Social Work Now, Issue 27, pages 13-18
The establishment of Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) by the Ministry of Justice in July 2002 heralded a new way of handling youth justice. Reflecting both the national and international push for coordinated services and interagency collaboration, it was envisaged that YOTs would provide the mechanism to implement such an approach in the youth justice sector.
A considerable body of research has examined the dynamics of collaboration and to a large extent there is agreement on the principles that should underlie any successful collaborative initiative (Gray, 2002). However, these principles are usually discussed in broad conceptual terms and the nuts and bolts of implementing such principles are rarely explored. Drawing on the experiences of the Hamilton YOT, this article discusses some of the more practical tasks required to collaboratively create a more effective and integrated youth justice system.