Youth Offending Service

Our job is to prevent young people aged 10 to 17 from breaking the law, to help to prevent them from re-offending and to support the victims of youth crime. In a typical year around 4000 young people are involved in the criminal justice system - less than 3% of all the young people living in Kent.

Boy painting over graffitti as part of the Sea Shelters project

Youth Offending Teams

Every part of England and Wales has a Youth Offending Team (YOT) to deal with young people who offend or are at risk of doing so. Because of its size, Kent has 5 area teams which are aligned with police and local authority areas, 2 specialist county-wide teams and a headquarters at Maidstone.

Together with recently developed Youth Inclusion and Support Panels, (YISPs) across Kent, they make up the Kent Youth Offending Service (YOS). We have 170 staff and our work is greatly supported by some 400 volunteers.