Youth court orders

When a young person pleads or is found guilty of an offence, the youth court may impose an order on them or their parents which we are responsible for supervising.

A detention and training order is given when the offence committed is serious enough for a custodial sentence to be considered. For example, where an adult committing the same offence would be sent to prison. Half of the sentence will be spent in custody and the other half in the community. On release, the young person should see their supervising officer twice a week.

A parenting order may be given if your child has committed an offence or has not been going to school. The order will give you support and training for up to 12 months to help you stop your child from re-offending, or help you get them to go to school every day.

A referral order means the court is referring the person to a youth offending panel to discuss the offence and look at ways to help the offender to put things right. The panel usually includes someone from our youth offending team and members of the community.  The offender’s parents or guardians must attend and the victim of the offence can also choose to attend.

A reparation order is given to prevent someone offending again. It helps the offender understand the impact that crime has on the victim, and what can be done to make amends. The offender may be asked to think about how their crime has affected the community, write a letter or meet the victim to apologise. They could also carry out some practical work for the victim or the community.

When a young person commits an offence, they may not have to go to court. The young person can be referred to the out-of-court panel which can decide on various options. For example the youth offending service may make a written assessment and the panel may then issue a caution with conditions. This could include looking at:

• attitude to the victim(s)
• ways of making reparation
• education difficulties
• involvement with the misuse of alcohol and drugs
• identifying ways of becoming involved in positive activities