Norfolk Youth Justice Service

Norfolk Youth Justice Service (NYJS) is a multi-agency partnership team whose aim is to prevent children from offending and to help them restore the damage caused to their victims. We aspire to make Norfolk an even safer place to live and help children achieve their full potential in life.

We supervise and support children aged 10 to 18 years who have committed offences and have received a Youth Caution, Youth Conditional Caution or an order from the court.

We also offer prevention work with children aged 8 to 17 years who have not yet offended, but who are at risk of offending or becoming involved in anti-social behaviour.

We have three offices from which we deliver services to children and their families, plus a head office which works out of the central unit.

Norwich including Head Office (Norwich and Central Norfolk)
Lower Ground, North Wing
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich, NR1 2DH
Tel: 01603 679100

Great Yarmouth (North, East and South Norfolk)
Havenbridge House
North Quay
Great Yarmouth, NR30 1HZ
Tel: 01493 448120

King's Lynn (Thetford and West Norfolk)
Priory House
9 Austin Street
King's Lynn, PE30 1EB
Tel: 01553 614950

Opening hours for Norwich, Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn offices
8.45am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday
8.45am to 4.30pm Friday
(closed bank holidays)

We aim to provide you with the best possible service and to do this we will need to share your information with other professionals that we work with. These people will include Norfolk County Council Children’s Services, the Police, schools and other education providers, health service providers, the court service and the Crown Prosecution Service.

We do this to:

  • Get you help and advice that you might need
  • Make sure you and others are safe from harm
  • Make sure that we are able to do our job properly
  • Make sure we comply with the law, such as the Crime and Disorder Act 1998

The information we share will tell other professionals that we are working with you so that we can all coordinate the work that we do with you. Any further information about you that those people request from us will only be given if you agree or the law requires us to.

Information is stored securely within NYJS computer systems or in paper files and only authorised staff are able to access that information.

Children – information is held for up to five years after you have stopped receiving a service from us or until your 18th birthday (whichever happens first) but in some cases this will depend upon the type of service you receive from us

Victim of crime - information is held for up to a year after we have stopped working with you

Parents/carers - information is held for up to a year after we have stopped working with you

Early help - information is held for up to a year after we have stopped working with you

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like to see some or all of your personal information or if you would like more information about data protection or how we use your information, please contact:

Norfolk Youth Justice Service
Head of Youth Justice & Targeted Support Services
Lower Ground, North Wing
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich, NR1 2DH

Tel: 01603 679100

All requests for information should be made in writing and should detail the sorts of information that you want to see about yourself (such as a particular report or about some work you did with us), or if you want to see all of the information we hold on you.

Case 1:
Sean wanted to undertake an electrical course. A course was identified but it didn’t start until five months after his release from custody. In order to ensure structure in Sean’s life and increase the likelihood of a positive outcome, the YJS worker arranged for him to attend a short course in various trades and then a foundation course to prepare for the main course. Sean maintained his motivation, commenced the planned course, and continued on it. 

Early help case 1:
Throughout the intervention Julie; Sarah’s mum stated she would stick her head in the sand. This was part of Sarah’s problem. When talking to Julie during sessions the YJS early help worker focussed on the bucket of sand, and at the end of the intervention Julie finally said "I have kicked the bucket of sand over, I am not going to stick my head in it anymore.

Assess, plan and supervise

Our aim is to prevent children from being involved in crime or anti-social behaviour. We help to support them to address their behaviour and to realise their ambitions, aspirations, and full potential.

We are committed to the main aim of the Youth Justice System, which is to prevent offending by children. Norfolk YJS aims primarily to achieve this through our early help service and by working with early help Norfolk family focus as part of a wider approach to crime and anti-social behaviour prevention. Our early help service will provide a swift response to addressing youth crime and anti-social behaviour and will ensure that children and their families have access to appropriate mainstream services at the earliest opportunity.

NYJS completes an assessment with every child, using a nationally validated tool which helps to identify the parts of the child’s life that contribute to their offending. It also highlights any areas of risks or vulnerability that the child may present or be at risk from.

The assessment enables us to identify a plan to prevent further offending and suitable interventions that children can understand and relate to which are both interesting and motivational. In the majority of plans there will be an element of restorative justice that the child will complete. This includes direct or indirect work with or for the victim(s) of their offence(s).

NYJS work closely with parents and carers to help them support their children to complete their order successfully.

Children will be expected to attend NYJS for the length of their court order, to complete their intervention plan, in order to achieving a positive outcome.

For further information or to make a referral contact your local office. Contact details are in the section above.