Youth Court Processes Policy
What's Important To Us
It is crucial that Child Youth and Family staff members present and conduct themselves in a professional manner. This enhances the organisation's reputation of delivering quality service and support to children, young people and their families. We do this by writing clear, concise reports and plans, anticipating requests made by the Youth Court and responding to them in a timely manner.
Young people must be supported through each step of the process to comply with Youth Court orders and achieve the objectives set in their plan.
Under certain circumstances, children aged 12 and 13 may appear before the Youth Court and be made subject to the sanctions of the Court. In these cases, the child is considered to be a 'young person' for the purposes of the Court and will be referred to as such for the purposes of this document, unless the advice is specific to them.
Family group conference plans for Youth Court
The youth justice coordinator will send a signed copy of the decisions, recommendations and plan to the Youth Court to be placed on the young person's file. This must be done a minimum of 24 hours before the next scheduled court appearance. This still applies when the family group conference has not reached an agreement. In this case the plan will simply record that no agreement was reached.
Youth Court reports and plans
Reports and plans provided to the Youth Court must contain clear objectives, clear indications of how objectives will be met (or have been met in regard to Effectiveness Reports), who will be responsible for defined actions and the timeframes within which they will be achieved.
Assessment and planning to identify the needs of the young person
Assessments and/or specialist reports may/will have been provided where it is necessary to identify the needs and aspirations of the young person in order to make informed decisions about intervention and support.
Plans will be individualised to address the young person's offending related needs. In planning, social workers will look to the young person's strengths, and identify ways in which to build self-esteem and pro-social attitudes and behaviours. This may require NGO providers to be engaged and services negotiated and contracted to support the young person's plan.
All plans must include a focus on engaging the young person in education, training or employment and ensure that they are living in suitable accommodation.
Supporting the young person and their family with their plan
The young person's individualised plan must be monitored and reviewed as per the agreed timeframes. Doing so will support the young person, their family and provider of services to complete the plan and achieve its objectives. Contact with the young person and their family must occur at the frequency necessary to support the plan and the needs of the young person. See policy: Management of High Risk Children and Young People
Monitoring and reviewing Youth Court orders
A social worker monitors and reviews all Court plans where the Children, Young Person and Their Families Act requires the Chief Executive of Ministry of Social Development is required to do so, e.g. under a family group conference plan, or because of a custodial or supervisory role.
Supporting the young person while appearing in Court
When young people who are subject to a Custody and/or Guardianship Order in favour of the Chief Executive are required to appear in the Youth Court, they will be accompanied by a social worker whose role it is to support the young person and/or provide information.
Variation and cancellation of Court Orders (s296(E))
Sometimes a young person will ignore or not comply with Youth Court orders. This can be for a number of reasons. The social worker will need to discuss with the young person, their family and any provider of services, to see if minor changes to the plan can be made for it to continue or to consider escalating proceedings.
The social worker is required to file an application to the Youth Court to vary or suspend certain court orders if the young person has not complied with the terms of those orders. Each application must also be served on the young person and the parent or guardian or other person having the care of the young person. A copy must also be sent to the young person’s youth advocate.
The grounds for the application are that the young person failed to comply, without reasonable excuse with the condition of the order. The social worker must specify which condition or conditions of the order with which the young person has failed to comply.
Where the application, once filed in court, is defended, the Child, Youth and Family solicitor will manage the case.
An application is required to vary the following Youth Court orders:
- Parenting Programme- s283 (ja) - includes orders made against the young person and against the parent or guardian or other person having the care of the young person
- Mentoring Programme - s283 (jb)
- Alcohol or Other Drug Rehabilitation Programme - s283 (jc)
- Supervision - s283(k)
- Community Work - s283(l)
- Supervision with Activity - s283(m)
- Supervision with Residence - s283(n)
- Intensive Supervision - s296(G)
Review of certain orders made for periods of 8 months or more (s319A)
When the following orders are made for a period of eight months or more a review of the s335 plan is required:
- Mentoring Order
- Alcohol and Other Drug Rehabilitation Programme Order
- Supervision Order (if it accompanies a supervision with residence order)
The review of the plan must be completed within six months of the order coming into effect. A report showing the outcome of the review and a revised s335 plan for the young person must be filed in the Court by the review date. The Court will specify the review date at the time of making the order.
Intensive Supervision Order (s296G)
A social worker will be allocated to every young person on an intensive supervision order. Regular engagement with the young person will ensure the young person is supported during the term of the order.
An intensive supervision order is also subject to the conditions that apply to standard conditions under s306 and also to stronger reporting conditions and any additional conditions such as curfew, with or without electronic monitoring of compliance.
Early release (Supervision with Residence) (s314)
Young people subject to a Supervision with Residence order are now entitled to an early release after two-thirds of the order if they can satisfy the Youth Court that they have complied with the following conditions:
- that they have not absconded or committed any further offences
- that their behaviour and compliance have been satisfactory
- that they have complied satisfactorily with specified programmes
The residential case leader, in consultation with the field social worker is required to organise a pre-release planning meeting no later than two weeks prior to the early release hearing date.
The residential case leader is responsible for ensuring that all relevant information regarding the young person's time in the residence is compiled and available for the pre-release meeting including:
- the views and recommendations of any service providers who have worked with the young person while in the residence
- any assessments and/or reports completed during the period the young person has been in the residence, both internal and external
- updated TRAX and SAC assessments, where appropriate
- data from the Behaviour Management System
The field social worker will provide information on any service providers that will be providing services for the young person post their release, and if required ensure their participation in the pre-release planning meeting.
The pre-release planning meeting has a dual purpose:
- To discuss progress to date on the Supervision with Residence order, including compliance with the conditions for early release and then to consider whether:
a) to make a decision to support early release or
b) to oppose early release, requiring the young person completes the full term of the order. - To discuss the conditions of the proposed supervision order (if the sentence is subject to split sentencing) and/or vary existing or impose new conditions of existing orders or to cancel or suspend them.
When early release for the young person is not supported by Child, Youth and Family or if any contentious issues are evident for that young person, the residential case leader should seek legal advice from the regional Youth Justice solicitors before submitting the s314 report to the Youth Court. In particular difficult cases the attendance of the solicitors at the Court should be considered.
Where there are contentious issues or if early release is not supported, the report should be submitted tothe Court at least three working days before the hearing date. Otherwise, the report must be lodged in Court one day before the hearing. The report can be faxed to the Court.
The residential manager is responsible for ensuring that the s314 report is completed and provided to the Court in time for the designated court hearing. Where the Court grants early release, confirmation must be sought from the presiding Judge on when and how, they wish to be notified of the young person’s compliance or otherwise, prior to the scheduled early release date.
When a Judge conditionally grants early release, subject to continuous good behaviour (between the early release hearing and the release date); the Child, Youth and Family court representative is responsible for adding a case note in CYRAS, to record the Judge's comments. The residential social worker will be responsible for completing the "Update on behaviour" section of the s314 report, on the date of release. This is approved by the residential manager, before being sent to the Youth Court.
Where a young person has resided at two (or more) residences during their period of supervision wit residence, the residence at which the young person is residing at the time of the pre-release meeting is responsible for the compiling and provision of one s314 report for the court. Input for this report may be sought from the precending residence(s).
The field social worker is responsible for completing the s334 social work reports and s335 plans for any subsequent orders post release from residence. The youth justice supervisor approves the reports and plans.
All young persons who have been subject to a Supervisiojn with Residence Order (s311) and have subsequently moved to a Supervision Order (s283(k)) are automatically considered as high risk and staff are required to implement the policies and strategies for the management of high risk children and young people.
See: Management of High Risk Children and Young People Policy
Effectiveness reports (s320)
An effectiveness report is required to be filed with the Youth Court within one month of the expiry of the following orders:
- Parenting Programme - s283 (ja) - includes orders made against the young person and against the parent or guardian or other person having the care of the young person
- Mentoring Programme - s283 (jb)
- Alcohol or Other Drug Rehabilitation Programme - s283 (jc)
- Supervision - s283(k)
- Community Work - s283(l)
- Supervision with Activity - s283(m)
- Supervision with Residence - s283(n)
- Intensive Supervision - - s296(G)
When several of these orders are in place for a young person a separate effectiveness report must be completed for each order.
The report must provide enough detail to ensure that the Court has sufficient information to judge how effective the order has been for the young person. In some cases it may be appropriate to provide additional information (e.g. a counsellor's report).
Where the young person has been under the supervision of the Chief Executive of Ministry of Social Development a Child, Youth and Family social worker must prepare the reports and the reports will be approved by the youth justice supervisor.
If the young person has been under the supervision of any other person or organisation, then the report will be prepared by that person or organisation.
