Parenting Support-Information for Parents
This section of the website is designed to answer some of your questions as a parent/carer and let you know what support
and advice we and other services can offer you at this difficult time.
What can we do for parents and carers?
Staffordshire Youth Offending Service can offer
support and advice to parents of young people who are involved with us. This includes asking other agencies for specialist help.
Support can be offered on a one-to-one basis or in groups with other parents who are having similar experiences to you.
The service has three types of support available:
Where a parent asks for help or is wiling to accept help from us on a voluntary basis. SYOS will assist parents/carers by providing advice, support and strategies which will assist young people to realise their potential.
A written plan between the parent/s and Staffordshire Youth Offending Service, which both parties sign and states what will be done and by whom.
Parenting contracts are voluntary agreement. However, refusal to comply with a contract may result in consideration being given to applying for a Parenting Order.
An order of the Court which is made when the Court or Staffordshire Youth Offending Service when parents will not accept help on a voluntary basis, and it is deemed that help with their parenting capacity/skills may keep their child out of trouble.
Please note that if this happens, you must co-operate with us, as non co-operation can lead to you receiving a fine of up to £1000 and a criminal conviction.
Yes, if we can help you with your parenting problems we will or we will try to put you in touch with someone who can.
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SYOS has trained practitioners accross the county based at offices in the South Wes, South East and North to cover the whole of the Staffordshire area.
Their role is to offer advice, support and information to the Parents and Carers of young people who have involvement from the Youth Offending Team (YOT).
The aim is to help support parents to help their children not to re-offend.
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You will be offered an opportunity to share your concerns with YOS practitioners. If appropriate, you may complete an assesment with a YOS practitioner: this will help us to identify the most effective way of helping you.
You may have concerns about your child , their offending or their possible drug and alcohol use or just want to learn more. If this is the case you can ask your child's YOT worker to put in a referral for you or, you can ring your local Youth Offending Team directly. Please see the 'Contact Us' section.
In some cases the Courts may use a Parenting Order as a direct result of young persons offending. This would result in an automatic referral and one of our team will contact you within 5 working days.
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The YOS worker will meet with you discuss your situation and the support best suited to you. Together you will agree a Support Plan to suit your individual needs. This will include things like the type of support, how often and for how long it will last.
It might be that you and the YOS worker identify other areas that need support and a more thorough assessment may be needed.
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This depends on your individual needs. It may be that you are offered information about other agencies which can assist you. Alternatively, you may have the assistance of the practitioner for only two sessions or you may receive support over a number of weeks or months.
Any decisions about reducing or extending the level of intervention will be discussed between yourself and the practitioner.
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The plan is to reach your targets within the duration of your child's order. Where possible we seek to help you find support services outside of YOS when your child's involvement with us ends.
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The support might be at your home, at the YOT office or at another suitable place. You might want the Support Worker to go with you to an appointment, interview or a meeting about your child. Once again it depends on your needs.
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The type of support will vary depending on what is felt will best suit your needs. This will be agreed as part of the Plan which is drawn up by you and the YOS worker and may include:
- Information giving
- One to one work
- Signposting or a referral to other agencies
- Parenting groups
- Family work
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The Support Worker can help you deal with a variety of issues and concerns for example:
- Problems at school for your child
- Self esteem (yourself and your child)
- Dealing with behaviour
- Promoting positive behaviour
- Changing unwanted behaviour
- Communication and negotiating with your child
- Basic drugs and alcohol awareness
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When your plan has been completed you will be asked for feedback (good or bad) on the service you received. This lets us know how you rated the service. This information is also included in statistics we submit to the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and Drug Alcohol Action Team (DAAT).
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Last Modified:
28/05/2008 10:05:17
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