ABSTRACT
How should the supervision of children and young people in trouble differ from that of adult offenders? According to the relevant National Standard for England and Wales (Home Office, 1995), not by very much. It is an instructive exercise to compare the requirements for Supervision Orders and for Probation Orders in the 1995 version of the most authoritative statement of official expectations. In general, the 1995 National Standards are much more concerned with procedures, including procedures for the enforcement of compliance with Orders, and much less concerned with the content of work, than the earlier version (Home Office, 1992), which contained various suggestions of good practice. The Standard for Supervision Orders is no exception, and the similarities of its prescriptions to those for Probation Orders are much more evident than the differences. In essence, the differences are sixfold.
