Youth Justice

Youth Justice Services (YJS) covers the whole of the county of Cheshire, across the four local authority areas of Cheshire East, Cheshire West, Halton and Warrington.  

Our goal is to work with children and young people aged 10-17 and help prevent them from getting into further trouble. We want to help young people to lead a life free from crime and help to reduce crime in the local community. 

YJS is a statutory partnership and our team comprises a number of specialties i.e. Police, Probation Service, Children’s Social Care, Health, Education and other relevant specialist services such as substance misuse, mental health and housing so we have a holistic approach to working with young people.

YJS assesses the needs of each young person referred to us, using an assessment tool developed by https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/youth-justice-board-for-england-and-wales​ to identify the specific problems that make the young person offend, measures the risk they pose to others as well as their vulnerability.

YJS also manage Court Orders issued to young people. The young person will be required to attend regular meetings with their supervising officer which will focus on their offending and factors that may reduce the likelihood of further reoffending. Referrals to other agencies will be made where appropriate.

YJS have a large team of volunteers who support our work. You can volunteer for YJS for a minimum of 3 hours a week.  Find out more about volunteer opportunities.

In addition, the YJS will seek to assist the victims of young offenders in efforts to repair the harm caused. Restorative Justice may involve an activity or direct action from the young person to the victim or indirect via a go between. On occasions it is possible and desirable that the offender meets the victim and makes a personal and direct apology for the harm caused. We also offer opportunities for indirect reparation where young people are able to put something back into their community through one of our varied reparation projects.

To contact us, please telephone 0345 145 0055. Our office addresses are shown below.

  • North Office: Third Floor, Municipal Building, Kingsway, Widnes WA8 7QF
  • East Office: Seventh Floor, Delamere House, Delamere Street, Crewe CW1 2JZ
  • West Office: Second Floor, Wyvern House, The Drumber, Winsford CW7 1AH

Volunteering Opportunities

In order to be one of our volunteers, you must live and/or work in the Cheshire East, Cheshire West, Halton and Warrington area. Volunteering opportunities are developing constantly within the team and at present the following roles are available:

Youth Offender Panel members

The panels involve local community volunteers working with young offenders, their parents and the victims.  Panel members will talk and listen to these key people and agree with the young person a plan of action that is designed to repair the harm done and prevent further offending.  This normally requires 3 hours a fortnight of your time.

Mentoring Scheme

Volunteers will undertake a range of tasks to support a young person to participate in their statutory court order. This can include assisting them to attend individual and group work sessions; supporting young people to get to external appointments or interviews and helping with transport.  There will be a number of young people who would benefit from a “long term” Mentor, which can offer individual support from the same volunteer over the period of their order.  ​

Reparation Scheme

This involves working with young people in the community who are undertaking various forms of ‘payback’ for the damage they have caused.  These range from painting/decorating, graffiti clearance and regeneration schemes.

We recruit in September each year and train in October and/or November. All voluntary posts are subject to a Vetting and Barring Disclosure Check (DBS) and you must be 18 years of age or over. Each volunteer will have a formal interview and if successful, full training and induction are provided. Potential volunteers need to attend the mandatory training which tends to run at weekends. In addition, there are quarterly team meetings for volunteers and a newsletter.  Travel expenses are also provided. 

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for us, you can download and print off or email us the application form or apply online

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If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0345 145 0055.

Volunteer coordinator
Youth Justice Services
Third Floor, Municipal Building 
Kingsway
Widnes
WA8 7QF​​