Biography – Tom Dooks

Biography

Tom has worked in Youth Justice since YOTs were formed in 2000 and is currently AYM portfolio lead for Diversion and Out of Court Disposals.  He has undertaken a wide range of practitioner and management roles in Youth Justice from prevention through to court, case management and resettlement. Tom has worked in and across several different youth justice services in Greater Manchester and Cheshire at operational and strategic level and has also led youth justice peer reviews.

Tom is Head of Youth Justice Services for the Cheshire sub region which is a shared service model providing diversion and post court services on behalf of the four unitary Local Authorities in the county. A qualified probation officer with an MSc in Leadership, he has experience of leading a complex regional partnership across multiple local authorities and of integrating teams within children services.  

Tom advocates strongly for diversion of children and for their health and other complex (often unmet) needs to be supported entirely outside of the formal criminal justice system wherever possible.  Tom is particularly interested in nurturing creative partnerships with the voluntary and community sector that will help avoid criminalisation via child first, trauma informed and relationship-based practice.  In his spare time he is passionate about music and sport – particularly football, cricket and tennis – but injury and the passage of time means he is more likely to be watching with a beer in his hand than participating these days.