Social Enquiry Reports

Social enquiry reports are part of the information provided to Court to allow them to make informed decisions about the sentencing of young people.

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:

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

TaskResponsible personRecordTimescale
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 reportCourt duty officerCourt follower sheetSame day as court order report
Interview young person and take all relevant details, address, school attendance, availability parental consent formsCourt duty officerElectronic records 
All SER requests to be given to allocating managerCourt duty officer Next working day (ie team meeting?)
Allocate reportYJS Manager  
Input data.AdministratorElectronic recordsSame day as court order Report
Make appropriate referralsReport writerElectronic recordsSame day as report is allocated
Conduct interviews (minimum of one preferably more) with young person and responsible adultsReport writerElectronic records7-12 days depending upon whether the young person is a persistent offender
Incorporate information from other relevant agencies as appropriateReport writer or responsible officerSERWhen it is ready
Draft and type report and ensure SER quality assurance is arrangedReport writerN/A2 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 parentsReport writerElectronic recordsWithin 24 hours of Court date
Produce six copiesAdmin.N/ABy 4pm on the day before the young person is appearing for sentence