Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Youth Offending Team

The Youth Offending Team (YOT) works with young people aged 10 to 18 years who have received a Final Warning from the police, are on a bail support programme or have received a sentence from the courts. This includes young people who received a custodial sentence. The Youth Offending Team is a multi agency body which includes social workers, police, probation officers, health and education workers. It works with young people to fulfil orders laid down by the court and to work with schools and other agencies to prevent further offending and ensure social inclusion.

Asset

ASSET is a structured assessment tool used by Youth Offending Teams to assess young people with whom they are working. It gathers information from a variety of sources including education in order to

• Identify factors which affect offending and other forms of risk behaviour
• Assist practitioners in planning suitable intervention programmes
• Through the use of triggers indicate the need for further assessment in specific areas
• Over a period of time measure changes against planned intervention and reassess need Relevant information from ASSET can be shared with other agencies.

Mentoring

Young people with whom the Youth Offending Team works are seen regularly by their caseworker. Caseworkers may

• Work on areas such as anger management, peer pressure, victim empathy, relationships, family dynamics, substance abuse, self esteem, decisions and consequences
• Support parents through home contact and parenting orders (voluntary and compulsory)
• Support school attendance and liase with school to address school based issues

Short Term in School Support

Two Education Officers work with the team, one is a Youth Worker, one a qualified teacher. Education Officers work alongside caseworkers on educational issues. They can provide additional support for schools by working with young people for the length of their Order. Pupils targeted will be those who are in danger of permanent exclusion, have received a permanent exclusion or those returning to school after a long absence. Support is usually one session weekly for a specified period and will be negotiated with schools. It could include

• In class support o Individual/group mentoring on school based issues
• Support with literacy/numeracy or help to catch up on missed work
• Contribution to pupil planning meetings, behaviour support plan etc
• Work with other agencies to arrange and monitor work experience

Restorative Justice Conferencing

A Restorative Justice Conference is a way of responding to conflict and wrong doing. It is a structured meeting between everyone involved in an incident or dispute. It empowers people to resolve their own problems by giving them a guided sensitive forum in which to do so

• It encourages wrongdoers to accept responsibility for what they have done
• It enables wrongdoers to move to real concern and remorse
• Victims have the opportunity to express their feelings and have a say in the outcome
• Everyone can move forward to a positive outcome.

The Youth Offending Team is organising a series of training days for school pastoral staff, Connexions and Careers workers. Community Police, youth workers, EWOs, LAC team and others who work with young people. The intensive two day courses are designed to

• Train professionals who work with young people and the larger community in an understanding of Restorative Justice principals and how these can be used to resolve conflicts and disputes
• Give practical experience in facilitating such conferences within schools and the community
• Explore avenues for support and networking amoung those who work with young people in the local area

Key Stage 2 to 3 Pilot Project

The Youth Offending Team and community police are working with a group of Year 6 pupils who are causing problems in schools and in the community. This pilot project will

• Deliver a 6 to 8 week programme for one afternoon a week, looking at self esteem, risk behaviours, decisions, consequences, victim empathy, working with others
• Track pupils into Year 7, offering support to schools through informal mentoring during the first year of secondary school

Support for Pupils Educated Outside School

Education Officers from the Youth Offending Team may contact schools in connection with young people now in Young Offenders Institutions (YOI) or secure accommodation.

Education Officers will liase with education staff in the secure sector to provide information, working towards 'seamless provision' for entry and exit.

Name of Service: Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire Youth Offending Team

Contact:
Kate Bright (Education Officer)
Ashley Davies (Education Officer)
Willie Goodwillie (YOT Team Manager)

Address
24 Victoria Road
Wellington
Telford
TF1 1LG
Telephone/Fax 01952 257477
Fax 01952 242926
Email kate.bright@wrekin.gov.uk

Role of Education within the Youth Offending Team

Education staff are Kate Bright and Ashley Davies

We work where appropriate with young people aged 10-17 who have received a final warning from the police or a sentence from the court. Intervention usually lasts for the duration of the final warning programme of the length of the court order. This can take the form of in school support where appropriate.

We work across Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire

YOT Education staff will try to ensure that children of school age with whom we have contact have an appropriate educational placement and the support to succeed in that placement. This means working in a multi agency setting, statutory and voluntary.

We will highlight educational issues and learning methods within the YOT team and contribute an education perspective to YOT individual and group work in areas such as as anger management, victim empathy, relationships, peer pressure, substance abuse, decision making, risk taking and consequences

ASSET is the YOT's assessment tool and is completed for all young people with whom we work. Relevant information can be shared if necessary

We liase with education staff to contribute to behaviour support plans/review meetings etc for individual pupils, helping to access other serves/projects as appropriate

As part of a school's behaviour support plan we will provide a short term reintegration package to support young people at danger of a permanent exclusion or returning from a long absence or exclusion. This will normally be for 6-8 weeks and could take the form of weekly mentoring, group work, extra literacy/numeracy or in class support.

Longer term support can be available if it forms part of the school's behaviour support plan o We can support parents through informal home contact or through Parenting Orders

We are in the process of organising a structured literacy/numeracy programme as an additional support for young people who are receiving very little LEA provision. At the moment we are delivering number power and word power after consultation with LEAs

We provide assessments for YOT in respect of educational needs of young people over compulsory school age

We support lifelong learning and will encourage and support young people over compulsory school age who wish to continue learning, liasing with colleagues, training providers, Careers/Connexions etc

From September 2001 we will be working with SPILL to establish a discrete learning support centre for post 16's

We are working with YOIs and secure establishments to contribute to training and exit plans

Where possible we will try to play our part in preventative projects. We are currently working on Restorative Justice training and a Key Stage 2/3 project

We will contribute to LEA and other initiatives which seek to promote social inclusion and prevent offending