What is the Youth Offending team (YOT)?
A. A Youth offending team is made up of representatives from the Probation service, social services, police, education, health, drug and alcohol misuse and housing officers. At Balham Youth Court there are representatives from two YOTs, the Wandsworth YOT and the Lambeth YOT. Ultimately their duties are to co-ordinate the provision of Youth Justice services for their area. They become involved when a young person is found to be guilty of committing an offence. Their role becomes one of assessing the young offenders needs and identifying the specific problems that may make these young people offend. They then take these needs into account when designing a programme for the young person to follow while they carry out their sentence, in an attempt to prevent the young offender from re-offending. Typically the young offender will be supervised and have to report to their YOT whilst they are carrying out this programme.
