THE workings of the youth justice system on Teesside come under international scrutiny this week.

A group of civil servants and policy-makers from the Czech Republic will be in the area to study the work of the South Tees Youth Offending Team (YOT).

The republic is one of ten countries wishing to become part of the European Community and modernising the judicial system is likely to be required before it can join.

They will be studying restorative justice projects, where young people who have been in court put something back into the community.

Susan Deehan, of the YOT, said: "The projects have included tidying up on The Esplanade, in Saltburn, and in Middlesbrough town centre, where the young people cleaned graffiti from the Bottle of Notes sculpture.

"Activities like this allow the young people to make reparation while giving them a sense of ownership of a part of the town.

"A lot of the work we do is quite innovative. For example, referral orders involve negotiating a contract with a young person through which they are accountable to an individual who has experienced crime, or the community as a whole.

"We will be showing the Czech delegation how these systems can work and involving them in some of the training we do."