Out of court disposals

Suffolk Youth Justice Service promotes the use of out of court disposals to divert children away from formal youth justice outcomes where it is appropriate to do so.

All children who are referred to Suffolk Youth Justice Service (SYJS) for consideration for an Out of Court disposal (OoCD) are assessed by one of our Practitioners. This focusses on understanding the child, their circumstances, their needs, and how we can support them to make positive choices.

The OoCD Joint Decision-Making panel is made up of the Youth Justice Service (YJS), police, mental health, substance misuse and safeguarding teams meet on a weekly basis. They work to understand the incident the child has been involved in, their needs, the impact on the victim and decide an appropriate, defensible outcome.

They use the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC) Child Gravity Matrix and Youth Justice Board (YJB) case management guidance to help them make a decision. The voice of the victim plays a very important part of this and is shared in the meeting.

Plans are developed with children and their families/ carers to help them to make positive choices in the future. This may include them working with a Primary Mental Health Worker, an Educational Psychologist, a Substance Misuse Practitioner or a Speech and Language Therapist. There will be a focus on them understanding the impact of what has happened on others, and this may include completing direct or indirect reparation.


Charge

Charging a child to court for offences they have committed means that the case will be put forward for prosecution in court. Information about this is found in the court outcomes section.