Orders and resolutions

If a child between 10 and 17 years old is appearing in court for the first time and has pleaded guilty to the offence, they might be given a Referral Order.

Referral Orders are made for a period between 3 and 12 months.

Once the Court has suggested a Referral Order a member from the youth justice service will contact the child and their parent / carer. Firstly, the child is ordered to appear before a Referral Order panel within 20 days of the court appearance, together with their parent or carer.

The Referral Order panel meeting brings together volunteers who are specially trained to take part in these panels, a practitioner from the youth justice service, the child and their parent or carer and sometimes the victim of the crime.

Together they put together a programme which will include reparation work (giving back to the community and/or victim) and work to address the offending behaviour.

Find out about the impact of a Referral Order

The Youth Rehabilitation Order, also known as a YRO, is a community based sentence. This means that you are most likely staying at home and getting together with the youth justice team fairly often to complete different activities and tasks. The youth justice team will work with you to help you change your offending behaviour and try to make your future free of offending.

The type of activities that may be required to complete a YRO programme include:

• Education / training
• Anger management
• Reparation (giving back to the community)
• Family support
• Supervision
• Programme of activities
• Unpaid Work
• Curfew
• Mental Health Treatment
• Drug Treatment
• Drug Testing

To help you complete your YRO, your youth justice worker will explain what will happen and work out a programme of work and activities with you. They will talk with you about what you have done and the effects it has had on the victim and community, as well as answering any questions you may have. They will support you to complete your YRO, record your progress and help you to stop offending, as well as giving you positive feedback and encouragement throughout the process.

To complete your YRO, you must put in some work too and make sure you:

• Attend appointments on time and engage, otherwise you will be given a verbal and a written warning. If there are no changes in your participation, you may be required to go back to court.
• If you are unwell you may need to provide the Youth Justice Service with a note from your GP.
• Attend appointments free from the influence of alcohol or drugs otherwise you will be asked to leave and this will count as a missed appointment