Service Manager, Centre Services
The Glasgow Youth Court, based in Glasgow Sheriff Court, is for young people aged 16–24, and utilises a problem-solving court model. It is judicially led and was established in 2021. This approach is supported by partnership working between Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership Justice Services and Glasgow Sheriff Court, with a shared aim of recognising the underlying issues that lead to young people offending, and then providing intensive support to help address these issues and reduce the risk of further offending. This also helps divert young people away from the adult justice system, instead, offering a more person-centred approach.
The most common method of supporting young people through the Youth Court is by a Structured Deferred Sentence (SDS). This is used before formal sentencing, and provides structured support through a social worker, who will work intensively with the young person, and work towards addressing individual needs which may have contributed to offending. It may also involve support from other services too, to provide a holistic package. At the end of the period of intervention, the court retains the discretion to pass sentence in any manner that would have been appropriate at the time of conviction, but with the benefit of information from the supervising officer in relation to the period of deferment.
You can read more about the problem-solving court model in Scotland in this blog by Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown on the Community Justice Scotland website.
How it works – young people within the age limits and who have pled guilty are eligible, and most cases that can be referred to the court are considered. Referrals are made by the presiding Sheriff, following which the justice social work team prepare a report to help inform the Sheriff and provide a risk and needs assessment. If approved for the Youth Court, the young person will be allocated a named social worker from the specialist Youth Court team. As most young people then go on to an SDS, a more in-depth needs assessment process will be undertaken to inform the intervention. These generally relate to skills, education, and employability; personal resilience and confidence building; experience of working with others; and any specialist needs, such as support with mental health or substance use. A wide range of partner agencies are involved to support tailored and holistic support.
In addition to this support, the young person must also attend regular review hearings. This allows the court to monitor progress, but also gauge engagement and assess whether further action may be needed. These actions can include extending the period of the SDS or to consider imposing an additional sentence such as a Community Payback Order or fine. While the length of SDS is flexible, most are around 26 weeks, and so it is a lengthy period of supervision and engagement. At the end of the order, if no further disposal is deemed necessary, the young person will be admonished. If this is not successful, the Sheriff will impose alternative sentence options, such as CPO or Restriction of Liberty Order, continuation of SDS, or custody.
Evaluation – The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice conducted an evaluation of Glasgow Youth Court, which concluded in May 2023. They evaluated the 102 Youth Court orders that had been made at this point. It found that Youth Court orders made up 21.7% of all orders made for those aged 21 and under in 2022/2023. When comparing with cases that did not go through the Youth Court, it was found that 65% of SDS originating in the Youth Court completed successfully, compared to 51% for those not originating in the Youth Court. The research also found many other positive findings from this approach, including:
- Many young people felt positively about their engagement with Sheriffs, who often displayed patience and flexibility, offered positive feedback and used simple language.
- Young people experienced some benefit from the interventions and support they accessed through their engagement with the Youth Court.
- Young people felt more positive in general about their future following their involvement with the Youth Court.