We're a team of social workers who sit alongside colleagues in the Youth Offending Service. The team works with young people who are at risk of harm from outside of their families that is associated with their peers, the places where they spend time, or online activity and is identified as being exploitative.
We work intensively with young people and their families to strengthen relationships and to help them to understand and move away from exploitative situations.
Most, but not all of the young people that the team works with are also open to and working with Youth Offending practitioners. When a young person is open to the Adolescent team and the Youth Offending Service, the two teams work very closely together to ensure that young people get the right help at the right time. This can involve referring the young person and/ or their family to other, services who can provide additional, specialist support.
The range of specialist services that the Adolescent team can refer young people and their families to is broad and includes:
This matrix was developed in order to identify young people at risk of becoming involved in serious offences, intervene early and offer support such as:
Risks that could lead to a young person being referred to us include: