Youth Offending Service privacy notice

The Youth Offending Service uses information about children, young people, and their families, to carry out specific functions for which we have responsibility, for example:

• S115 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Support young people and their families to try to stop them from becoming further involved in crime and anti social behaviour
• Work with victims to help keep them safe
• Reduce the impact of youth crime by restorative justice (ways of helping the young person make amends for the harm done)
• Provide a service to the police, British Transport Police and the courts that is responsive to local need and works in partnership to address youth offending in Waltham Forest as effectively as possible
• Provide a fast response to all young people who have offended or are at risk of offending. This is done by providing the interventions, help and support needed to prevent the situation getting worse, stop their offending and keep them safe
• Encourage our young people to make amends to their victims and the community

If you have any questions regarding this service or our privacy practices, you can contact us by email or in writing.

The Youth Offending Service collects personal information as part of the process of supporting children, young people, and their families. Information will be collected from face to face meetings, over the telephone, by letter and email. Information may also be collected from relevant partner agencies as appropriate.

Where relevant to do so and appropriate we may process the following information about you:

• Personal information such as name, date of birth, address, and contact details
• Characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, disability, home circumstances, language, and health information
• Significant people in the family, and their details
• Details of doctor, school and other professionals involved with a child, young person where appropriate, relevant medical information for children or parent/carers
• Arrest and Offending histories
• School history
• Assessments
• All contacts with Waltham Forest Youth Offending Service
• Information about any previous contact you have, or your family have had with the police or other criminal justice services such as Probation.

We will process your data into order to develop activities that increase opportunities for young people that will help them stop committing:

• crime and avoid more serious offending whilst improving their options and life chances
• Help young people and their families take responsibility for what has happened
• Help young people get back into education, training, or employment so that they can stay out of trouble, achieve their potential, and become adults who are a valued part of society and no longer involved with crime
• Prevent young people going to custody when they can be safely managed in the community

We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate and proportionate to enable us to deliver our services effectively.  This is in accordance with legal obligations under the following:

• Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Criminal Justice Act 2003
• Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012
• Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act 1984
• Children Act 1989
• Children Act 2004.

The Youth Offending Service will share relevant information within our statutory partner agencies (Health, Education, Children’s Social Care, Police, British Transport Police and Probation). These agencies are members of the service and with others in Waltham Forest Council when we assess that additional support is needed to prevent crime or to protect children, young people, and their families. Services might include:

• Children’s Social Care
• Youth and Family Support
• Housing Services
• Education Inclusion Services
• Housing Services
• Revenues and Benefits

In addition to sharing within the council information about children, young people, and their families to deliver best services, it may sometimes also be necessary to share information with external organisations. These organisations might include:

• Substance Misuse Services
• Courts
• Prisons, Secure Training Centres or Secure Children’s Homes
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Domestic Abuse Services
• Solicitors

Waltham Forest YOS aims to provide the best possible service to you. To achieve this, we will share information about you with other professionals we work with to:

• Get you the help and advice you might need
• Protect you and others
• We share information to tell the other professionals that we are working with you so that we can coordinate the work we do for you
• If you have fallen into trouble with the law as an adult, we may be asked to provide information to other agencies in the criminal justice system in the future. Any future request will have to show it is proportionate, relevant, and necessary for the administration of justice
• Any other information that is requested about you will only be given if you agree or if it is required by law

Information is stored in a secure and confidential manner on our database. Only authorised professionals from agencies involved with you or your family will use this information.

We are required by law to share information about you, and we do not need to get your permission to do this. Examples might be to protect you or others against risk of harm, to prevent a crime or to reduce any future offending

The information we collect will be stored in a secure database at Waltham Forest Council. Access to this secure database is limited to certain members of staff. The information will be retained in the secure database and will be destroyed in line with our corporate retention policy.