What is the Youth Offending Team?
We are a partnership, bringing together people who work for Social Services, the Police, the Probation Service, Education Welfare, Youth Work and Health. We work very closely with many other organisations in Wigan, including Community Safety, Victim Support and other groups based in the community.
What is the aim of the team?
Our aim is to try to prevent children and young people committing crime. We also hope to play our part in helping young people to have more fulfilling lives, strengthening families and making communities feel safer.
What do we do?
Our main work is with young people between the ages of 10 -17 and their families. We give particular attention to:
- The rights of victims and safety of communities
- Trying to ensure that young people are held to account for their criminal actions and “put something back” for their victims or the wider community
- Reinforcing the responsibilities of parents
- Taking early action when young people show signs of getting into trouble, in an effort to “nip in the bud” their criminal involvement working with young people to improve their prospects and do something about things in their life which make them likely to commit further offences and playing our part in local efforts to improve things for young people and to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.
Who do we work with?
Young people we work with may be:
- Referred to us by the Police, after an offence for which they have received a Final Warning.
- Going through the Courts.
- Placed under our supervision as part of a community or custodial sentence or
- Referred to us by meetings, called in response to anti-social behaviour.
What do we offer?
We provide a range of services, including:
- Support courses for parents (in partnership with Education and Family Centres).
- Bail supervision and support.
- Attending the police station when a parent / carer cannot be present during an interview.
- Preventative services – working closely with other local groups to divert young people from offending.
- Write court reports which advise Courts on which sentence to choose.
- Restorative Justice – making good any harm or damage to a victim and help the young person restore their position in the community.
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