Volunteer Community panel members

Volunteers are needed to join ‘youth offender panels’ across the country in the role of volunteer Community Panel Members. If you become a panel member you will be joining the thousands of volunteers who are already seeing their efforts pay off to support children on their desistence journey. 

• Youth offender panels are led by volunteer Community Panel Members, and it is a meeting where children that have offended, their parents/carers, those harmed (victims) and members of the community have the opportunity to come together to consider what support the child may need to assist in his/her desistence journey and to give the victim a voice. 

What happens at panel meetings?

The panel consists of at least two trained volunteers from the local community volunteer Community Panel Members (CPM), alongside a member of the local; youth justice service.

The panel will meet with the child and their parents/carers, to talk about what happened and start considering the impact on the victims or community. At the initial meeting, a tailor-made individual contract is co-created with the child and it aims to repair the harm and increase positive factors in the child’s life. 

The victim of the offence will be invited to attend the panel and may choose to bring someone to support them or they can ask for their views to be represented by someone else in order that their views can be taken into account the meeting. 

This will then be reviewed by the panel, child and their parent/carer and a member of the youth offending service to review and close plans at regular intervals. Typically, this is every three months for each child, so for example, a child who had received a six-month intervention, would have a start, review, and end panel meeting. (As community panel members are volunteers, you will not be paid. However, we will pay travel expenses.) 

• Volunteer community panel members receive specific induction training on how panels work and your role in the process, restorative approach, and communication. In addition, as a valued member of the Youth Offending Team further training and development opportunities are accessible. 

How much time do I need to devote?

Panel meetings are typically arranged for the same time each week, and this is normally after 5pm on a Thursday. They may take place in person at local venues, or remotely via MS Teams. There is no fixed time commitment as this will depend on the number of children in need of support which will vary, but ordinarily, it will be no more than two hours panel, with some weeks where there will be no panel meetings taking place. 

Join Us

We would love to hear from anyone interested in the role, recognising the value that a broad range of experiences and perspectives brings to our community.

Please contact us for more information and an informal chat 

Adam Roberts 

adam.roberts1@staffordshire.gov.uk

01782 297615 

07773 792024

Kasey Whiting 

kasey.whiting@staffordshire.gov.uk 

07817 112839