervention available for young offenders and aims to make demands on the offender and protect the public from harm.

It is hard work but if an offender is motivated to find new ways of dealing with their offending and wants to stop, the Youth Offending Team will offer them help.

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