Who we are
The Youth Action Service works in partnership with Education, Culture & Sport, Action for Children, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, Northern Constabulary, NHS, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and Criminal Justice Service.
The interventions provided by Youth Action Service are predominantly delivered following a request for service to address behaviour which involves young people placing themselves and or others at risk.
The Youth Action Service work is statutory and involves preparing reports for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on children aged 12-18 years who have been involved in offending. Targeted assessments and intervention packages are also requested by other services e.g. Criminal Justice, Children and Families Teams and Education.
The teams are composed of Social Workers, Substance Misuse Workers and a Chartered Forensic Psychologist, in training. Other community based disciplines and services can be accessed.
Three teams cover the Highland
Ross, Skye and Lochaber Tel: 01397 709830
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Tel: 01955 605792
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Tel: 01463 256603
How we work
There are four broad areas of work to be addressed by the service which are Identified in Preventing Offending by young people – Planning and Performance Improvement Framework (Scottish Government National Guidance May 2010 www.scotland.gov.uk)
These are Prevention, Early & Effective Intervention, Managing High Risk Offending, Victim and Community Confidence.
These have been tailored to address the local objectives and are set out in For Highlands Children 3, under the key outcomes Safe, Nurtured and Respected & Responsible.
The accountability for the service delivery is overseen by the multi disciplinary Youth Justice Strategy Group. The local governance is administered by the Joint Committee for Children and Young People (web link).
The YATs have nine improvement objectives, here are two examples of joint funded partnership working:-
Diversionary activities take place at weekends and evenings. Action for Children run street football and a substance misuse advice service in locations throughout the Highland. They target locations where young people are congregating and there are reports of anti social behaviour. Locations are identified by the Northern Constabulary and partner agencies. Young people who request further support can be referred to AFC substance misuse mentors or to other support services.
Early and effective interventions are targeted at young people who have started to become involved in offending. Following a multi agency assessment led by a Northern Constabulary officer these young people can be dealt with by Restorative interventions which involves them addressing the harm they have caused and if needed additional support given from universal services is recommended.
The core range of work undertaken by the YATs are:-
- Assessments
- Asset – Assesses the probability of re offending
- SAVRY – Assesses the severity of violent behaviour
- SASSI – Assesses substance abuse
- AIM – Assesses levels of harm caused and risk created by interpersonal abuse – sexually harmful behaviour
- Interventions
- Safer lives – Addresses relationships and interpersonal behaviour
- Ross Programme – Offence focused work for young people who are at low to moderate risk of re-offending
- Offending is not the only choice – Targeted at young people with repeat patterns of offending
This website was updated on 11th October by Jane Murphy (Resource Manager- Youth Justice & Substance Misuse)