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Social Enquiry Reports
Purpose
A Social Enquiry Report is an essential tool to aid the Court in making a decision affecting the type of sentence applied to a young person.
Any SER written on a child under 16 should include an assessment of parenting skills.
Social Enquiry reports must be produced within 15 working days of request, 10 working days if it concerns a persistent offender.
Assessment to inform the SER Information from the ASSET Assessment Profile is used in development of a Social Enquiry report.
A Social Enquiry report should also utilise information provided by the Police or Prosecution.The consequences of non compliance will be explained to the young person in the first contact.
Presentation Social Enquiry Reports must use the following format:
- front sheet,
- sources of information, including whether an ASSET has been completed,
- offence analysis, including impact of the offence on the victim,
- assessment of young person,
- assessment of risk to the community, including the risk of re-offending and harm;
- conclusion including proposal for sentencing.
If it has not been possible to complete a SER for whatever reason, the writer of the SER report must send the court written information as to why the report was not completed.All option SERs must include management oversight of quality assurance.
Monitoring
The number of Social Enquiry reports completed within the specified time limits must be monitored and reported.
Actions
| Task | Responsible person | Record | Timescale |
| Record date that request was made and the date that the Court need the report by, make a note if the young person has been told to comply with a bail condition and record indicated level of report | Court duty officer | Court follower sheet | Same day as court order report |
| Interview young person and take all relevant details, address, school attendance, availability parental consent forms | Court duty officer | Electronic records | |
| All SER requests to be given to allocating manager | Court duty officer | Next working day (ie team meeting?) | |
| Allocate report | YJS Manager | ||
| Input data. | Administrator | Electronic records | Same day as court order Report |
| Make appropriate referrals | Report writer | Electronic records | Same day as report is allocated |
| Conduct interviews (minimum of one preferably more) with young person and responsible adults | Report writer | Electronic records | 7-12 days depending upon whether the young person is a persistent offender |
| Incorporate information from other relevant agencies as appropriate | Report writer or responsible officer | SER | When it is ready |
| Draft and type report and ensure SER quality assurance is arranged | Report writer | N/A | 2 days before report is due |
| Check the quality of the report | Within 24 hours of Court date | ||
| Got through the report with the young person and parents | Report writer | Electronic records | Within 24 hours of Court date |
| Produce six copies | Admin. | N/A | By 4pm on the day before the young person is appearing for sentence |