About Wakefield Youth Offending Team – WF Youth

Wakefield Youth Offending Team

The Wakefield Youth Offending Team (YOT) is made up of social workers, police officers, probation officers, youth support workers, and specialists in restorative justice, health, education, parenting, and substance misuse.

The team works with children and young people aged 10 – 17, and their families, to prevent offending.

This means when a young person is given an out of court disposal or are sentenced in the Youth Court/Crown Court a YOT Worker will complete an assessment, and based on that young person’s strengths and the assessed risk, design a bespoke intervention plan with them and their family/carer.

These intervention plans will challenge criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, and support young people to take personal responsibility for their behaviour. As part of these plans referrals may be made to other agencies and services to provide specialist support to meet a young person’s needs and promote positive outcomes for them, their family, and community.

The Wakefield Youth Offending Team provides services and support for across all of the Wakefield district, and they also have responsibility for:

Ensuring young people who offend are dealt with swiftly and in a manner that is proportionate to their offending behaviour.

Assessing young people and reviewing this on a regular basis in line with national standards.

Delivering all community supervision interventions in line with national standards, risk led practice, and the key elements of effective practice.

Working in partnership with other professionals to deliver programmes of supervision that address risk factors and build on protective factors.

Ensuring that Courts are provided with high quality services and reports to enable them to make informed, balanced decisions when sentencing.

Ensuring that victims directly affected by crime are given opportunities for involvement in restorative practice, and that those communities directly affected by crime benefit from the efforts of young people in ‘making amends’ for any harm they have caused.

Ensuring that young people (where appropriate) are assessed and diverted from the criminal justice system.

Ensuring that appropriate referrals are made for high risk cases through the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and Integrated Offender Management teams.

Working with the wider community to strengthen community cohesion and feeling through volunteering arrangements and community payback.

To contact the Youth Offending Team please call 01924 304155 or email wakefieldyot@wakefield.gov.uk.