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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Assessing Offenders
3. Format of Referral Order Reports
4. Good Practice in Preparing Referral Order Reports
5. Victim Contact

1. Introduction

1.1	This document should be read in conjunction with the following; Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 Powers of Criminal Court (Sentencing) Act 2000 Referral Orders Procedure The Referral Order – A good practice guide – NACRO (2001) Youth Offending Team & Victim Support Protocol 2002 National Standards for Youth Justice – Referral Orders 2002
1.2	This policy has been adapted from the guidance issued for the writing of Pre Sentence Reports

2. Assessing Offenders

2.1	Upon receipt of a Referral Order from the court, the court officer/court admin. will give the young person and their parent/guardian an appointment with the Referral Order Co-ordinator to carry out an Asset assessment of the offender within five working days of the court hearing.
2.2	The Youth Offending Service may already have an ASSET profile on the offender in relation to a previous Final Warning. If so, this may be included in the updated assessment. However, the Asset profile must be updated if more than three months have elapsed since the previous assessment.
2.3	Having carried out the Asset assessment, a report should be produced and made available to the Referral Order Panel 30 minutes prior to the Initial Panel Meeting. This should focus in particular on any risk factors associated with re-offending, so that these can be addressed in the programme of activity to be included in the contract.

3. Format of Referral Order Reports

Click here to view YOS Form

Previous Offences

Reprimand:                   

Final Warning:

Sources of Information

This section should summarise the sources used in preparing the report including:

• number of times young person has been interviewed
• other persons who have provided information in connection with the preparation of the report, for example social worker, education social worker, attendance centre, solicitor etc.
• procedures followed in verifying certain types of information
• whether or not the author has seen the advance disclosure information and depositions
• any significant information which was not available to the author

Victim Consultation

The report should note the actual harm/damage/cost of the offending and the impact on the victim.  Wherever possible this should be through personal contact with the victim by the YOT police representative.  If the victim is willing to participate in a mediation and /or reparation process this should also be noted.  Where the victim cannot be contacted personally the author can use information from the victim statements or approach the CPS for further clarification. 

Any victim statement is attached separately and is read out at Panel for maximum impact.

Community Payback Guidelines

This section should be calculated following the YJB guidelines.

months = hours minimum reparation
Length of Order	Amount of Reparation
3-4 months  5-7 months   8-9 months	3-9 hours 10-19 hours 20-29 hours

For Orders of 10-12 months youth offender panels should normally include a minimum of 30 hours of reparation in contracts, and may wish to include more.

Offence Details

This section should contain a summary of information given in the CPS documents regarding the current offence(s) and its circumstances.

Young Person’s View of Offence

This section should include the young person’s version of events and should also include the report author’s analysis following a consideration of all the versions of the offence, including seriousness and risk assessment. Any information about aggravating or mitigating features of the offence should be included, although these words must not be used.

This section should include:

• An assessment of the young person’s culpability and the degree of premeditation;
• An assessment of the context in which the offence(s) occurred;
• The offender’s motivation;
• The young person’s attitude to the victim and the offence and awareness of its consequences, including any evidence of acceptance or minimisation of responsibility, any expressed remorse or guilt, and any expressed desire to make reparation/compensation; and
• An assessment of the implications of any special circumstances (e.g. family crisis, alcohol, drugs, physical or mental health problems) which are directly relevant to the offending, drawing attention to any ways in which they may be relevant to the court’s judgement of its seriousness.
• Parents response to offence;
• Young person’s understanding of the impact of the offence on their parents

This section should not include details of previous offending unless the author considers that the circumstances of previous offences shed light on aggravating features of the current offence. 

Relevant Information about young person

Family Details

Refer to any Care Plan prepared for the child or young person under the Children Act 1989 and any social work involvement currently taking place.  Include any information relevant to the court’s decisions as to whether to bind over the parent(s) or impose a Parenting Order.

Include personal or social information about the young which is relevant to past offending, to the likelihood or otherwise of re-offending, for example home/domestic situation, family and peer group relationships.

Education/Employment

Where the young person is of school age, obtain information from the school, Pupil Referral Unit and/or local education authority concerning attendance, behaviour or performance, via the YOS Education Liaison Worker.  Contacting the school can be a sensitive matter for some young people and their parents who may fear a negative reaction from the school in terms of temporary or permanent exclusion.  The Education Liaison Worker needs to be made aware of these concerns before she makes her enquiries as they may influence how she obtains the required information.

For a young person who is post school age but is in some form of ETE, the report author should contact the provider and verify progress.

For a young person who is post school age and not in ETE a summary of the education history would be helpful.

Lifestyle

This section should include interests, friends, peer pressure, lack of constructive use of leisure time

Substance Use

If significant

Health

If relevant

Contact with other Services

If relevant

Assessment

Summary of the above; analysis based on available information addressing protective factors and risk factors.

Evaluate patterns of offending to date in the light of personal and social factors which have contributed to them. Where the young person has outstanding matters in the system, of a similar nature, it may be appropriate to refer to them if the information will inform an assessment of risk of further offending and risk of serious harm.

Include an assessment of earlier disposals, including reference to successful completion of final warning programmes. Where they were not completed assess whether there were any partial successes on which future sentences could build e.g. reduced seriousness of offending.  Identify the reasons behind any failure of a previous reprimand or final warning programme i.e. through breach or re-offending.

Conclusion

This section should be a summary of the report with suggested elements to focus on.

4. Good Practice in Preparing Referral Order Reports

The young person and parent/carer should be offered at least two opportunities for an appointment to prepare the report. Ideally the Asset interview should be conducted at the young person’s home address but often time restrictions do not permit this.  

The contents of the report will be shared with the young person and his/her parents/carers before the Referral Order Panel appearance.  This is an opportunity for factual information to be checked but also for all parties to be aware of the content.

Report writers should attend the Panel Meeting wherever possible, particularly with the more complex reports and where the author’s presence might influence the Panel’s contract. Where this is not possible the Referral Order Panel Co-ordinator should be informed before the Panel meets.

Referral Order reports will refer to the young person as such and NOT as an “offender”.  The main text of the report will refer to the young person by his/her first name, NOT last name.

Where the young person or carers speak a different language from the author, an accredited interpreter should be used rather than family or friends.

Verification of information obtained must be attempted wherever possible.

When a young person is already known to Social Services their social worker should be consulted and provided with a copy of the document.

5. Victim Contact

All contact with victims should be handled with sensitivity and in accordance with anti-discriminatory practice. Staff involved in any contact with victims must be trained and skilled in victim awareness, anti-discriminatory practice and restorative approaches. If the same person is also working with the offender, particular skill will be required to ensure that balance and impartiality are retained.

At the outset, early contact should be made by the Police Officer in accordance with the Youth Justices Board’s data sharing protocol. Unless the victim has indicated otherwise, the YOS should contact the victim within five working days of the court order.

In appropriate cases the Police Officer will gain the following information:

1. Victim details, including gender, age, type of victim (individual, corporate, family member, etc.), date and details of the offence, and victim availability.
2. Victims thoughts & feelings regarding the offence and the Offender
3. The Victims views regarding Direct or Indirect reparation
4. The main issues for the victim
5. Suitability for inclusion in the Referral Order process
6. Whether the victims require support from other agencies

The police officer will pass this information to the report writer so it can be included in the youth offender panel report

If the Victim is suitable for inclusion in the Referral Order process further contact will be necessary to co-ordinate attendance and provide support by the YOS representative sitting on the appropriate panel.

Should the victim wish NOT to be a part of the Referral Order process, but to be kept informed, then the project worker will pass information on to the Police Officer and will ensure this takes place as part of the case management of the order.

End