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Neil Puffett
Monday, June 6, 2016
A partnership between a youth offending team and university has been launched to improve practice, in a move that could pave the way for similar arrangements elsewhere in England and Wales.
Newcastle youth offending team (YOT) and the department of social sciences at Northumbria University have teamed up on a number of areas of work including a mentoring project and evaluation of youth offending work.
Through the mentoring scheme selected university criminology students received training in child protection, safeguarding and youth justice before working as mentors alongside young people to help them while on a community order.
Meanwhile students have conducted service user feedback questionnaires at YOT projects and carried out student research projects linked to YOT activities.
The university has also been commissioned to evaluate critical areas of work, in order to shape practice and support funding applications.
Tim Bateman, criminologist at the University of Bedfordshire said the model
