Luton Youth Offending Service – Family Therapy
IYPP PROJECT
3. Referrals
3.1 Referral Sources
All referrals for the Family Therapy Project are internal from Luton YOS. The carers or parents of all referrals to the YOS are assessed for their need for support with regard to parenting skills or emotional help.
We also receive referrals from the Magistrates Court when consideration is being given to prosecuting parents for non-school attendance. In such cases the Court requests Parenting Assessments and consideration is given to whether a Parenting Order is required.
3.2 Referral Criteria
Families accessing the service need to fulfil the following criteria:
- Are caring for a young person (aged between 10 – 18yrs)
- Are an open case to the YOS at the point of referral and do so on a voluntary basis.
- Attendance can be a recommendation in either a young person or parent’s Court Order but cannot be a statutory requirement as the intervention usually involves others not subject to an Order.
3.3 Referral Process
The YOS parenting coordinator is responsible for undertaking an initial parenting assessment with parent/carers. YOS staff referred to the parenting co-ordinator for parenting assessment and the co-ordinator then referred on to the Family Therapy project.
Initially, due to the small scale nature of the project, young people scoring 20 or more on the young person’s ASSET assessment tool (www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk) were targeted for parenting assessment and possible referral to the Family Therapy project. The thinking here being that a higher need expressed through a higher ASSET score could be suitable for Family Therapy, which is potentially a more intensive intervention. However, the level of referrals received by the Family Therapy project at this ASSET score were low and so the referral criteria was changed to include young people scoring two or more on the ‘Family and Personal Relationships’ section of ASSET. However, if these scores were not reflected on the ASSET but other factors emerged during the assessment that suggested a referral was appropriate, these referrals were also accepted by the project.
Referrals are accepted regardless of whether all family members initially agree to attend sessions. It is hoped that more than one family member is present at each session, but often in practice, attendance by various members of the family is erratic. There can be different combinations of family members in each session, with one or more family members absent from some sessions during the course of the intervention. If the parent/carer agrees to the take part, but the young person refuses, then the therapist will still work with the parent/carer.