There is a Youth Offending Team (YOT) in every local authority in England and Wales. They are made up of representatives from numerous agencies including the Police, Probation Service, Children's Social Care, Health, Education and Integrated Youth Support.
The Youth Offending Team identifies the needs of each young offender by assessing them and identifying the specific problems that young people who offend are experiencing, as well as assessing the risk they may pose to others. This enables the Youth Offending Team to identify suitable programmes to address the needs of the young person with the intention of preventing further offending.
In addition to having seconded staff from the agencies named above, the Youth Offending Team directly employs staff in a number of different roles. The roles can be either working directly with young people or alternatively generic admin roles to support front line staff. In order to work with the young people involved with the Youth Offending Team it is necessary to have experience of working directly with challenging young people. Certain posts require a specific professional qualification.
The Youth Offending Team also recruits volunteers and there are a number of very important ways in which volunteers can assist the Youth Offending Team and their community.
