What does the Youth Justice Service (YJS) do?
The main purpose of the YJS is to reduce offending by children and young people.
The service works with children and young people, from as young as 10 up to 18 years of age, who having broken the law, have either been sentenced by a court or have come to the attention of the police but not been charged. The YJS work with these young people to try to help them live better lives and stay away from crime.
The YJS provides a range of services to help and support young people, and their families, to try to keep them away from crime and anti-social behaviour.
Youth Justice Teams (YJTs)
YJTs are statutory partnerships – that is, they must work together by law – and they are multi-disciplinary, so they can deal with all the needs of the child. They are required to have staff from local authority social care and education services, the police, the National Probation Service and local health services working together to help these young people.
In H&F the Youth Justice Teams are located within the children and young people’s service.
The teams include workers from our partner agencies, children’s services, health, police and probation. There are substance misuse workers and a mental health nurse who can offer advice and support on emotional and mental health issues.
Youth Justice Teams:
- help young people at police stations
- provide support at court
- supervise young people on a community sentence
- keep in contact with young people while they’re in custody and help them settle back in the community when they leave
- deliver interventions to help young people make different life choices.
Who works in the service?
Court & Community Team
The Court and Community Team have responsibility for court, resettlement, intensive supervision, surveillance and disproportionality.
Our work involves supporting and delivering court ordered interventions to those Hammersmith & Fulham children and young people who offend and are made subject to community orders, custodial remands and sentences made at Youth & Crown Courts.
Community Team
The Community Team is part of the YJS who are responsible for supervising young people who are subject to statutory court orders. Young people working with the Community Team have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty of an offence and subsequently been convicted and sentenced by the Youth or Crown Court. Our role is to deliver a series of rehabilitative interventions alongside monitoring and enforcing requirements attached to the order.
Queens Park Ranger outreach worker
The role of the QPR outreach worker involves developing relationships in the local community with young people by engaging them in mentoring, sport, music, employment, education healthy living, nutrition and anything else that the young person needs extra support with.
Health and Wellbeing Team
The Health and Wellbeing Team are in charge of making sure that any young person that comes through the system are met with the team and undertake a health and wellbeing screening assessment.
Police Officers
At Hammersmith and Fulham, dedicated police officers work alongside our partner agencies in many different strands, including the Youth Justice Team.
What happens when you are referred to the YJS?
Each young person who comes to the attention of the service will be assessed to decide the risk of them re-offending or hurting others. This assessment is to help plan how to work with the young person, and their family, to reduce any risk and promote the young person’s development and well-being.
How does the service work?
We aim to:
- give a fast response to help young people who have offended or are at risk of offending
- encourage young people to make amends to the victim
- develop activities and increase opportunities for young people to help them stop committing crime
- help the young person and their family take responsibility for what has happened.
Restorative justice and volunteering
Restorative justice helps those harmed by crime or conflict, and those responsible for the harm to communicate, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a way forward.
Restorative justice holds offenders to account for what they have done. It helps them to understand the real consequences of their actions on others and to take responsibility and make amends.
You do not have to participate if you do not wish to. Voluntarism is a fundamental principle of restorative justice.
If you have been harmed by another person and you would like support from the restorative justice team, please contact yot_admin@lbhf.gov.uk or call 020 8753 2533.
We are always looking for volunteers on our referral order panels. This is a role for which you will be trained to help young people create contracts enabling them to stay out of trouble with the police and repair the harm they have caused.
If you are interested in applying for a volunteer role, please contact yot_admin@lbhf.gov.uk or call 020 8753 2533, and one of the team will get back to you.
We are always looking for people who can reflect the diversity of our community.
Contact the YJS
Youth Justice Service
145 Kings Street
Hammersmith
W6 9JT
020 8753 2533
yotadmin@lbhf.gov.uk