The focus of the Youth Support Service is to prevent youth offending and safeguard vulnerable young people facing risks outside the home. It includes both the Youth Justice Service and the Adolescent Service.
The Youth Justice Service
The Youth Justice Service aims to:
- prevent offending and re offending by children aged 10-17
- protect victims and support communities in Cambridgeshire.
The service is multi-disciplinary. It includes staff with a range of professional experience with backgrounds in education, probation, youth and social work. It has seconded staff from partner organisations including Police and Health.
The service includes area teams that cover:
- Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire
- East Cambridgeshire and Fenland
- Huntingdonshire
It also includes countywide specialist teams that focus on:
- health
- education
- training and employment
- preventing offending and early interventions
- harmful sexual behaviour
- Intensive Supervision and Surveillance (ISS).
The service takes a 'child first' and trauma-informed approach. This is to divert young people from offending. It delivers a range of interventions including:
- voluntary preventative support
- diversionary outcomes
- formal out of court resolutions
- court orders.
Adolescent Service
The Adolescent Service works across Cambridgeshire to increase safety for young people aged 12-17 who are in need of support and protection. This is primarily from risks outside their home. It is delivered through two Adolescent Social Work Teams and a specialist Missing and Exploitation Team.
The Adolescent Social Work Teams focus on safeguarding children who face risks such as:
- criminal or sexual exploitation
- youth violence
- radicalisation
- significant mental health issues
- homelessness
- those who are at risk of entering the care of the local authority.
The teams are led by team managers and include social workers and child practitioners.
The Missing and Exploitation Team offers advice and intervention to young people facing risks outside the home and to the professionals supporting them.
Missing Support Workers offer return home interviews to children who have been missing. It also offers short-term interventions to prevent further missing episodes.
The SAFE (Safer RelAtionships For Exploited Children) Team seek to build longer-term trusted relationships. They offer positive alternatives for young people experiencing exploitation. They work using a trauma-informed approach.
The Adolescent Service is currently leading the implementation of new processes to safeguard children who face significant risks outside the home. These efforts aim to increase safety in contexts where young people experience harm in the community.
The Acting Head of Service for this area is Tom Watt.
