Youth Justice Service

North Somerset Youth Justice Service works with children and young people aged 10-17 years old.  

Our team includes social workers, victim liaison officer, restorative justice worker, police, probation officer, health and education workers, including speech and language therapists, mental health and wellbeing clinicians and substance misuse workers. 

Together we: 

• run local crime prevention programmes and offer voluntary support programmes
• support children and their families when attending court
• help and support children and their families when serving a community and/or custody sentence
• help and support victims of crimes in accordance with the Victim's Code of Practice 

We are a statutory service and only take referrals from the police or the courts. We are overseen by a multi-agency partnership board, chaired by the Director of Children’s Services. 

No matter who you are or what crime you've been accused of, all children have rights. 

The Youth Justice Charter explains what your rights are. It sets them out as standards, so you know what to expect at each stage of the youth justice system:

• being stopped by the police
• going to court
• community youth justice services
• going to youth custody
• leaving youth custody

Find out more below:

We are committed to keeping children and communities safe, as well as treating everyone with respect, fairness and honesty, recognising everyone's unique circumstances, qualities and worth.  

We follow standards for children in the youth justice system  and the Child First approach. We aim to:

• make children's best interests our priority
• focus our work on what each child needs
• build supportive relationships that help children reach their potential
• actively involve children and carers in all our work
• help children enjoy a childhood away from crime

What we do

If you are involved with us, you will be allocated a Youth Justice Officer. This could be after an Out of Court Panel or Court. They will arrange to meet you in a place that you feel safe and complete an assessment and develop a plan with you and your parents and carers.

The plan will include goals for: 

• how I will keep safe and healthy
• how I will improve my future opportunities
• how I will try to make things better for people affected by what happened.
• how I will reduce potential harm to others through my behaviour
• how I will try to stop behaviour that could lead to offending

We follow the Victims' Code of Practice, which outlines the rights of victims of crime. This includes:

• being kept informed about the case
• making a victim personal statement
• receiving support tailored to individual needs
• being offered restorative justice opportunities

We consult all identified victims of crimes by children and offer them an opportunity to participate in a restorative process either directly, face to face in a safe and supported way, with the child responsible, or indirectly.

We are always happy to hear from people who want to volunteer some time with us as a Referral Panel Member to meet with children, parents and victims to make a plan that repairs harm and prevents further crime.  We will provide training and support to you.   

We also welcome suggestions for reparation and unpaid work tasks from members of the community that meet the following minimum criteria:

• it will benefit the local community
• it will not take work away from others and no-one will make a profit from the work
• it will be worthwhile and constructive