County Agencies - Youth Offending Team

Mission Statement

"Working in Partnership, Lancashire Youth Offending Team will deliver a quality service to reduce and prevent offending by children and young people"

Vision

"Working in Lancashire to create safe communities by preventig children and young people offending"

Values

Lancashire Youth Offending Team will:

Will provide a quality service which is effective, efficient and value for money
Regard the safety of the public as priority
Provide a fair and equitable service to young people, staff, victims and the wider public
Respect young offenders as young people
Respect diversity in terms of race, gender, disablity, age and sexual orientation
Promote the rights of victims and the rights and the responsilities of children, young people and thier families
Value staff as its most important resource
Actively promote appropriate interventions and sentencing

Aims and Objectives

Research tells us that offending by children and young people is common and that amongst the crimes committed by them, much is either not reported to the police or goes undetected by them. Known offending by young people is actually falling and of those which are detected, most do not go on to re-offend.

Furthermore, the type of offences committed by them are largely not violent or sexual but involve property, such as burglary, theft and criminal damage (NACRO, Some Facts about Young Offenders, 2000).

Nevertheless, most crime has a victim and a small but significant number of children and young people do go on to re-offend to become persisitant or prolific offenders.

This is why we need to use effective preventive measures to reduce the risk of offending in the first place and to target those children and people whose behaviour causes most public concern.

The Lancashire Youth Offending Team is committed to helping in this task through multi-agency work and the application of evidence on what works in reducing crime. It aims to meet the needs of communities, families, victims and children and young people, whose behaviour can have a damaging effect on those around them and themselves as well.
Who We Are

Lancashire Youth Offending Team works with 10 - 17 year olds and their families and carers, who may be:

Referred to us by the Police following an offence for which they received a final warning.
Going through the courts.
Placed under our supervision as part of a community custodial sentence.
Referred to us by a case conference called in response to anti-social behaviour.
Identified as being at risk of offending.

Lancashire Youth Offending Team (YOT) was set up in April 2000 following national guidance to improve the way young people are dealt with when involved in the criminal justice system.

Lancashire YOT consists of six operational teams in locations across Lancashire - Fleetwood, Lancaster, Preston Chorley, Accrington and Burnley. Each team is made up of a number of workers including a police officer, health worker, education worker, social worker and a probation officer. There will be other workers in the teams and they will be responsible for the different projects and programmes operating in their area.

Alongside the six operational teams there is a central management services team, based in Preston.

For Further Information Visit: http://youthoffendingteam.lancashire.gov.uk/