Youth Justice Service

What we do

• When a young person is arrested, they must have an appropriate adult with them, so the police can carry out an interview. If there are no parents/guardians available, we will find an appropriate adult for them. 
• If the young person is brought to a youth court by the police, we will assess the young person to see if they pose a risk to themselves or others whilst in custody.
• In court, before the Magistrate passes sentence, we write a Pre-Sentence Report, which lets the court know about the person's behaviour, family background and helps the court to sentence the young person. 
• We will work with the young person, family and solicitor to provide a bail supervision and support package. 
• During the whole process, we try to find out if the young person needs any extra support and help them to find it.

We also work with families, the police, the courts, victims of crime and the local community.

Working with parents

• We provide parents with one-to-one support, group work, workshops, parenting sessions and signpost parents to other services.
• Parents are invited to regular review meetings, where they can have an active input into their child's intervention plan.
• Our case managers call parents on a weekly/fortnightly basis with an update of their child's progress and to discuss any issues.
• We invite all parents to attend our parenting events and to have a good working relationship with the Youth Justice Service.

Supporting victims

• If consent is given, the police will pass on the victim's details to us and we will offer the victim access to reparation and a restorative justice service.
• Restorative justice can be a face-to-face meeting between a victim and an offender (led by a trained facilitator), or indirect communication where messages are passed between the victim and offender - this is dependent on what the victim is comfortable with.
• This gives the victim the opportunity to have a say in the activities and tasks the young person has to complete.
• It can provide closure to the victim and provides young people with the opportunity to see the impact of their crime and to apologise to the victim.
• Victims have the right to change their mind at any point during the process.
• We will not put any pressure on victims to meet with offenders.
• We will ensure the victim's confidentiality.

We welcome suggestions about how we could make our service better. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email hillingdonyjs@hillingdon.gov.uk