Youth Justice System
Assessment
Research has shown that children and young people who offend have multiple needs that must be identified and addressed in order to reduce their risk of offending or reoffending. Youth offending teams (YOTs) use a range of assessments to identify the needs of young people, the risk they present to themselves and others, and the likelihood of them offending or reoffending.
The assessments used by YOTs require them to speak to the young person, their parents, and other services that have worked with them or their family, and gather information about their:
- criminal history, if they have already offended
- education
- health
- family
- environment
- attitudes.
YOTs use the information from these assessments to protect the public and create programmes of activities for the young person that address their needs and reduce the likelihood of offending. The YOTs constantly review these assessments and update them when a young person’s circumstances change.
Young people who offend
For young people who have offended, the YOT uses an assessment called Asset. Asset must be completed with all young people subject to a Final Warning, or due to be sentenced to a custodial or community order. The YOT uses the information from the assessment to:
- make a recommendation to the court on a suitable sentence
- identify the activities that the young person will be required to complete as part of their sentence
- identify whether work needs to be done with their parents/carers
- identify how to protect the public.
If a young person is sentenced or remanded to custody, the information gathered by Asset is used by the YOT to assess whether the young person is vulnerable. This information is used by the YJB to decide the type of custodial establishment they are placed in. To find out more about the factors that decide whether a young person is vulnerable or the process used to decide the type of custodial establishment they are placed in, visit the Placing Children and Young People in Custody page.
Young people at risk of offending
YOTs increasingly work with children and young people who have been identified as being at risk of offending, in order to help prevent them from being drawn into the youth justice system. For these young people, the YOT uses an assessment called Onset, which is a used by all prevention programmes. Onset is used to identify whether a young person would benefit from participating in a prevention programme, as well as to identify their needs and how best to address them to reduce the likelihood of them becoming an offender.
Please click to read an evaluation of the validity and reliability of Asset.