Kingston Youth Offending Team

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Introduction

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 signalled a new direction in the approach to the problem of youth crime. Recent research has indicated that those young people who do offend do not grow out of crime as readily was once believed and has provided evidence of the following key risk factors associated with youth crime.

• Opportunity for crime
• Low parental supervision
• Poor educational attainment
• Persistent truancy
• Peer pressure and associating with other offenders
• Substance misuse
• Lack of victim empathy

At national level a new body, the Youth Justice Board was set up to co-ordinate policy and monitor the operations of the entire system. The Board is responsible for setting national standards for work with young offenders and approves the local Youth Justice Plan which every local authority produces. The current plan runs from to January 2002 to December 2005, with annual reviews.

• The Board set six key objectives for the Youth Justice system:
• The swift administration of justice so that every young person accused of breaking the law has the matter solved without delay.  
• Confronting young offenders with the consequences of their offending, for themselves and their family, their victims and the community and helping them to develop a sense of personal responsibility.  
• Intervention which tackles the particular factors (personal, family, social, educational or health) that put the young person at risk of offending and which strengthens "protective factors".  
• Punishment proportionate to the seriousness and persistence of offending.  
• Encouraging reparation to victims by young offenders. Reinforcing the responsibilities of parents.

With the implementation of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came new requirements for local authorities to establish multi-agency Youth Offending Teams, comprising of representatives from the police, the social services department, the education department, the probation services and health services. The principle behind such teams is the improvement of joint working and communication in a manner that allows risk factors to be addressed with greater effectiveness.

The Kingston Youth Offending Team…. Partnership working

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames welcomed the Government's initiatives in reforming the youth justice system. As early as September 1999, the Kingston Youth Offending Team was formed and given responsibility for introducing the new measures.

The Kingston Youth Offending Team was formally launched on the 24th April 2000 and gave a presentation of its work and future plans. The multi-agency structure of the team is seen as a key ingredient for success.

• The Health Services contribution ensuring that the health needs of young offenders are met including access to the mental health services and drug and alcohol agencies.
• The Probation Service contribution offering a wide choice of programmes through its Partnerships and a consistent service to the courts.
• The Police contribution helping to provide a balance between punishment and protecting the public by working with the young offender towards rehabilitation and the goals of good citizenship.
• The Education Service contribution ensuring the educational needs of young people are met, by reducing truancy and school exclusions and encouraging young people to access mainstream youth services.
• Social Services encouraging young people to accept responsibility for their behaviour and make reparation to victims and reinforcing the responsibility of parents.
• The Restores Project Officer encouraging some young offenders to participate in a restorative conference with the victim.

Achievements so far

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Final Warning Scheme

The scheme replaced the Juvenile Caution and has been refined locally to allow all young offenders the chance to access facilities to help them stop offending. A clinic is held every three weeks in Kingston police station and each case is assessed to find factors which may place a young person at risk of offending. The offender is reprimanded or finally warned in suitable cases by a senior police officer. The option to prosecute a young person remains in more serious cases or when there is evidence of repeat offending.

Members of the Youth Offending Team will be present at the clinic to give the offender the opportunity to access facilities to help them stop reoffending. These include the drug and substance misuse worker and reparation officer. Examples of work offenders have agreed to carry out include writing a letter of apology, cleaning up graffiti and listening to advice on the responsibilities involved in driving/owning a car or motor cycle.

Bail Supervision and Support

Since November 2001 a bail support worker has been employed to actively seek packages in suitable cases enabling a young person to remain in the community whilst on bail. The scheme provides close supervision of the young person to minimise the chance for repeat offending. Accommodation has been arranged locally where a young person can live if the home situation does not permit him/her to reside with their parents or carer.

Responses to New Orders

A range of new court orders has been introduced including Action Plan Orders and Reparation Orders which require young people to take part in a short intensive programme designed to tackle offending behaviour and to provide reparation to the victim. A Parenting Order requires parents to attend training and guidance sessions and includes a support group for parents of teenagers. Surveys to date show that parents and young offenders involved rate the courses as excellent or very good.

Truancy Project

In conjunction with the Metropolitan Police and the Education Welfare Service, this project aims to reduce the risk of young people becoming involved in crime, either as a perpetrator or a victim, and get them back to school as quickly as possible.These patrols are now a regular part of multi agency work and have proved successful in not only detecting young people truanting but also deterring others.

Liaison with Schools

Working directly with schools to ensure that all young people involved with the Youth Offending Team have suitable and sustainable education plans. In addition the schools programme delivered in partnership with Metropolitan Police will continue to provide sessions on the responsibilities of citizenship and a drug education programme.

Preparation and Restoration

Significant advances have been made in Kingston to promote reparation . High profile activity to remove graffiti in the borough at targeted problem areas have been undertaken regularly in line with the Crime and Disorders Partnerships policy. In particular collaborative work with the Kingston town centre management and local authority environment department have impacted on the levels of local graffiti. Partnership work with the local London Bus Company has also given the chance for young offenders to take part in bus clean up days when they help remove graffiti from buses. Public areas have recently been found where young offenders will be engaged in productive work such as gardening.

Victim Liaison

For every crime there will be a victim and in suitable cases they are consulted on their views on the crime and how they would wish to see the matter resolved. This is recognised as a particularly sensitive and delicate area of work which the Youth Offending Team will be seeking to develop.

It is the aim of the Youth Offending Team to work with the victims of youth crime in all suitable cases.

Drug Substance Misuse

Since October 2001 the Youth offending team has employed a specialist worker to concentrate on preventing young people abusing drugs and to help young people resident in Kingston who have drink or drug problems. When a young person resident in Kingston is arrested the drug/substance misuse worker will examine the offending behaviour to see if drink/drugs may have contributed to the offending. Responses available range from advice through to residential placements.

Referral Orders

Introduced through legislation in April 2002 the Referral Order is a new sentence given by the Youth Court and enables community members to contribute to preventing local crime. Sitting as a panel the community representatives will negotiate and contract with a young offender on the work and activities he/she will engage in over a period from 3 to 12 months.  Facilitated by the Youth Offending Team it is likely that some 35 young offenders a year resident in Kingston will benefit from the scheme.

Other Work

Much other work is conducted by the Youth Offending Team to prevent offending. Both directly through activities with young offenders such as the revamped motor project, anger management courses, close supervision, school involvement and provision of skills for young offenders to help them stop offending. New initiatives involving electronic surveillance (tagging) are now available to the courts in suitable cases and the Youth Offending Team will be working to introduce the initiative. Continued involvement in Parenting Classes and ensuring young people receive an education remain priorities.

For more information please contact:

Kingston Youth Offending Team
Eagle Chambers
18 Eden Street
Kingston upon Thames
Surrey
KT1 1BB

Tel: 020 8547 6920
Fax: 020 8547 6959

Office Hours:
8.45 am - 5.00 pm (Monday - Thursday)
8.45 am - 4.45 pm (Friday)