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Our work is strictly governed by a set of national standards, which are published by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.

These standards include time limits for completion of assessments and for reports for court.

They also specify the minimum number of appointments that a young person on a court order needs to complete.

Key responsibilities of our officers

The key responsibility of our officers, also known as case managers, are to:

• prevent re-offending
• support and promote the welfare of the young person
• improve their life chances
• protect the public

Assessment

To allow us to determine what steps to take in each case, we will interview the young person and their parent or carer at least once.

From this, the case manager will complete an assessment tool called 'Asset'.

Asset looks at the following areas of the young person's life:

• Living arrangements
• Family and personal relationships
• Education, training and employment
• Neighbourhood
• Lifestyle
• Substance use physical health
• Emotional and mental health
• Perception of self and others
• Thinking and behaviour
• Attitudes to offending
• Motivation to change

This assessment will identify:

• factors that put the young person at risk of further offending which need to be addressed
• positive factors that the worker can build on

These factors will form the basis of the intervention plan that the case manager agrees with the young person and their parent / carer.

Intervention plan

For part of this intervention plan and to help make sure that the young person gets the best possible help from the most appropriate professionals, the case manager will make referrals to specialists within the YOS Resources Team, such as:

• health
• drugs
• education, training and employment (ETE)
• external services where appropriate

These specialists will see the young person, but the case manager will still oversee the case.

The case manager will keep in close contact with the young person, and do some of the work, such as offending behaviour work.

If the young person doesn't keep their appointments for final warnings, the case manager will tell the police.

For court orders, the case manager will take the young person back to court for being in breach of the order.

With court orders, if the young person has done really well, the case manager may take the young person back to court to ask the court to consider ending the order early on the grounds of good progress.

The Case Management team

• Early Intervention Unit (EIU)
  The EIU work with young people on final warnings and referral orders. The team is made up of 1 Unit Coordinator and 5 YOS Officers.
• Community Orders Unit (COU)
  The COU work with young people on action plan orders, supervision orders, community rehabilitation orders, community punishment, rehabilitation orders and bail support. The team is made up of 1 Unit Coordinator and 5 YOS Officers.
• Prolific Offenders Unit (POU)
  The POU work with young people on detention and training orders, remand, ISSP, bail ISSP and deter cases. The team is made up of 1 Unit Coordinator (ISSP Practitioner), 3 YOS Officers (including 1 probation officer) and 3 ISSP Advocates.