Youth Offending Team

Norfolk Youth Offending Team has three offices from which we deliver services to young people and their families, plus a Head Office which works out of the central unit. You can use the Boundary Map to see which local YOT office you come under and the contact details can be found below.

Norwich including Head Office (Norwich and Central Norfolk)
Room 17, North Wing
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich, NR1 2DH
YOT Tel: (01603) 679100
YOT Fax: (01603) 763615

Great Yarmouth (North, East and South Norfolk)
2nd Floor
Havenbridge House
North Quay
Great Yarmouth, NR30 1HZ
YOT Tel: (01493) 448120
YOT Fax: (01493) 745725

King's Lynn (Thetford and West Norfolk)
Priory House
9 Austin Street
King's Lynn, PE30 1EB
YOT Tel: (01553) 614950
YOT Fax: (01553) 691468

Norfolk Youth Offending Team (NYOT) aims 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 NYOT computer systems or in paper files and only authorised staff are able to access that information.

Young People – information is held for up to 5 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:

Chris Small, Data Protection Officer
Norfolk Youth Offending Team
Room 17, North Wing
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2DH

Tel: 01603 223585

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.

Assess, Plan and Supervise

Our aim is to prevent children and young people 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 and young people. Norfolk YOT 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 young people and their families have access to appropriate mainstream services at the earliest opportunity.

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

The assessment enables us to identify a plan to prevent further offending and suitable interventions that children and young people 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 or young person will complete. This includes direct or indirect work with or for the victim(s) of their offence(s).

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

Young people and children will be expected to attend NYOT 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.

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 YOT 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.

Case 2:
A creative approach was needed by the case manager because Paul was difficult to engage. They used table football and when a goal was scored they asked each other questions about offending or aspirations. When addressing values and beliefs they used an “I believe what I am saying–ometer”. Paul rated how much he believed what he was saying and they discussed it. This helped overcome barriers to engagement and understanding Paul’s motivation.

Case 3:
Leroy was separated from his family. He was of black Caribbean heritage and isolated in a predominantly white area. The case manager arranged for Leroy to have a mentor from his cultural background, who worked with him to support his identity. The mentor also helped Leroy engage with female workers. The case manager identified a local hairdresser who was skilled in the haircut that Leroy preferred. The focus on responding to Leroy’s heritage contributed to improved relationships and effective engagement to address the offending behaviour.

Case 4:
Tom could be reckless and did not consider the impact of his actions on others. He was influenced by an older peer group. The YOT and police jointly delivered a programme called “Y-Di” addressing the consequences of dangerous behaviour with cars. Tom was referred to this programme. His confidence developed and he was able to challenge others views in the group. He started to recognise the impact of selfish or reckless behaviour. Subsequently he was offered a lift, but declined because the car did not have enough seatbelts and missed a party. For Tom this indicated significant improvement in thinking and behaviour.

Early help case 1:
John was initially referred through his High School but then excluded from that school due to disruptive behaviour. The YOT early help worker attended the initial school meeting. John’s mum is a single parent with 7 children and had not had any additional provision to support her. John began attending another school in Norwich in February 2013 and has received two 'good progress postcards' to his home address. He is happier and more settled and currently there are no concerns from his school about his behaviour.

Early help case 2:
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 YOT 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".

Early help case 3:
Allan commented on the YISP intervention "yeah it’s been good", “I’m not getting into trouble anymore". Allan’s mum also said that now Allan will often avoid problematic situations within the community, and quite often walks away.

Early help case 4:
Gemma, aged 8, had been displaying some really aggressive behaviour which was only happening at home. At school, she was described as a ‘model student’, and there were no instances of anti social behaviour in public. The YOT early help worker and Gemma decided to complete a ‘behaviour sticker book’, with 5 aims, chosen by Gemma as "things she wanted to change at home" and Dawn, her mum agreed to monitor this.

At the next visit, there were a few ‘stickers’ in the book, but generally the book was filled with crosses where the aims had been missed each day. The next session was spent refocusing and reminding Gemma about the purposes of the book. Gemma had spent lots of time decorating her book during the course of the week, so this was encouraging and it was agreed to give it another try.

Disappointingly, the following week, there were even more crosses despite the previous enthusiasm. Understandably, Dawn was frustrated by the lack of success. Again, we refocused on the aims of the work. Following some professional discussion with a YOT colleague, experienced in counselling, it was agreed to drop all but one aim in the book as it was believed that Gemma was a bit of a "perfectionist" and it was felt she lost hope when even one "bad mark" was recorded in the book.

Following this new strategy, at the next visit, Dawn told the YOT early help worker that the family had taken out all the aims except one. In that week there were 7 stickers in it for that aim. Interestingly, Dawn also reported that all of the other aims had also been achieved by Gemma despite not being in the book anymore.

Early help case 5:
Craig is a young person who was assaulting his mum; Rebecca. Meetings with both Craig and Rebecca were held and then they were brought together in a Restorative Justice Conference which took place at Craig’s school.

Craig was fully aware of his anger and wanted to stop hurting Rebecca because it made him very sad when his anger got out of control. Rebecca wanted to explain to Craig how much his behaviour was upsetting her and that she loved him very much. It was decided that Craig would help Rebecca more with household chores and with help from Rebecca ensure he kept his room tidy. Craig also agreed to walk away if he started to feel angry and to go to his room to calm down.

Rebecca was very satisfied with the outcome and thanked the early help service for their help.