Lincolnshire Children's Services Procedures Manual

Youth Justice Guidance for Practitioners

Scope of this chapter

Youth Justice Services in Lincolnshire are delivered by the Future4Me Team within the Children's Services Directorate of Lincolnshire County Council (LCC). The Youth Justice Service Management Board is chaired by the Assistant Director of Children's Services. The membership has representatives from, the Youth Justice Board, Victim Support, Victim Lincs, Corporate Performance, the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust, Lincolnshire Children's Services, Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children's Partnership, Springwell Learning Community, Lincolnshire Police, National Probation Service, Lincolnshire Police & Crime Commissioner, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), P3 charity, Police and Crime Commissioner, Inclusion, and elected members from LCC.

Future4Me - Youth Justice - works in partnership with criminal justice services and with services for children to create safer communities and improve the well-being of children across Lincolnshire.

This chapter provides guidance for staff within Future4Me - Youth Justice.

Amendment

This chapter was significantly updated to reflect revised terminology and practice in December 2025, and should be read in its entirety.

December 11, 2025

1. Introduction

The Youth Justice Service Management Board has the statutory responsibility for setting the strategic direction of youth justice within the County.

The Lincolnshire Youth Justice Services were set up under Section 38 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which places (on the local authority) a statutory duty to provide youth justice services in its area. Section 39 of the Act requires areas to establish Youth Justice Services, and Section 40 requires that each year, a Youth Justice Plan is formulated and implemented. This plan can be found here.

In Lincolnshire we have an overarching goal to ensure that children within the youth justice system are first and foremost fully supported to change their behaviour, realise their potential and make a positive contribution to their communities. We are also committed to underpin future practice with core principles, including:

A child-first, trauma-informed, restorative and family-centred approach;
Developing the use of relationship-based practice;
Utilising a strengths-based approach to promote desistance from criminal behaviour.

Our Management Board Priorities are:

We have a clear commitment that all children will have access to inclusive education, training and employment opportunities (in line with their individual needs), to improve their life chances;
We know and understand our children. We will use a wide range of data and analysis to identify early emerging themes that will enable us to respond effectively and proactively to meet the needs of children and their families in Lincolnshire;
We will advocate and champion for children in care to ensure they are supported; we will integrate into their care plan and help them to realise their potential and own our corporate parenting responsibility;
As a board we will actively challenge inequality and embrace diversity and inclusion in order to ensure we provide fairness and equity of service and support on offer to all our staff, children and families;
We will fully utilise the strength of our partnership to give a clear focus around early intervention, reducing offending and re-offending and reducing the associated impact of crime on victims and community;
We will be pro-active in gathering the views of those with lived experiences of our service(s), listening and valuing the voices of all children and using this to collaborate, co-create and continually improve our service offer.

Future4Me's Safeguarding Lead is the Service Manager.

2. Our Vision in Future4Me – Youth Justice

Children & families in Lincolnshire will be:
- Helped to make changes for themselves;
- Seen as a positive solution to the challenges they face;
- Able to get the right support at the right time;
- Understood as a whole family.
To be truly effective we must always endeavour to make a meaningful and positive difference in the lives of children and families we work with and support and actively challenge ourselves when we do not achieve this;
We will seek to be consistently recognised as a service which raises aspirations and strives for the very best outcomes for children in Lincolnshire;
To ensure children in Lincolnshire maximise every opportunity to fulfil their potential talent;
We must listen and engage with children, hear their perspectives and put them at the heart of solving problems and overcoming barriers.

3. Our Goals in Future4Me – Youth Justice

Prevent offending;
Reduce re-offending;
Ensure the needs and voices of victims and communities are fully integrated within our practice;
Work to ensure custody is limited only to those children whose risk cannot be in the community;
Protect the public from the harm that children can cause to individuals, communities and the public;
Ensure effective safeguarding for those children we work with; and
Adhere to the Victims' Code and Victim Charter when working with children, families, victims and communities.

We will do this by ensuring that:

Children are assessed to the very highest standards and are offered interventions taking into account individual needs that will reduce those identified risks;
Children are properly managed throughout their sentence and through their transition to adulthood;
Sentences are robustly enforced to ensure the credibility of Court Orders and the confidence of the public;
Attention is given to the needs, voices and safety of victims and restorative outcomes are offered wherever possible.

4. Legislation and Practice Guidance

Practitioners working within Future4Me should follow the relevant guidance as below:

Caption: Legislation and Practice Guidance
Guidance	Purpose
Lincolnshire Children's Services Manual	Operational version of Lincolnshire Children's Services procedures. Includes safeguarding policies.
Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures	Operational version of the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures. Includes safeguarding policies.
Lincolnshire Guidance on Assessing Risk of Harm	Guidance for practitioners when assessing risk of (serious) harm - available internally to Future4Me staff.
Lincolnshire Guidance on Assessing Safety and Wellbeing	Guidance for practitioners when assessing safety and wellbeing - available internally to Future4Me staff.
Lincolnshire Youth Justice Management Guidance	Guidance for managers on effective management oversight and case allocation - available internally to Future4Me staff.
Lincolnshire Youth Justice Quality Assurance Framework	Practitioner guidance on quality assurance processes for youth justice work in Future4Me - available internally to Future4Me staff.
Case Management Guidance	Guidance for youth justice services and managers on how to work with children in the youth justice system. It contains: Information on what you need to do; Implications of legislation; Practical advice.
Lincolnshire Future4Me Standards for Children in Youth Justice Services	Practical guidance and minimum standards for: Preventing offending; Out-of-court disposals; Assessing young people; Working in court; Working with victims of crime; Interventions in custody and the community. Available internally to Future4Me staff.
Trauma Informed Youth Justice Intervention Policy	Guidance on working with children in a trauma informed way - available internally to Future4Me staff.
Sentencing Children: Definitive Guidelines	Definitive sentencing guideline for use in courts in England and Wales on sentencing children.
Youth Court Bench Book	A reference guide for Magistrates in the Youth Court, specifically for children; providing guidance on case management, sentencing and legal principles.
Bladed Articles and Offensive Weapons: Definitive Guidelines	Definitive sentencing guidelines for offences involving Bladed Articles and Offensive Weapons for use in courts in England and Wales on sentencing children.
Referral Order Guidance	Guidance on how to deal with children on referral orders.
National Protocol for Case Responsibility	Provides a set of principles to assist youth justice teams when they work with children from outside their geographical area.
AssetPlus Guidance: Assessment and Planning Interventions Framework	Assessment user guide for practitioners - available internally to Future4Me staff
Prevention and Diversion Assessment Tool Guidance	Guidance on the Prevention and Diversion Assessment Tool for practitioners.
Serious Incident Notification: Standard Operating Procedures for Youth Justice Services	Guidance on the mandatory system to report and record serious incidents within Youth Justice Services.
Code of Practice for Victims of Crime	Sets out the services that must be provided to victims of crime by organisations in England and Wales.
Victim Charter	Sets out the responsibilities of Future4Me to ensure the needs and wishes of victims are met.
Joint Protocol for Missing Children (Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures Manual)	The aim of the protocol is to assist practitioners across all agencies to develop robust responses to children who run away and go missing. This will include preventing the child suffering harm and recovering them to a place they are safe as soon as possible.
MACE	Overview of MACE and link to the screening tool used by professionals to report concerns around child exploitation.
MAPPA Guidance	Guidance on assessing and managing the risks posed by sexual and violent offenders.
ASB Practitioner's Guidance	Guidance for youth justice services (YJS) practitioners on the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.
Speech, Language and Communication Needs in the Youth Justice System	Advice for practitioners and managers in youth justice services (yjs) and secure accommodation for children. It aims to help you work with children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
Joint Lincolnshire Protocol Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Section 38) and provision of Local Authority Accommodation	Guidance on safeguarding children through avoiding, so far as is practicable, their detention overnight in police custody following charge and the denial of bail.
Joint Protocol for Transitions in England	Protocol to support the planned and safe movement of children from youth justice teams (YJS) to probation services when they turn 18.
Joint Electronic Monitoring Protocol	This joint protocol lays out the responsibilities of youth justice services (YJS) and electronic monitoring services (EMS) in relation to the electronic monitoring of children.
Concordat on children in custody	Guidance on safeguarding and meeting the needs of children in Police custody.
Joint Lincolnshire Protocol to Reduce Offending and the Criminalisation of Children in Care (Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures Manual)	It is crucial that in all encounters with children in care, their complex needs should be recognised, given due consideration, and crucially that they be treated as children first. As a partnership within Lincolnshire we are committed to a multi-agency approach in order to support our children to achieve the best outcomes, and wherever possible divert them away from criminal and anti-social behaviour, to prevent reoffending and the escalation of offending, and to prevent them from being inappropriately criminalised.
Appropriate Adult Protocol	Guidance on the use of Appropriate Adults in Lincolnshire.
Supporting Children Vulnerable to Violent Extremism (Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures Manual)	The guidance provides advice on how to manage and respond to concerns of children identified as being vulnerable to and affected by the radicalisation of others.
Multi-agency Domestic Abuse Protocol (Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures Manual)	Guidance that outlines practical, good practice approaches for responding to adults and families who are affected by domestic abuse.

Last Updated: December 11, 2025

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