Youth offending - general information

The Youth Justice Family Support Team

The principle aim of the Youth Justice Family Support Team is to reduce youth offending in West Lothian. Youth in the context of the team are young men and women up to the age of 18. The team offers a range of services and supports to the young people and their families, primarily to address their offending behaviour using a variety of methods and programmes as well as developing supports for the families.  Many of the young men and women coming to the attention of the team have poor social skills and little impulse control, having little insight into the consequences of their behaviour either on themselves, their families or their wider communities. The team has developed a range of group work initiatives in order that these issues can be addressed. The issue based groups run by the team are influenced by hotspot areas across West Lothian, which are identified by the police and other agencies. Group work is also influenced by the needs of individual young people. Other group work initiatives have recently been developed in the team which includes a 10 week group work programme called 'Onside' in partnership with Heart of Midlothian Football Club. The programme was piloted with 12 young males from ages 14 and 15 and evaluation and discussions are already taking place to roll this programme out to 16 to 18 year olds with a view to developing interpersonal skills, improved self esteem, looking at employment opportunities and generally encourage the young men to make better choices, lead healthier lifestyles and become better citizens.
A Problem Solving group for 14 and 15 year old males has also been formed which involves outdoor activities and much of the focus of this work is around risk assessment and problem solving skills. This programme will be rolled out to young men of 16 to 18 years of age who are currently serving Probation Orders or have been identified as potentially high risk offenders.

In conclusion, the team works with young people from the age of 12 through to 18 covering a range of offences from early intervention through to young men serving Probation and Community Service Orders. Although the primary focus of the team is to address offending and reduce offending across West Lothian, the work also focuses the wide and varied issues which results in young men and women developing coping strategies which results in offending behaviour. The team is continually creating new initiatives to work with these young, vulnerable and potentially dangerous young people. Certainly, in the short term, the team has been successful in supporting young people through their Probation Orders thus addressing their offending behaviour in their families and communities and preventing breaches of orders resulting in young men and women being incarcerated.

How to contact us:

Please see the 'Contact Details' section at the right of this page for telephone and email information.