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6.3.1 Youth Rehabilitation Order
RELATED DOCUMENTS
The National Standards for Youth Justice Services and the Case Management Guidance give detailed
explanations of the way in which services under Youth Rehabilitation Orders must be delivered.
Please also see Table of Changes to the Youth Sentence Structure.
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
The Scaled Approach
3.
Orders Pre 30 November 2009
4.
Requirements to the Youth Rehabilitation Order
5.
Thresholds and Timescales
6.
Non-Compliance and Breach
1. Introduction
The Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) was introduced in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. The relevant
provisions of the Act were implemented on 30 November 2009.
The YRO is the new generic community sentence for young offenders and will combine a number of sentences that
existed before its implementation into one generic sentence. It is the standard community sentence used for the
majority of children and young people who offend. It aims to simplify sentencing for young people, while improving the
flexibility of interventions.
The YRO represents a more individualised risk and needs-based approach to community sentencing, enabling
greater choice from a 'menu' of requirements, minimising the choice of custody. The YRO also allows plenty of
opportunity for reparation to be included, giving scope for victims' needs to be addressed.
2. The Scaled Approach
The Scaled Approach is used when a young person is on either a Referral Order, a Youth Rehabilitation Order
(YRO) or during the community element of a custodial sentence.
The Scaled Approach uses a high quality assessment to determine the likelihood of re offending and risk of serious
harm to others. This, alongside professional judgment, will help establish which intervention level a young person
needs: standard, enhanced, or intensive.
The intervention level determines the minimum statutory contact a young person will have with the Youth Offending
Team or other assigned professionals.
3. Orders Pre 30 November 2009
The following community sentences will be replaced by the YRO:

Action Plan Order

Attendance Centre Order

Curfew Order

Drug Treatment and Testing Order

Supervision Order

Exclusion Order

Community Punishment Order

Community Rehabilitation Order

Supervision Order and conditions

Community Rehabilitation Order and

Community Punishment and Rehabilitation
conditions
Order
Children and young people who were sentenced to the orders listed above before 30 November 2009 will continue on
that order until it is either completed or they are re-sentenced for a new offence or breach.
4. Requirements to the Youth Rehabilitation Order
The following requirements can be attached to a Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO):
In relation to each requirement, the page references for Section 6 of the Case Management Guidance (CMG)
have been included.

Unpaid Work Requirement (P157 CMG)

Supervision Requirement (P154 CMG)

Activity Requirement (P162 CMG)

Electronic Monitoring Requirement (P166

Curfew Requirement (P 163 CMG)

Exclusion Requirement (CMG P167)

Local Authority Residence Requirement
CMG)

Prohibited Activity Requirement (P162 of the
CMG)

Drug Treatment Requirement (P176 CMG)

Residence Requirement (16/17 years) (P167
(p169 CMG)

Education Requirement (P180 CMG)

Mental Health Treatment Requirement (P172
CMG)

Programme Requirement (p160 Case
CMG)

Unpaid Work Requirement (16/17 years)
Management Guidance)

(P159 CMG)

Drug Testing Requirement (14 years or over)
Attendance Centre Requirement (P161
CMG)

(P177 CMG)
Intensive Supervision and Surveillance
(based on the current ISSP) (P182) CMG)

Intensive Fostering (P170 CMG)

Intoxicating Substance Requirement (P178
CMG)
5. Thresholds and Timescales
The Youth Rehabilitation Order (YRO) is available only in cases of sufficient seriousness to justify a community
sentence although, once seriousness has been established, the court is not obliged to impose a community sentence
if another disposal is more appropriate. There are no restrictions on the number of times a young person can be
sentenced to a YRO.
The court must specify the date or dates by which each particular requirement must be completed; the maximum
period of a YRO is three years.
If the young person is already subject to a YRO or Reparation Order, the court cannot sentence him or her to a YRO,
unless the existing orders have been revoked. The court will also have the power to order a sentence review in
particular YRO cases.
The threshold for a YRO with Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP) or Intensive Fostering
provisions, is that the offence/s must be imprisonable and so serious that if a YRO with ISSP and/or Intensive
Fostering was not available then a sentence of custody would be appropriate; and in addition, for under 15-year-olds,
the young person must be a persistent offender. A YRO with ISSP or Intensive Fostering requirement must be for a
minimum of six months; the ISSP requirement must be for a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of 180 days.
A Youth Offending Team (YOT) worker usually manages the YRO. However, where a YRO is made with only an
Attendance Centre requirement, the officer in charge of the Attendance Centre can manage the case, as can the
local Probation area/trust in the case of a YRO with only an Unpaid Work Requirement (16 and 17 Year-olds only).
6. Non-Compliance and Breach
Custody is an option for breach of a YRO only if the original offence is imprisonable or in the case of a nonimprisonable offence if, following 'wilful and persistent' non-compliance, a YRO with an Intensive Supervision and
Surveillance Programme (ISSP) or Intensive Fostering provision is made and that further YRO is then also subject to
non-compliance.
The court, if passing a custodial sentence, must state that a YRO with an ISSP or Intensive Fostering provision is not
appropriate and the reasons why. This is in addition to meeting the existing criteria, i.e. the court forming the opinion
that the offence/s is so serious that a community sentence cannot be justified.
The arrangements for dealing with non-compliance and breach of electronically monitored curfews must follow the
process outlined in the Case Management Guidance (P166)
In a YRO case, a warning is required if the supervising officer finds there is a failure to comply without reasonable
excuse. If, following a further second warning within the 12 month 'warned period,' there is then a third failure to
comply without reasonable excuse, the officer must refer the case to court for breach proceedings, although Youth
Offending Teams will have additional discretion in exceptional circumstances following a third failure to comply. The
officer also has the discretion to refer the case to court at an earlier warning stage.
When dealing with the breach of a YRO, the court has the following options:

To take no action

To impose a fine

To amend the YRO, but not with ISSP or Intensive Fostering unless that already applies

To revoke the YRO and re-sentence.
End